United States Democratic Party

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The Democratic Party is one of the two major United States political parties. The party is currently the minority in both the Senate and the House.

Its origins lie in the original Republican Party founded by Thomas Jefferson in 1793 (today, this party is usually referred to as the "Democratic-Republican Party" for the sake of convenience; but such usage is anachronistic). After the disintegration of the Federalist party, the Republicans were the only major party in American politics. The presidency of Andrew Jackson, however, destroyed the unity of the party, with the Jacksonians forming the Democratic-Republican faction, opposed by the National Republicans, led by John Quincy Adams. The Jacksonian "Democratic-Republicans" soon became known as simply "Democrats". From 1833 to 1856, the Democratic party was opposed chiefly by the Whig Party. From 1856 onward its main opposition has come from the modern Republican Party.

In contemporary times, its primary political principles include multilateralism, secularism, pro-choice and gay rights, multi-culturalism, environmentalism, and a commitment to tempering capitalism with programs of social welfare. The political platform of the Democratic Party has been generally described as left-wing. The New Democrat movement of the 1980s and 1990s, however, have somewhat eroded the party's previously more leftist policies in favor of a more centrist approach. This is a primary complaint of many members of the Green Party, leading some Greens, such as Peter Camejo, to declare, "The Democratic Party is where progressive politics go to die." But Democrats generally challenge the validity of the Green critique. A longtime Pennsylvania Democratic Party leader, State Rep. Mark B. Cohen of Philadelphia, says that "without the Democratic Party, there would be little chance of having progressive governments or progressive programs in the vast majority of American states or localities".

Table of contents
1 Symbols
2 Organization
3 History
4 Prominent Democratic-Party figures

4.1 Presidents
4.2 Presidential nominees
4.3 Vice Presidential nominees
4.4 Other currently notable Democrats
4.5 Historically notable Democrats

5 State affiliates
6 A Note on Style
7 See also
8 External links
9 Democratic critics of the Democratic party

Symbols

On January 15, 1870 a political cartoon appearing in Harper's Weekly titled "A Live Jackass Kicking a Dead Lion" by Thomas Nast, for the first time symbolized the Democratic Party as a donkey. Since then, the donkey has been widely used a symbol of the party, though unlike the Republican elephant, the donkey has never been officially adopted as the party's logo.

In the early 20th century, the traditional symbol of the Democratic party in Midwestern states such as Indiana and Ohio was the rooster, as opposed to the Republican eagle. This symbol still appears on Indiana ballots[1] (http://www.mcgb.com/forum/archive/04-07-19/49A02-0310-CV-864.html).

For the majority of the 20th Century Missouri Democrats used the Statue of Liberty as their ballot emblem. This meant that Libertarian candidates, when they got on the Missouri ballot in 1976, couldn't use the Statue of Liberty, their national symbol, as the ballot emblem. Libertarians used the Liberty Bell until 1995 when the Mule became Missouri's state animal. (Missourians are known as being stubborn; it is the "'Show me' State".) From 1995 until 2004 there was some confusion on the behalf of voters. The Democratic ticket was marked with the Statue of Liberty and it seemed that the Libertarians were using a donkey.

Organization

For more information on how American political parties are organized, see Politics of the United States.

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) of the United States provides national leadership for the United States Democratic Party. It is responsible for developing and promoting the Democratic political platform, as well as coordinating fundraising and election strategy. There are similar committees in every U.S. state and most U.S. Counties (though in some states, party organization lower than state-level is arranged by legislative districts). It can be considered the counterpart of the Republican National Committee. Its current chairman is Terry McAuliffe.

The Democratic Party also has fundraising and strategy committees for House races (Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee), Senate races (Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee), and gubernatorial races (Democratic Governors Association).

History

The Democratic party was formed from the Andrew Jackson-led "Democratic-Republican" faction of the old Republican party (now, usually referred to as the "Democratic-Republicans" for convenience). Following his defeat in the election of 1824 despite having a plurality of the popular vote, Andrew Jackson set about building a political coalition strong enough to defeat John Quincy Adams in the election of 1828. The coalition that he built was the foundation of the subsequent Democratic party.

In the 1850s, following the disintegration of the Whig Party, the southern wing of the Democratic Party became increasingly associated with the expansion of slavery, in opposition of the newly formed Republican Party. Democrats in the northern states opposed this new trend, and at the 1860 nominating convention the party split and nominated two candidates (see U.S. presidential election, 1860). As a result, the Democrats went down in defeat – part of the chain of events leading up to the Civil War. After the war, the Democrats were a shattered party, but eventually gathered enough support to elect reform candidate Grover Cleveland to two (non-consecutive) terms in the presidency.

In 1896 the Democrats chose William Jennings Bryan over Cleveland as their candidate, who then lost to William McKinley. The Democrats did not regain the presidency until Taft and Roosevelt split the Republican vote and Woodrow Wilson won with a modest plurality in 1912. The Republicans again took the lead in 1920 by championing laissez-faire regulatory policies. The stock market crash in 1929 and the ensuing Great Depression set the stage for a more interventionist government and Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) won a landslide election in 1932, campaigning on a platform of "relief, recovery, and reform".

FDR's New Deal programs focused on job-creation through public works projects as well as on social welfare programs such as Social Security. The political coalition of labor unions, minorities (most significantly, Catholics and Jews), liberals, and southern whites (the New Deal Coalition) allowed the Democrats to control the government for much of the next 30 years, until the issue of civil rights divided conservative southern whites from the rest of the party (see Dixiecrat). From the time of the founding of the Republican party, African-Americans gave strong support to the anti-slavery party. However, with the civil rights struggle of the 1960s, and President Lyndon Johnson's support, blacks made an almost complete shift to the Democratic party. Another consequence of this was the start of the flight of southern whites to the Republican party.

The political pendulum swung away from the Democrats with the election of Republican president Ronald Reagan in 1980. The country seemed ready for political change after a decade of high inflation, soaring energy costs and social disillusionment concerning the Watergate scandal, the Vietnam War and the Iranian hostage crisis in the last year of the Carter administration. Riding Reagan's coattails, the Republican Party successfully positioned itself as the party of national strength, gaining 34 seats in the House and gaining control of the Senate for the first time since 1955. Many conservative Democrats whom would eventually retire or leave the party in the 1990s, supported many of Reagan's policies, drawing the label "Reagan Democrats".

The Democratic Leadership Council organized by elected, centrist, Democratic, leaders has in recent years worked to position the Party towards a centrist position. It still retains a powerful base of left-of-center supporters however, as like the Republicans, the Democrats are generally a catch all party with widespread appeal to most opponents of the Republicans. This includes organized labor, educators, environmentalists, gays, supporters of gun control, supporters of the legalization of abortion, and other opponents of the social conservatism practiced by many Republicans.

In the 1990s the Democratic Party re-invigorated itself by providing a successful roadmap to economic growth. Led by Bill Clinton, the Democrats championed a balanced federal budget, welfare-to-work reforms and job growth. Labor unions, which had been steadily losing membership since the 1960s, found they had also lost political clout inside the Democratic Party: Clinton enacted the NAFTA free trade agreement with Canada and Mexico over the strong objection of the unions.

In the 2000 Presidential election, some progressives, unhappy with the centrist shift of the party, bolted it to support the Green Party candidate Ralph Nader, which likely took votes away from Democratic presidential nominee Albert A. Gore Jr. in many traditionally liberal states. This "spoiler effect" was a factor some observers cite as the cause for his defeat, though others blame Gore for failing to ride Clinton's coattails to a resounding victory, and failing to even win his homestate. Furthermore, some point out that while Nader probably did influence the contested Florida election, Reform Party candidate Pat Buchanan won more votes in some states (Wisconsin, Iowa and Oregon) than Bush lost by. It is also likely that even if Nader had not run many Green voters might not have come to the polls at all. Many Greens also criticize the Democrats for calling them "spoilers", and simultaneously not supporting electoral reform such as Instant Runoff Voting. In addition a number of Republicans have highlighted a double standard from Democrats by pointing to the fact that if Ross Perot had not run in 1992 and therefore taken away votes from George H. W. Bush then Bill Clinton would never have been elected.

In the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks, the Democrats were faced with a new political puzzle as the nation's focus changed to issues of national security. The Democrats positioned themselves against 2003 invasion of Iraq. By 2004, after losing ground in the 2002 mid-term elections, Democrats felt their prospects had begun to rebound with the failure to find weapons of mass destruction and mounting combat casualties in Iraq. John Kerry, a U.S. Senator from Massachusetts, won his party's nomination by upsetting anti-war candidate, former Vermont Governor, Howard Dean, in the Iowa caucus and winning the majority of state primary races that followed.

Prominent Democratic-Party figures

Presidents

  1. Andrew Jackson (1829–1837)
  2. Martin Van Buren (1837–1841)
  3. James Knox Polk (1845–1849)
  4. Franklin Pierce (1853–1857)
  5. James Buchanan (1857–1861)
  6. Grover Cleveland (1885–1889)
  7. Grover Cleveland (1893–1897)
  8. Woodrow Wilson (1913–1921)
  9. Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1933–1945)
  10. Harry S. Truman (1945–1953)
  11. John F. Kennedy (1961–1963)
  12. Lyndon Johnson (1963–1969)
  13. Jimmy Carter (1977–1981)
  14. Bill Clinton (1993–2001)

Presidential nominees

Vice Presidential nominees

Other currently notable Democrats

(Years of birth are indicated.)

Historically notable Democrats

(Years of birth and death are indicated.)

State affiliates

In most states The Democratic Party is simply known as the "Democratic Party". However, two of its state party organizations have slightly different names, namely the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party and the North Dakota Democratic-NPL Party. See List of state Democratic Parties in the US.

A Note on Style

The usual adjective used in connection with the party is "Democratic", e.g., "Democratic Party", "Democratic candidates", "Democratic platform", "Democratic stance". However, it is not uncommon to hear the shorter form "Democrat" in these cases. Most often, it is opponents of the Democratic party who use the "Democrat" form (although it is not exclusively the case). As a result, "Democrat" (as opposed to "Democratic") can carry with it a pejorative connotation.

See also

External links

Democratic critics of the Democratic party


de:Demokratische Partei eo:Usona Demokrata Partio es:Partido Demócrata de los Estados Unidos fr:Parti démocrate (États-Unis) nl:Democratische Partij (VS) sv:Demokratiska partiet zh:美国民主党

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