Democratic Party

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“”It is quite certain that a moderate Republican will be nominated to stand as his party's candidate for the presidency. His name is Barack Obama.
—Some damn Canucks[1]
“”Remember back when Democrats used to vote with us?
—Leo McGarry, The West Wing

The Democrat Party Democratic Party is a centrist[2][note 1] social liberal political party in the United States, widely perceived to be left-wing in the American political spectrum, largely because of their progressive rhetoric and because their opposition is the Republican Party (read: fascists).

The Democratic Party is more conservative than the social democratic parties in Europe, Canada, and Latin America,[note 2] but their 'modern liberalism' tends to be more progressive than liberal parties in Northeast Asia.

As of 2023, the Democratic Party has control of the executive branch and part of the legislative branch of the federal government, controlling the White House and Senate. They also control 18[note 3] of 50 states and have partial control of another 5.[note 4] Only ~24-29% of the country aligns themself with the Democratic Party when asked in Gallup polls, compared to the same percentage who identify as Republican, and ~43-47% who identify as independent.[3]

A short history[edit]

The electoral college from the 1860 presidential election, only months before the American Civil War. Compare to today.

The Democratic Party emerged in the mid-1820s from the ashes of the Democratic-Republican Party. In the aftermath of the controversial 1824 electionWikipedia,[note 5] the war "hero" Andrew Jackson and his followers left the party and formed the Democratic Party.[4] Jackson's particular brand of anti-establishment and anti-bank populism would define the party in its early days, and Jackson would crush Adams when they faced off again in 1828Wikipedia. The party was strongest among the rural Southern farmers and plantation owners, but had a following in the North too, particularly in New York.[5]. In the mid-1800s, like the United States in general at the time, the Democrats began bickering amongst themselves over the issues of the day, particularly over slavery. Southern Democrats tended to be very much in favor of keeping slavery and allowing slavery in new states; Northern Democrats couldn't collectively decide what stance to take so they split into factions over the issue:

  1. The Free SoilersWikipedia who weren't necessarily abolitionists (although they usually were) but didn't want slavery expanding into new territories.[note 6]
  2. The moderates led by Stephen A. DouglasWikipedia who thought "popular sovereignty" (meaning: let the people vote to decide) was a good middle ground stance.[note 7]
  3. The DoughfacesWikipedia, led by strong contender for "worst U.S. president ever" James Buchanan, who were pro-South and torpedoed attempts at reconciliation.

The tumultuous 1860 presidential electionWikipedia saw the national Democratic Party go nuts. At the convention, the Party couldn't decide on a candidate so another convention was held. When moderate Stephen A. Douglas was chosen, the Southern delegates stomped out and nominated their own candidate, Vice President John C. BreckinridgeWikipedia. Despite a third party, the conservative Constitutional Union PartyWikipedia, trying to shake things up with a candidate of their own, Abraham Lincoln of the new-ish Republican Party[note 8] was able to take advantage of the chaos and win the presidency by sweeping the North and the West Coast. Southern Democrats, fearing Lincoln's abolitionism, began a chain of secessions in their states, which would ultimately to the outbreak of the Civil War in the spring of 1861.

Democrats who stayed in the Union during the war split into two loose groups, the "War DemocratsWikipedia" who supported Lincoln and his efforts to defeat the Confederacy; and the "Peace Democrats" (more commonly known as "CopperheadsWikipedia") who thought the war was illegal and wanted to make peace with the Confederacy.[6] In his 1864 reelection campaign, Lincoln chose War Democrat Andrew Johnson as his running mate and temporarily renamed the Republican Party the "National Union PartyWikipedia" in an effort to show cross-party solidarity. Eventually the Union defeated and reabsorbed the Confederacy; all those Southern Democrats who had orchestrated the secession found themselves barred from public office, and the Republican Party would dominate the militarily-occupied South during Reconstruction. In the 1876 election, Rutherford B. Hayes cut a dealWikipedia with racist Southern Democrats called RedeemersWikipedia to fully end Reconstruction if they'd back his bid for the tightly contested election. Hayes won, Reconstruction ended, and Democrats reclaimed power in the South.[7] They almost immediately began enacting Jim Crow laws and segregation to disenfranchise the black population and ensure white dominance for generations. These fiercely conservative, segregationist Democrats came to utterly dominate Southern politics and reliably voted as a unified bloc; they thus became known as the "Solid South".[8]

The 20th Century: Populism and a slight leftward shift[edit]

Thanks to the party's populist roots, the so-called Gilded Age saw a backlash against widespread corporate greed and corruption in the late 1800s; it was especially strong among Democrats in the rural Midwest and South. This even led to the rise of a splinter party among Midwestern and Southern farmers, the Populist Party,Wikipedia which was fairly leftist[note 9] and, feeling left out in the cold by both parties' conservatism, sought to shift the national narrative a little more leftward.[9] This leftward swing and an economic downturnWikipedia led to the unexpected rejection of Cleveland's conservative wing of the partyWikipedia (which had dominated the party since the 1870s), resulting in William Jennings Bryan's unexpected nomination as the Democratic[note 10] candidate for president in 1896 — but Bryan was defeated in the election by the pro-business Republican William McKinley.Wikipedia[10] The Populist Party imploded[note 11] and Bryan's faction, now bolstered by newly arrived ex-Populists, would strongly influence the Democratic Party[note 12][11] outside of the South, which remained very conservative, until later in the Wilson administration, when there was a backlash against leftistsWikipedia in the aftermath of World War I and the Bolshevik revolution, ultimately leading to the laissez-faire 1920sWikipedia and eventually the Great Depression.

A second left-ish shift came with Franklin D. Roosevelt during the Great Depression. This shift was buffered by the "New Deal Coalition", a combination of urban constituents, immigrants, intellectuals, organized labor, farmers, whites from the Solid South, and (for the first time) African Americans from the North, all of whom agreed on more government intervention in the economy but not much else.[12] This coalition began to fracture in the late 1940s when members of the Liberal faction of the party such as Harry Truman and Hubert Humphrey began pushing the Party left on Civil Rights, angering the pro-segregation "Dixiecrats" of the South. Thanks to Truman's alienation of the Solid South, he was expected to lose the 1948 election but eked out an unexpected victory. Truman's inability to end the Korean War and the emergence of McCarthyism would lead to his dropping out of the race[13] and Republican Eisenhower's subsequent landslide victory in 1952.

The New Deal Coalition's fracturing widened in the 1960s, the hot-button issues being the Vietnam War and desegregation. On the latter in particular, LBJ signing the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was the last straw for the Solid South that had once been the Party's backbone; several of them, most notably Strom Thurmond, began to defect to the GOP, and 1964 Republican Presidential Nominee Barry Goldwater won several Deep South states that hadn't gone Republican since Reconstruction by explicitly campaigning against the Civil Rights Act.[note 13] The 1960s also saw the rise of the New Left, a disorganized, loose collection of Marxists, feminists, hippies, college students, and various other social activists who were united in their opposition to the Vietnam War as well as LBJ's liberalism. The rise of the New Left caused chaos within the party which ultimately led to the disastrous 1968 Democratic National Convention.Wikipedia[note 14]

Having taken notice of Goldwater's success in the South, Richard Nixon took advantage of this discontent in 1968 with his "Southern Strategy",[14] which ultimately flipped the American political sphere on its backside; as the South became increasingly Republican, dragging the GOP as a whole to the Right with it, the remaining liberal Republicans (or the "Ike Republicans", vital in passing the Civil Rights Act) fled to the Democrats. This series of defections, in turn, had the natural effect of dragging both parties, and the American political spectrum as a whole, to the right. Despite conservative Southern voters abandoning the party, old Democrats who were already elected largely stayed in the party — so Southern conservatives like Zell Miller,Wikipedia[note 15] Robert Byrd,[note 16] and even George Wallace[note 17] remained Democrats long after the Southern Strategy realignment. Democrats from the South after the realignment, notably Jimmy Carter,[note 18] still tended to be rather conservative. This is why between about 1970 and 2010, you'll see a lot of Southern Democrats in Congress, yet in every presidential election after 1968, the South has almost always gone for the Republican candidate.[note 19]

The last gasp of 60s-era progressivism in the Democratic Party was snuffed out by George McGovern'sWikipedia record-smashing loss to Nixon in 1972.Wikipedia With the New Left starting to fizzle out[note 20] and progressivism demolished by Nixon, the party shifted more to the center, and the DNC embraced the snail's pace of incrementalism. Between 1968 and 1980, the party changed how it nominated presidential candidates, placing more emphasis on the primaries, and inserting party hacks officials as "superdelegates". The New Deal Coalition's final victory came under Carter in 1976;[note 21] Reagan's landslide victories in 1980 and 1984 as well as Bush's decisive victory in 1988 effectively ended the coalition, resulting in centrist New DemocratsWikipedia under Bill Clinton taking control of the party, championing Third Way economic liberalism and largely abandoning any pretense of progressivism. Coinciding with Clinton's ascension was the collapse of the Soviet Union and end of the Cold War. The 1990s wound up being a time of general economic prosperityWikipedia and relative peace (from an American perspective, at least), but long-simmering resentment, unsustainable economic conditions,Wikipedia and heavyWikipedia deregulationWikipedia would soon come back to haunt America.

The year 2000 onward, or, "and here's where things start to get really crazy..."[edit]

Clinton's chosen successor, Al Gore, famously "lost" the 2000 election to George W. Bush. Then 9/11 happened and "changed everything". For the next eight years, you could not go 24 hours without seeing something which made you want to swallow knives. Ten days after 9/11, Bush declared that "you're with us, or you're with the terrorists";[15] and the Democrats, not wanting to be seen as pro-terrorist, generally went along with whatever Bush wanted. The Democrats just went along with OIF[note 22] even though the premise of the war, as well as the hilariously short timetable, was bogus. The few journalists willing to challenge the White House gave brief sanctuary, but the fact that all Bush had to do was sound credulous proved that Democrats are not equipped to deal with an administration that's openly breaking the law.[16][17]

By 2008, Americans had gotten sick of Republicans screwing up everything, resulting in a Democratic sweep in that year's elections, with Democrats expanding their majorities in Congress and Barack Obama being elected the nation's first African-American president. This was a cause for celebration for millions of Americans, who saw Obama's election as the start of a new era of American politics. The Democrats utterly failed to meet people's expectations, with Obama largely sticking to Clinton-era and Bush-era[note 23] policies. Republicans took back the House in 2010 and the Senate in 2014, effectively killing any remaining hopes for Obama bringing about the change he had promised. As the Republicans embraced a rightward shift and an increase in extremists (such as the Tea Party, Oath Keepers, birthers, Evangelical Right, etc), the Democrats tended to do... nothing, or worse, shifted further to the right themselves in an effort to meet the Republicans in the new middle.[note 24]

In 2016, Hillary Clinton emerged as Obama's standard bearer for the Democratic nomination, but was defeated in an extraordinary upset by Donald Trump, who rode a wave of anti-establishment (and racist) sentiment to capture the Republican nomination and eventually the White House. Trump's victory and subsequent far-right policy record horrified most Democrats, and inspired a resurgence of left-wing grassroots activism not seen in decades, helping the Democrats retake the House in 2018. The 2020 Democratic Party presidential nomination shaped up to be a bitterly fought battle, with dozens of candidates facing off against each other. The primary eventually came to a rather sudden end in March 2020, when the centrist wing of the party united behind former Vice President Joe Biden, who easily defeated his closest rival, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, after most of the candidates dropped out and rallied behind him. With the primary over, Democrats turned their attention to defeating Trump, which appeared at first to be an easy task due to his catastrophic handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and a variety of other crises that year. However, Trump dramatically outperformed expectations once again, though this wasn't enough to save his re-election. Despite considerably underperforming expectations, Democrats still ousted Trump, retained control of the House (despite losing seats, which does not bode well for the future), and managed to take back the Senate by the slimmest margin possible, despite an extremely unfriendly map. Of course, Trump and his supporters took his with the utmost grace and humility.

Biden spent the first two years of his term grappling with the mess that Trump left, undoing a lot of the worst executive orders that Trump had enacted[18][19] and trying to get the economy moving again. So in 2022, with the economic recovery from the lingering pandemic going slower than hoped, Russia having launched a large-scale invasion of Ukraine, and a not-so-great conclusion to the War in Afghanistan,[note 25][note 26] the Republicans were able to take a slim majority in the House in the mid-term elections while the Democrats held on to a 51-49 lead[note 27] in the Senate.[21] This would ensure that Biden would spend the second half of his term not being able to get a whole lot done. Additionally, a hostile Supreme Court shot down some of Biden's attempts to actually help people, such as by striking down his student loan forgiveness plan.[22] Twice.[23]

The 2024 election cycle began (in 2023) with an expectation that Biden and Trump would face off again. Biden, however, being an octogenarian who has had to deal with monumental task of stopping the metaphorical hemorrhaging caused by Trump's misrule, and the natural, inevitable effects of aging while doing this sort of stressful job, faced mounting criticism (fair or not) for appearing senile and decrepit.[24][25][26] This came to a head during Biden's disastrous performance in a "debate" with Trump in late June 2024, where Biden seemed like a stereotype of a confused, senile old man;[27] afterward he claimed illness,[28] but the damage was done.[29] As his poll numbers continued to slip, calls for Biden to step aside increased after the debate,[30] until in late July[note 28], when Biden announced he would step aside and endorse his Vice President, Kamala Harris.[31]

The Democratic Party, reinvigorated by the younger[note 29], biracial[note 30] female candidate, saw Harris and her vice presidential running mate, Minnesota governor Tim Walz, soar in polls[note 31][32]; meanwhile Trump, apparently incapable of coping with the shift from Biden to Harris, had a series of public meltdowns,[33][34] dictatorial moments,[35][36] and gaffes.[37][38][39] Not to mention a bizarre obsession with the sizes of crowds at his rallies[40] and false internet rumors that his unpopular[41] running mate, Ohio Senator J.D. Vance, once had sexual relations with furniture.[42] It's all very weird.[43] Harris, however, does face questions from her own party, notably as the progressive/leftist wing of the party demands that she commit to ending US support of the ongoing Gaza "war";[44] she has also taken criticism for being "light on policy" since she has yet (as of the end of August 2024) to release any substantial policy proposals.[45] Trump and the Republicans are trying to counter Harris's momentum by shifting the narrative to focus on the "border crisis"[note 32][46] and the ongoing pandemic economic issues, as well as linking her to any Biden policy that they happen to dislike (or invented, such as that Democrats are in favor of post-birth abortions[47]). Oh, and racism and misogyny, because of course.[48][49]

Unfortunately for the Democrats, the positivity upswing didn't last. Harris, a poor campaigner[50] who (as Trump loved to point out) had a disastrous run for president in the 2020 election cycle,[51] quickly pushed to the center/right[52][53], and even courted anti-Trump Republicans like Dick Cheney[54] and his daughter Liz[55] - but in the era of Trump's domination of the GOP, these anti-Trumpers failed to attract voters for Harris.[56] Harris failed to differentiate herself from the deeply unpopular Biden, even claiming she would continue the same policies;[57][58] notably that she would continue providing weapons to Israel as it continued its "war" in Gaza,[59] which alienated the anti-war base of the Democratic Party and the large Arab-American populations in vital swing states like Michigan and Pennsylvania.[60] Harris also failed to adequately address on-going post-pandemic economic troubles, and despite Trump's economic plan not making a lick of sense,[note 33] disaffected voters concerned about their wallets flocked to him.[62] In the endWikipedia, Trump won a plurality of the popular vote and scored a solid victory in the electoral college. Interestingly, while Republicans also took control of the Senate and barely clung to a majority in the House, Republicans down-ticket underperformed compared to Trump;[63] and every state except one (Florida gonna Florida) that voted on abortion rights (a policy traditionally championed by the Democrats) successfully passed them.[64] Hell, deeply "red" Alaska even passed a measure forbidding employers from forcing their employees to sit through mandatory religious or anti-union "training" while also increasing minimum wages and requiring employers to provide paid sick leave, all measures that Dems usually favor and Republicans usually oppose.[65] This is probably something the Democratic Party should take note of... but don't hold your breath.[66]

Internal factions[edit]

While the Democrats have a substantial liberal wing among the public at large, the party's inability to coordinate itself properly results in a political platform that consists of rolling over to Republican schemes and failing to provide effective leadership.

But really, the first moment people realized the media had the power to singlehandedly derail a "problematic" candidate was Howard Dean. Sure, Dean, in recent years, has morphed into a pharmaceutical lobbyist and voracious anti-Bernie mouthpiece. Still, back in the '04 primaries, he was a completely different candidate who funneled a wave of righteous anger towards the Bush administration. And then one day, at the end of a rally speech, he exclaimed "BYAHHHH!" and the entire media decided his candidacy was dead in the water in favor of Xanax in human form. The 2004 primaries/election were always in the back of voters' minds when the media blacked out Bernard and pretended like HRC was the next coming of Jesus in '16. They tried using the Dean playbook to delegitimize Trump, but each time it failed, the pedes would be empowered further.

The sectarian violence appears below.

Progressives[edit]

An alliance between social democrats, democratic socialists, and greens (there is a difference, however minor). People who are too far left for Swedish Social Democrats.[67] If liberals prefer systemic reform, progressives push for systemic overhaul, with many advocating for policies that are less from the New Deal and more like the War on Poverty and beyond, which includes support for single-payer, a top marginal income tax rate of 50%, union membership, a $15 minimum wage, bilingual education in English and Spanish, busting monopolies, collective bargaining, public broadband for internet service, and (sometimes) nationalization, all hallmarks of the left-wing. Some even explicitly support employee ownership and endorse workplace democracy, even sponsoring bills to that effect. Once disenchanted by the right-wing, they grew increasingly popular throughout the 2010s, fueled chiefly by the diverse and increasingly leftist millennial generation, who felt disillusioned by Obama's fiscally conservative economic policy and latched onto Sanders' brand of social democracy. The Justice Democrats are a faction of progressives who explicitly don't take Super PAC money and prefer small donors, and has worked to primary so-called "corporate Democrats". They currently have ten sitting members: Jamal Bowman, Cori Bush, Raul Grijalva, Ro Khanna, Pramila Jayapal, Marie Newman, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley, and Rashida Tlaib. Many progressives are organized in the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC), the largest of its kind in the House of Representatives, and more recently, the slightly smaller Medicare For All Caucus, which contains many of the same members. Some are descendants of the New Left.

DSA[edit]

The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) is a reformist Democratic Party lobbying/electoral organization with due-paying membership and one of 3 splinters of the prior and now defunct Socialist Party of America (SPA). The DSA is similar to another SPA splinter called SDUSA, but radically different than the revolutionary SPA splinter called the SPUSA. Unlike the prior SPA and the current SPUSA, the DSA has a history of virtually exclusively endorsing Democrats and helping to run socialist candidacies within the Democratic Party, the most notable being Independent Bernie Sanders' twice-failed run for the Democratic Party presidential nomination. All 4 United States Congressmen who align themselves with the DSA are Democrats and are also all members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, including its whip Greg Cesar.

41 out of 43 DSA members who are elected representatives in state legislatures are members of the Democratic Party with the exception of two from the Vermont Progressive Party.

Liberals[edit]

"A little left of center," in FDR's words, with an emphasis on social democracy and its various flavors. Old-school, New Deal-era moderates who wish to "save capitalism from itself," also in FDR's words. Their power base was traditionally the labor movement, which was far stronger through the New Deal era until the 1970s. Characterized by their willingness to listen to public pressure and bend to activist movement, they're the type to rein in the system's excesses without fundamentally changing it. Many state-level Democrats are of this tendency, as seen in New York state senators Alexandra Biaggi, a former Clinton supporter, and Andrea Stewart-Cousins, who almost was a running mate for Cuomo, both of whom are seen as a natural ally to organized labor, the Justice Democrats, the Working Families Party, even the Democratic Socialists of America, all of whom have outstanding influence in New York. California, Nevada, Colorado, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Oregon, even Texas, Ohio, Florida, and Georgia have many state-level Democrats who also follow this tendency of preferring reform over revolution, but are nonetheless open to systemic change when more radical progressives and leftwingers are elected.

Centrists[edit]

The third way moderates. Birthed from the Democratic Leadership Council in the 80s, they turned the party increasingly neoliberal following Clinton's ascendance to the presidency, much like New Labour under Tony Blair. They dominated the party throughout the 90s, leading to a proliferation of Blue Dogs (see below) who gave cover to the right-wing. Since the 2010s, they've lost much of their former clout to the left-wing, as the Blue Dogs were eradicated and the progressives filled that void. Several of their most ardently centrist members have since been forced to shift left because of an increasingly restless public demanding change. They describe themselves as pro-fiscal responsibility, pro-growth, socially liberal, and liberal internationalists on foreign affairs. The first wave of the New Democrats has since become more like Blue Dog Democrats as represented by Joe Biden-Bill Clinton-Hillary Clinton, with the political center of the Democratic Party being more represented by Barack Obama-Cory Booker-Pete Buttigieg. The Third Way is represented by the New Democrat Coalition (an affiliate of the now-defunct Democratic Leadership Council).

Conservatives[edit]

The Blue Dog Coalition are often accused of being DINOs, most commonly on social issues and deficit hawkery.[68] Officially, they are a coalition in the House, but a few ideologically aligned Senators are listed as well. They're typically elected in Jesusland and are considered flaming lefties there, despite being firmly center-right. They were largely wiped out in 2010 and 2014, but an ever smaller amount of their holdouts and similar non-Blue Dog center to center-right Democrats remain.

Dixiecrat leftovers and boll weevils[edit]

To the right of the Blue Dogs. Not a significant feature in the party anymore, although occasionally one will turn up here and there as a failed Senate candidate,Wikipedia or a centrist Democrat will go haywire,Wikipedia and swing far to the right.[note 34]

So who's ticking them on their ballot?[edit]

“”All over the country Democrats are running on their singular strength – the fact that they are not as batshit crazy as their Republican opponents.
—Chris Ladd[69]

Today, the Democratic Party attracts academia, white-collar professionals,[70] scientists,[71] medical students,[72] the youth vote,[73] increasingly less so the (white) working class,[74] increasingly more so the middle class,[75] consumer advocates, copyright reformers, women,[76] LGBT, and ethnic minorities. However, many progressives feel left[note 35] out of the Party, especially those whose focus is on income inequality. These are alarmed by positions taken by, e.g., Jon Cowan, president of the centrist think tank Third Way, who claims populism is dead in the Party, arguing:

“There is a very large faction within the Democratic Party that wants to go back in time,” Cowan told me. “They want to take what we did in the 20th century and do more of it. They want to re-unionize the entire country, unwind the trade deals of the last couple of decades, and not just preserve but expand entitlements. Even if we could afford that, it wouldn’t solve most of the problems of the middle class.”

That is, many top dog Democrats don't want to deal with income inequality; they want to appeal to the middle-class voters who have been moving in the Democratic direction.

Self-identified Democratic centrist and two-term Delaware governor Jack Markell agrees that the middle class is critical and claims: '“If it’s about inequality, it’s a conversation that has the potential of dividing us.” ...Markell says that middle-class voters hear in the crusade against “inequality” a desire to equalize people rather than make everyone better off."[77] In all this, progressives hear no Party support for unionizing the working poor in the service sector, or for supporting any new programs to assist with the cost of child care or sky-rocketing college tuition.

But mainstream Democrats are beginning to see that to win, they are, indeed, going to have to "go back in time" and return to issues like income inequity. Senator Chuck Schumer published an op-ed in The New York Times denouncing "vulture capitalists" and declaring his party would offer a "Better Deal" for Americans:

Americans are clamoring for bold changes to our politics and our economy. They feel, rightfully, that both systems are rigged against them, and they made that clear in last year’s election. American families deserve a better deal so that this country works for everyone again, not just the elites and special interests. Today, Democrats will start presenting that better deal to the American people.....In the last two elections, Democrats, including in the Senate, failed to articulate a strong, bold economic program for the middle class and those working hard to get there. We also failed to communicate our values to show that we were on the side of working people, not the special interests. We will not repeat the same mistake. This is the start of a new vision for the party, one strongly supported by House and Senate Democrats.

Quotes[edit]

See also[edit]

External links[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ↑ The party is dominated by self-identified moderates, with liberals making up a smaller faction. However, since the Democratic Party is a "big tent" party, there are center-right fiscal conservatives and left-wing democratic socialists.
  2. ↑ At least on economic issues — they are much more socially progressive than some of Latin America's leftist parties.
  3. ↑ They control Vermont via supermajorities in both houses despite the governor being Republican.
  4. ↑ Republicans have control in Kentucky, Kansas, and North Carolina despite Democratic governors via supermajorities.
  5. ↑ In short: Four Democratic-Republicans ran and nobody won a majority, although Jackson won a plurality of the electoral votes. Per the Constitution, the House of Representatives then held a special vote, which John Quincy Adams easily won. Jackson's supporters would subsequently claim that Adams had bribed key Congressional leaders to vote for him.
  6. ↑ They would merge into the Republican Party.
  7. ↑ Fun fact: it was a terrible idea, and caused a mini civil war called "Bleeding KansasWikipedia".
  8. ↑ Which was explicitly abolitionist, and thus had almost no presence in the South
  9. ↑ Where the Populist Party was largely rural farmers, it came with quirks… like anti-immigration and antisemitic leanings. They also had a tendency to be conspiracy theorists, and never really connected with the burgeoning urban labor movement.
  10. ↑ And Populist, even though he wasn't a member.
  11. ↑ The party limped on until about 1912 or so, but was largely irrelevant after 1896.
  12. ↑ Except briefly in 1904Wikipedia when conservative Democrats were able to nominate Alton B. ParkerWikipedia as the party's candidate for president; he would lose in a landslide to Theodore Roosevelt.
  13. ↑ Goldwater at least claimed to support desegregation in principle, but he was also a staunch Federalist and viewed the act as written to be an overreach of the Federal Government
  14. ↑ Bearing in mind the high profile assassinations of Dr. King and RFK making for a very tense summer, Vice President Hubert Humphrey defeated the anti-war candidateWikipedia to become the nominee, and he was widely seen as a continuation of LBJ's term. Which the anti-war crowd really didn't like. Then throw in a Chicago mayorWikipedia who didn't want protests to disrupt the convention and make him look bad... and voila! You have a recipe for disasterWikipedia.
  15. ↑ Originally a pro-segregation Democrat in the 1960s, Miller was considered a moderate when he was Georgia's governor in the 1990s; but by 2000 when he became a US Senator, he was very conservative and even endorsed George W. Bush and his policies. He also once famously said he wanted to challenge Chris Matthews to a duel.
  16. ↑ While Byrd is well-known for having once been a high-ranking KKK member until the early 1970s and subsequently becoming a supporter of civil rights, he otherwise remained staunchly conservative on most issues.
  17. ↑ Wallace famously left the party during the 1968 presidential election and ran on a third party ticket, but he returned to the Democratic Party and ran for president again in 1972 and 1976, losing in the primaries each time.
  18. ↑ Back in the mid-1970s when Carter was running for president, left-leaning Democrats like Jerry Brown felt Carter was too conservative, preferring "ABC" — "anyone but Carter". Brown himself wound up running against Carter in the primaries and even won some victories, but he entered the race too late to defeat Carter. See 1976 Democratic PrimariesWikipedia on Wikipedia.
  19. ↑ Except occasionally when a Southerner like Carter or Clinton runs, or like in 2020 when noted asshole Trump lost Georgia.
  20. ↑ Many of them interestingly becoming prominent leaders of the newly arising neoconservative movement…
  21. ↑ Which was essentially a backlash against Nixon and the Watergate scandal; it was still a close race, won with help from Gerald Ford's ineptitude and Carter's image as an "outsider".
  22. ↑ About 40% of Dems (and nearly all Republicans) in Congress voted in favor of the resolution authorizing the invasion, including "radicals" like Biden, Clinton, Kerry, Schumer, and Reid. See Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002Wikipedia on Wikipedia.
  23. ↑ Especially with regards to the "War on Terror": Obama largely kept Bush's timelines, continued drone strikes, and only made one feeble attempt at closing the Guantanamo Bay prison.
  24. ↑ Take the ACA as a prime example. Obama campaigned on fixing the U.S.'s healthcare system. Progressives wanted Universal health care. New Democrats and centrists wanted a public option (essentially setting up a not-for-profit, government-run insurance company to try to use competitive forces to lower costs). Moderate Republicans (what few there are) preferred a market-based idea, such as Romneycare. And the right… well, the right refused to do anything, in order to deny Obama any sort of victory. Obama initially favored the public option, but once Republicans declared unwavering opposition, he backed down and chose a market-based concept similar to Romneycare to try to gain their support — which he still didn't get.
  25. ↑ Trump began drawing down US forces in his term, and by January 2021, there were less than 3,000 US troops in Afghanistan. Trump also unilaterally, without consulting the Afghan government, negotiated a final withdrawal plan with the Taliban (which included setting free thousands of Taliban fighters), set to occur in May 2021, which Biden delayed until August. As late as June 26, 2021, Trump was still publicly bragging that the whole thing was his idea and he had made it so that Democrats couldn't undo it. Once it became clear it was going to be a shitshow, Trump pivoted and began blaming it on Biden. See [20].
  26. ↑ Also see: 2020–2021 U.S. troop withdrawal from AfghanistanWikipedia.
  27. ↑ Technically the Democrats held 49 seats with two independents - Angus KingWikipedia of Maine and Bernie Sanders of Vermont - caucusing with them. The conservative Democrats Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Joe Manchin of West Virginia left the party and become independents too, but still caucus with the Democrats.
  28. ↑ In the immediate aftermath of the Republican National Convention and Trump's official nomination, thereby stealing Trump's thunder and denying him the "convention bumpWikipedia". Masterfully done, sir!
  29. ↑ Harris will be 60 years old on Election Day; by contrast, Biden will be nearly 82, and Trump will be 78.
  30. ↑ Harris's mother is Indian and her father is a black Jamaican.
  31. ↑ The polls quickly swung from Trump with a nearly 10% lead in national polls over Biden on July 21st to Harris with a 5% lead over Trump nationally as of August 30th.
  32. ↑ Ironic considering a bipartisan "border bill" was set to be passed... until, at the last minute, Trump called upon Republicans to reject it, so as to deny Biden "a win". Which they dutifully did, much to the chagrin of the few Republicans who weren't interested in placating Trump.
  33. ↑ His "plan" being to: cut taxes, cut regulations, increase tariffs (mainly on Chinese goods), and encourage people to buy into cryptocurrency. The "fun" part is that there was a huge spike in google searches for what "tariff" means... after November 5th... as Americans largely have no idea what tariffs actually are.[61]
  34. ↑ In states that are effectively one-party blue states, it's not uncommon to find wingnut Democrats who are only Democrats because they can't get elected otherwise. They're almost the same as Dixiecrats.
  35. ↑ No pun intended.

References[edit]

  1. ↑ Hey, we didn't say it.
  2. ↑ Have Democrats become a party of the left?, William A. Galston and Elaine Kamarck, Brookings Institute 23 July 2021
  3. ↑ https://news.gallup.com/poll/15370/party-affiliation.aspx
  4. ↑ Democratic Party, History.com
  5. ↑ Tammany Hall, History.com
  6. ↑ Copperheads, Essential Civil War Curriculum
  7. ↑ Compromise of 1877, History.com
  8. ↑ See Wikipedia article, Solid SouthWikipedia
  9. ↑ American Populism, 1876-1896, Northern Illinois University
  10. ↑ United States presidential election of 1896, Britannica
  11. ↑ The Rise and Decline of the Populist Party, Lumen Learning
  12. ↑ Franklin Delano Roosevelt: The American Franchise, University of Virginia
  13. ↑ Truman declines to seek another term, March 29, 1952, Politico
  14. ↑ Southern strategy, Britannica
  15. ↑ Bush: 'You Are Either With Us, Or With the Terrorists' - 2001-09-21, Voice of America
  16. ↑ Linton Weeks and Peter Barker, "Bush Spars With Critics Of the War Exchanges With Democrats Take Campaign-Style Tone", WaPo 12 November 2005; Page A01.
  17. ↑ Robert Parry, Sam Parry, and Nat Parry, "Journalists 'humbled' but unrepentant", FAIR November 2007.
  18. ↑ Two Steps Back, One Step Forward, US News and World Report
  19. ↑ Biden Repealing 5 Trump Executive Orders Marks New Day of Hope for Feds, AFGE
  20. ↑ Trump claims responsibility for US withdrawal from Afghanistan in resurfaced footage The Independent
  21. ↑ 2022 Election Results, Politico
  22. ↑ The Supreme Court’s lawless, completely partisan student loans decision, explained, Vox
  23. ↑ Supreme Court, for Now, Keeps Block on Revamped Biden Student Debt Plan, NY Times
  24. ↑ Special counsel alleged Biden couldn’t recall personal milestones. His response: ‘My memory is fine’, Associated Press
  25. ↑ Biden and His Supporters Should Be Honest About His Age Problem, The Nation
  26. ↑ Age and health concerns about Joe Biden, Wikipedia
  27. ↑ Analysis: Biden's incoherent debate performance heightens fears over his age, BBC
  28. ↑ Biden gives new details on medical care around ‘bad night’ debate, Roll Call
  29. ↑ Biden says he 'screwed up' debate but vows to stay in election, BBC
  30. ↑ Here are the Democratic lawmakers calling for Biden to step aside in the 2024 race, CBS News
  31. ↑ Biden drops out of 2024 race against Trump. Here's what we know about what happens now., CBS News
  32. ↑ Latest Polls, 538 Project/ABC News
  33. ↑ Five explosive moments from Trump’s off-the-rails NABJ interview, Axios
  34. ↑ Trump Has Chernobyl-Level Meltdown Over Harris’s Democratic National Convention Triumph, Vanity Fair
  35. ↑ Trump’s vow to only be a dictator on ‘day one’ follows growing worry over his authoritarian rhetoric, Associated Press
  36. ↑ Trump Goes on Crazed, Violent Rant Calling for Death of His Enemies, The New Republic
  37. ↑ Trump Rants About Sharks, and Everyone Just Pretends It’s Normal, The Atlantic
  38. ↑ Why is Donald Trump so obsessed with Hannibal Lecter?, The Guardian
  39. ↑ Trump says civilian award is ‘much better’ than Medal of Honor, CNN
  40. ↑ Late Night Tackles Trump’s Obsession With Crowd Size, NY Times
  41. ↑ JD Vance's Unpopularity is Now in the Double Digits, Newsweek
  42. ↑ JD Vance Couch Story: How A Joke Turned Into Trending Topic And Was Fact-Checked, NDTV
  43. ↑ How Tim Walz became beloved by young voters with a message that the GOP is ‘weird’, Associated Press
  44. ↑ Kamala Harris speech interrupted by Gaza protester at Georgia rally, The Independent
  45. ↑ Harris’s Early Campaign: Heavy on Buzz, Light on Policy, NY Times
  46. ↑ GOP senators seethe as Trump blows up delicate immigration compromise, CNN
  47. ↑ Fact check: Trump falsely claims Democratic states are passing laws allowing people to execute babies after birth, CNN
  48. ↑ Donald Trump falsely suggests Kamala Harris ‘happened to turn Black’, CNN
  49. ↑ Trump Keeps Turning Up the Dial on Vulgarity. Will He Alienate the Voters He Needs?, NY Times
  50. ↑ It's Been Easy To Forget How Bad Kamala Harris Is, Reason
  51. ↑ Kamala Harris' 2020 campaign was a mess. If she replaces Biden, this time could be a lot different., NBC News
  52. ↑ How is Kamala Harris getting away with this?, Vox
  53. ↑ Kamala Harris is pivoting to the center while Trump’s new policy ideas confuse Republicans, The Independent
  54. ↑ Dick Cheney was once vilified by Democrats. Now he’s backing Harris. Will it matter?, AP News
  55. ↑ WATCH: Campaigning with Harris, Cheney tells town hall ‘you can vote your conscience’ and not tell anyone, PBS
  56. ↑ Liz Cheney Was an Electoral Fiasco for Kamala Harris, The Nation
  57. ↑ Chris Matthews: ‘Big mistake’ for Harris to say policies would be the same as Biden’s , The Hill
  58. ↑ Harris says there’s not much she’d have done differently than Biden over the last 4 years, CNN
  59. ↑ Kamala Harris: I Won't Change Biden's Israel Policy, We Have to Get Cease-fire Deal Done, Haaretz
  60. ↑ ‘We warned you,’ Arab Americans in Michigan tell Kamala Harris, Al Jazeera
  61. ↑ What is a tariff? Google searches for term tariff spike after Donald Trump elected as president, The Nightly
  62. ↑ In the end, it was the economy, stupid, Washington Examiner
  63. ↑ Democrats did better than Harris downballot, providing glimmer of hope, Washington Post
  64. ↑ A review of key 2024 ballot measures, Economic Policy Institute
  65. ↑ New Minimum Wage, Paid Sick Leave, and Captive Audience Meeting Protections for Alaska Employees, Davis Wright Tremaine LLP
  66. ↑ Democrats, reeling from election losses, cast blame on each other, Washington Post
  67. ↑ https://theweek.com/speedreads/896948/democratic-socialist-bernie-sanders-far-left-swedens-ruling-social-democrats-official-says
  68. ↑ A Brief History of Blue Dog Democrats, Time
  69. ↑ What Kansas says about our political future, Houston Chronicle (The GOP did keep the state in 2014, but holy hell, Sam Brownback.)
  70. ↑ The Emerging Democratic Majority Turns 10, The Atlantic
  71. ↑ Inconceivable!
  72. ↑ E. Frank, J. Carrera, and S. Dharamsi. Political Self-characterization of U.S. Medical Students, Journal of General Internal Medicine. Apr 2007; 22(4): 514–517.
  73. ↑ Millennials in Adulthood, Pew Research
  74. ↑ The Effects of Union Membership on Democratic Voting, The New York Times
  75. ↑ Is a Democratic realignment afoot in the middle class?, Washington Post
  76. ↑ Gender Gap in 2012 Vote Is Largest in Gallup's History, Gallup
  77. ↑ http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/12/the-battle-within-the-democratic-party/282235/
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