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U.S. Presidential Election 1928

U.S. presidential election 1928

The U.S. presidential election of 1928 pitted Republican Herbert Hoover against Democrat Alfred E. Smith. The Republicans were identified with the booming economy of the 1920s and Smith, a Roman Catholic, suffered politically from anti-Catholic prejudice, leading to a landslide victory for Hoover.

Nominations

Republican Party nomination

The Republican Convention was held in Kansas City, Missouri from 12 June to 15 June, where Hoover became the party's candidate on the first ballot. In his acceptance speech he said "We in America today are nearer to the final triumph over poverty than ever before in the history of this land... We shall soon with the help of God be in sight of the day when poverty will be banished from this land."

Democratic Party nomination

The Democratic Convention was held in Houston, Texas, 26 June to 28 June. Al Smith became the candidate on the second ballot. Smith was the first Roman Catholic to gain a major party's nomination for US President, and his religion became an issue during the campaign. Many Protestants feared that Smith would take orders from church leaders in Rome in making decisions affecting the country.

Prohibition Party nomination

Although Smith did not openly come out against Prohibition, he was perceived by many as soft in the war against alcohol. The Prohibition Party threw its support to Hoover.

General election

Prohibition Party

Results

The election was held on November 6, 1928. Republican candidate Herbert Hoover won election by a wide margin on pledges to continue the economic boom of the Coolidge years. Smith won the electorial votes only of the traditionally Democratic US South and a few New England States. Smith's narrow victories in traditionally Republican Massachusetts and Rhode Island, were attributed by some to his religion helped him among the large immigrant populations. Hoover even triumphed in Smith's home state of New York by a narrow margin. The 1928 election was historically significant for two reasons. One, the Democrats won a majority of large cities for the first time. Two, several states of the Solid South broke away to the Republicans for the first time since Reconstruction. Source (Popular Vote): Source (Electoral Vote):

See also


- President of the United States
- U.S. Senate election, 1928
- History of the United States (1918-1945)

External links


- [http://geoelections.free.fr/USA/elec_comtes/1928.htm 1928 popular vote by counties] Category:U.S. presidential elections Category:1928 elections

United States/Republican Party

:This article is about the modern United States Republican Party. For the earlier Republican Party, see Democratic-Republican Party (United States). The Republican Party, often called the GOP (for "Grand Old Party"), is a political party and is one of the two major political parties in the United States (the other being the Democratic Party). The party was first established in 1854 by Northerners who were opposed to the spread of slavery. In the modern political era, the GOP is usually considered the more socially conservative and economically neoliberal of the two major parties. The current President of the United States, George W. Bush, is the party leader. Since 2002 the Republican Party has held a majority in both the Senate and the House of Representatives. It also controls a majority of governorships, and a majority of state legislatures. The official symbol of the Republican Party is the elephant. A political cartoon by Thomas Nast, published in Harper's Weekly on November 7, 1874, is considered the first important use of the symbol [http://www.harpweek.com/09Cartoon/BrowseByDateCartoon.asp?Year=2003&Month=November&Date=7]. In the early 20th century, the traditional symbol of the Republican Party in Midwestern states such as Indiana and Ohio was the eagle, as opposed to the Democratic rooster. This symbol still appears on Indiana ballots. The party tends to hold both conservative and libertarian stances on social and economic issues. Major policies that the party has recently supported include the 2003 Iraq War and across-the-board tax cuts. It has sought business deregulation, gun ownership rights, free trade and a partial privatization of Social Security. It favors the death penalty, calls for restricted access to abortion, and opposes the legalization of same-sex marriage. The Republican coalition is quite diverse, and "moderate" and "conservative" factions compete for power to frame platforms and select candidates. The "conservatives" are strongest in the South, where they draw support from religious conservatives. The "moderates" tend to dominate the party in New England, and are well represented in all states. In the 1940s and 1950s under such leaders as Thomas Dewey, Dwight Eisenhower and Nelson Rockefeller they usually dominated the presidential wing of the party. Since Barry Goldwater defeated them in 1964 they have been less powerful, though they were well represented in the cabinets of all Republican presidents.

History and trends

Birth

Both Ripon, Wisconsin, and Jackson, Michigan, claim the honor of setting up the first statewide Republican party organization in 1854. Delegates In Jackson, Michigan on July 6, 1854 declared their new party opposed to the expansion of slavery into new territories, as permitted by the proposed Kansas-Nebraska Act.They selected a state-wide slate of candidates. The Republican Party is not to be confused with the Democratic-Republican party of Thomas Jefferson or the National Republican Party of Henry Clay. Besides opposition to slavery, the new party drew on the previous traditions of the members, most of whom had been Whigs, and some of whom had been Democrats or members of third parties especially the Free Soil Party, and American Party. Since its inception, its chief opposition has been the Democratic Party, which was formed in the 1830s. American Party–1865).]] John C. Frémont ran as the first Republican nominee for President in 1856, using the political slogan: "Free soil, free labor, free speech, free men, Frémont." Although Frémont's bid was unsuccessful, the party showed a strong base. It dominated in New England, New York and the northern Midwest, and had a strong presence in the rest of the North. It had almost no support in the South, where it was roundly denounced in 1856-60 as a divisive force that threatened civil war. The election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 ended the domination of the fragile coalition of pro-slavery southern Democrats and conciliatory northern Democrats which had existed since the days of Andrew Jackson. Instead, a new era of Republican dominance based in the industrial and agricultural north ensued. Republicans still often refer to their party as the "party of Lincoln" in honor of the first Republican President.

Late nineteenth century

With the end of the Civil War came the upheavals of Reconstruction. Republicans at first welcomed president Andrew Johnson; the Radical Republicans thought he was one of them and would take a hard line in punishing the South. Johnson however broke with them and formed a loose alliance with moderate Republicans and some Democrats. The showdown came in the Congressional elections of 1866, in which the Radicals won a sweeping victory and took full control of Reconstruction, passing key laws over the veto. Johnson was impeached by the House, but acquitted by the Senate. In 1868 the Republicans united around Ulysses S. Grant. In 1872 the party split, as Liberal Republicans detested Grant's corruption and thought that Reconstruction had succeeded and should be ended. Many of the founders of the GOP joined the movement, as did many powerful newspaper editors. They nominated Horace Greeley, who gained unofficial Democratic support, but was defeated in a landslide. Reconstruction came to an end when the contested election of 1876 was handed to Republican Rutherford B. Hayes who promised, through the unofficial Compromise of 1877 to withdraw federal troops from control of the last three southern states. The region then became the Solid South, giving overwhelming majorities of its electoral votes and Congressional seats to the Democrats until 1964. The GOP, as it was now nicknamed, split into "Stalwart" and "Half-Breed" factions, but policy differences were slight; in 1884, "Mugwump" reformers split off and helped elect Democrat Grover Cleveland. As the Northern post-bellum economy mushroomed with industry and immigration, and prosperous agriculture, support for hard money (i.e. gold), high tariffs, and high benefits for veterans became Republican policy. From 1960 to 1912 the Republicans took advantage of the association of the Democrats with "Rum, Romanism and Rebellion". Rum stood for the liquor interests and the tavernkeepers, in contrast to the GOP, which had a strong dry element. "Romanism" meant the Catholics, especially the Irish, who staffed the Democratic party in every big city, and whom the Republicans denounced for political corruption. "Rebellion" stood for the Confederates who tried to break the Union in 1861, and the Copperheads in the North who sympathized with them. Demographic trends aided the Democrats, as the German and Irish Catholic immigrants were Democrats, and outnumbered the English and Scandinavian Republicans. During the 1880s and 1890s, the Republicans struggled against the Democrats' efforts, winning several close elections and losing two to Grover Cleveland (in 1884 and 1892). 1892 faction of the Republican Party.]]

Early twentieth century

The election of William McKinley in 1896 is widely seen as a resurgence of Republican dominance and is sometimes cited as a realigning election. He relied heavily on industry for his support and cemented the Republicans as the party of business; his campaign manager, Ohio's Marcus Hanna, developed a detailed plan for getting contributions from the business world, and McKinley outspent his rival William Jennings Bryan by a large margin. This emphasis on business was in part mitigated by Theodore Roosevelt, McKinley's successor after assassination, who engaged in trust-busting. Roosevelt did not seek another term in 1908, instead endorsing Secretary of War William Howard Taft as his successor, but the widening division between progressive and conservative forces in the party resulted in a third-party candidacy for Roosevelt on the Progressive, or "Bull Moose" ticket in the election of 1912. He finished ahead of Taft, but the split in the Republican vote resulted in a decisive victory for Democrat Woodrow Wilson, temporarily interrupting the Republican era. The party controlled the presidency throughout the 1920s, running on a platform of opposition to the League of Nations, high tariffs, and promotion of business interests. Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover were resoundingly elected in 1920, 1924, and 1928 respectively, but the Great Depression cost Hoover the presidency with the landslide election of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932. Roosevelt's New Deal coalition controlled American politics for most of the next three decades, excepting the two-term presidency of Republican Dwight Eisenhower.

Second half of the twentieth century

Dwight Eisenhower.]] The post-war emergence of the United States as one of two superpowers and rapid social change caused the Republican Party to divide into a conservative faction (dominant in the West and Southeast) and a liberal faction (dominant in New England) – combined with a residual base of inherited progressive Midwestern Republicanism active throughout the century. A Republican like U.S. Sen. Robert Taft of Ohio represented the Midwestern wing of the party that continued to oppose New Deal reforms and continued to champion isolationism. Thomas Dewey represented the Northeastern wing of the party that was closer to liberalism and internationalism. In the end, the isolationists were marginalized by those who supported a strong U.S. role in opposing the Soviet Union throughout the world, as embodied by President Eisenhower. The conservatives made a comeback under the leadership of Barry Goldwater who defeated liberal Nelson Rockefeller as the Republican candidate for the 1964 presidential election. Goldwater was strongly opposed to the New Deal but he rejected isolationism and containment, calling for an aggressive anti-Communist foreign policy. On social issues Goldwater was a libertarian and did not seek support from the social conservatives. One element of the New Deal coalition was the "Solid South", a term describing the Southern states' reliable support for Democratic presidential candidates. Goldwater's electoral success in the South, and Nixon's successful Southern strategy in 1968 and 1972, represented a significant political turnabout, as Southern whites began moving into the party. Later, the Democratic Party's support for liberal social stances such as abortion, criminal law issues such as abolition of the death penalty, and same-sex marriage drove many former Democrats into a Republican party that was embracing the conservative views on these issues. Conversely, liberal Republicans in the northeast began to join the Democratic Party. In The Emerging Republican Majority, Kevin Phillips, then a Nixon strategist, argued (based on the 1968 election results) that support from Southern whites and growth in the Sun Belt, among other factors, was driving an enduring Republican electoral realignment. Today, the South is still solid, but the reliable support is for Republican presidential candidates, and no Democratic presidential candidate who wasn't from the South has won a presidential election since 1960. realignment, providing conservative influence that continues to the present day.]] Any enduring Republican majority, however, was put on hold when the Watergate Scandal forced Nixon to resign under threat of impeachment. Gerald Ford succeeded Nixon under the 25th Amendment and struggled to forge a political identity separate from his predecessor. The taint of Watergate and the nation's economic difficulties contributed to the election of Democrat Jimmy Carter in 1976, a Washington outsider.

Reagan Era, 1980-1992

The trends Phillips described, however, could be seen in the 1980 and 1984 elections of Ronald Reagan - the latter being a landslide in which Reagan won nearly 59% of the popular vote and carried 49 of the 50 states. The Reagan Democrats were Democrats before the Reagan years, and afterwards, but who voted for Ronald Reagan in 1980 and 1984 (and for George H. W. Bush in 1988), producing their landslide victories. They were mostly white ethnics in the Northeast who were attracted to Reagan's social conservatism on issues such as abortion, and to his strong foreign policy. They did not continue to vote Republican in 1992 or 1996, so the term fell into disuse except as a reference to the 1980s. The term is not used to describe southern whites who became permanent Republicans in presidential elections. Stanley Greenberg, a Democratic pollster analyzed white ethnic voters, largely unionized auto workers, in suburban Macomb County, Michigan, just north of Detroit. The county voted 63 percent for Kennedy in 1960 and 66 percent for Reagan in 1984. He concluded that Reagan Democrats no longer saw Democrats as champions of their middle class aspirations, but instead saw it as being a party working primarily for the benefit of others, especially African Americans and the very poor. Bill Clinton targeted the Reagan Democrats with considerable success in 1992 and 1996.

Capture the House 1994

House Republican Minority Whip Newt Gingrich-led "Republican Revolution" of 1994 and its Contract With America. It was the first time since 1952 that the Republicans secured control of both houses of U.S. Congress, which, with the exception of the Senate during 2001-2002, has been retained through the present time. This capture and subsequent holding of congress represented a major legislative turnaround, as Democrats controlled both houses of congress for the forty years preceeding 1994, with the exception of the 1981-1987 congresses (in which Republicans controlled the Senate). In 1994, Republican Congressional candidates on a platform of major reforms of government with measures, such as a balanced budget amendment and welfare reform. These measures and others formed the famous Contract with America, which represented the first effort to have a party platform in an off-year election. The Republicans passed some of their proposals, but failed on others such as term limits. Democratic President Bill Clinton opposed many of the social agenda initiatives, though he co-opted the proposals for welfare reform and a balanced federal budget. The result was a major change in the welfare system, which conservatives hailed and liberals bemoaned. The Republican-controlled House of Representatives also failed to muster the two-thirds majority required to pass one of the most popular proposals—a Constitutional amendment to impose term limits on members of Congress. In 1995, a budget battle with Clinton led to the brief shutdown of the federal government, an event which contributed to Clinton's victory in the 1996 election.

Present day

1996 election With the victory of George W. Bush in the closely contested 2000 election, the Republican party gained control of the Presidency and both houses of Congress for the first time since 1952, only to lose control of the Senate by one vote when Vermont Senator James Jeffords left the Republican party to become an independent in 2001 and chose to vote with the Democratic caucus. In the wake of the 2001 September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States, however, Bush's popularity rose as he pursued a "War on Terrorism" that included the invasion of Afghanistan and the USA PATRIOT Act. The Republican Party fared well in the 2002 midterm elections, solidifying its hold on the House and regaining control of the Senate, in the run-up to the war in Iraq. This marked just the third time since the Civil War that the party in control of the White House gained seats in both houses of Congress in a midterm election (others were 1902 and 1934). On November 2, 2004, Bush was re-elected to a second term, receiving 51% of the popular vote and becoming the first presidential candidate to win a majority of the popular vote since 1988. Republicans gained additional seats in both houses of Congress, leaving Democrats again in the minority. The Republican 2004 political platform was titled "A Safer World and a More Hopeful America".[http://www.gop.com/media/2004platform.pdf] It expressed commitment to:
- Winning the War on Terror
- Ushering in an Ownership Era
- Building an Innovative Economy to Compete in the World
- Strengthening Our Communities
- Protecting Our Families

Current structure and composition

The Republican National Committee (RNC) of the United States is responsible for developing and promoting the Republican political platform, as well as for 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 is the counterpart of the Democratic National Committee. The chairman of the RNC, since January of 2005, is Ken Mehlman. The Republican Party also has fundraising and strategy committees for House races (National Republican Congressional Committee), Senate races (National Republican Senatorial Committee), and gubernatorial races (Republican Governors Association).

Factions

Republican Governors Association Defining the views of any "faction" of any large political party is difficult at best, and any attempt to apply labels within a single political party is subject to some oversimplification. Nevertheless, there are several ideological groups recognized by some in the modern-day GOP, including the social conservatives, Republican In Name Only, paleoconservatives, neoconservatives, moderates, fiscal conservatives, Log Cabin Republicans, and libertarians.

Future trends, realignment?

Thus, as of 2006, Republicans will have controlled the White House for 26 of the previous 38 years, and both houses of Congress since 1994 (except for over a year in the Senate), leading some Conservative commentators to speculate about a permanent political realignment along the lines of the presidential election of 1896, in which Mark Hanna helped William McKinley construct a Republican majority that lasted for the next 36 years — Karl Rove, President Bush's chief political advisor, has been reported to be a keen student of this election. Evidence supporting this view includes Bush's relative success among Hispanic voters, winning 35% of their vote in 2000 and 44% in 2004, although the latter figure has been questioned by some analysts (most notably the anti-immigration Steve Sailer, whose analysis of several exit polls placed Hispanic support for Bush in 2004 at a maximum of 39%), and Bush's victory in 2004 in ninety-seven of the hundred fastest-growing counties in the country, evidence of Republican strength in quickly growing exurbs and in the booming metropolitan areas of the South. By 2010, the United States Census predicts that state population changes will cause states that voted for Bush in 2004 to gain six Congressional seats and electoral votes, while states that voted for Kerry will lose six.[http://www.willisms.com/archives/2005/06/checking_in_on_1.html] Others, such as left-wing commentators Ruy Teixeira and John Judis see prospects of a Republican realignment as unlikely, given the relative decrease in the proportion of white and rural voters, who traditionally have supported the GOP, and noting that Democrats have tended to win healthy majorities among Hispanics, African Americans, and city dwellers (among African American voters, Bush — like all recent Republican presidential candidates — lost overwhelmingly both times, though he did manage to increase his support from 9% in 2000 to 11% in 2004). Critics claim that an inconsistency in the views held within the Republican Party, which they see as a dramatic difference between anti-government libertarians and social conservatives, will undermine the Party's success. There are several outreach campaigns to attract more minorities to register Republican. Notably, that the head of the NAACP for Florida's Orange County, Derrick Wallace has responded to GOP outreach efforts by changing his party affiliation to Republican.[http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/columnists/orl-maxwell1705nov17,0,2971218.column?coll=orl-news-col] There are other notable minorities who attract other minorities to the GOP. [http://www.gop.com/Teams/AfricanAmericans/]

Presidential tickets

Other noted Republicans

Present-day


- George Allen, Senator from Virginia.
- Howard Baker, Ambassador to Japan and former senator.
- Haley Barbour, Governor of Mississippi and former chair of the Republican National Committee.
- Michael Bloomberg, media entrepreneur and Mayor of New York City/ RINO.
- Jeb Bush, Governor of Florida.
- Saxby Chambliss, Senator from Georgia.
- Norm Coleman, Senator from Minnesota.
- Tom DeLay, former House Majority Leader, from Texas.
- Elizabeth Dole, Senator from North Carolina, former Labor Secretary and Transportation Secretary, and former presidential candidate.
- John Engler, former Governor of Michigan and current head of National Association of Manufacturers.
- Bill Frist, Senate Majority Leader, from Tennessee.
- Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the House, from Georgia.
- Phil Gramm, former Senator from Texas.
- Rudy Giuliani, former Mayor of New York/RINO.
- Alexander Haig, former Secretary of State.
- Dennis Hastert, Speaker of the House, from Illinois.
- Jesse Helms, former Senator from North Carolina.
- Mike Huckabee, current Governor of Arkansas.
- Thomas Kean, former Governor from New Jersey.
- Henry Kissinger, former Secretary of State.
- Trent Lott, former Senate Majority Leader, from Mississippi.
- John McCain, Senator from Arizona and former presidential candidate.
- George Pataki, Governor of New York.
- Tim Pawlenty, Governor of Minnesota.
- Colin Powell, former Secretary of State.
- Dan Quayle, former Vice President.
- Tom Ridge, former Homeland Security Secretary and former Governor of Pennsylvania.
- Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of State.
- Dana Rohrabacher, Representative from California.
- Karl Rove, president George W. Bush's chief political strategist and deputy chief of staff.
- Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense.
- Mark Sanford, Governor of South Carolina.
- Rick Santorum, Senator from Pennsylvania and chairman of the Senate Republican Conference.
- George P. Shultz, former Secretary of State and Secretary of the Treasury.
- Arlen Specter, Senator from Pennsylvania.
- Arnold Schwarzenegger, Governor of California.
- Theodore Stevens, president pro tempore of the U.S. senate.
- Caspar Weinberger. former Secretary of Defense.
- Christine Todd Whitman, former Governor of New Jersey and former administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.
- Pete Wilson, former Governor of California.

Historical


- James G. Blaine (1830 - 1893), former Senator from Maine and Presidential candidate
- John Connally (1917 - 1993), a Governor of Texas
- Joseph Gurney Cannon (1836 - 1926), Speaker of the House
- Charles Curtis (1860 - 1936), Vice President
- Charles G. Dawes (1865 - 1951), Vice President
- George Frisbie Hoar (1826 - 1904), Senator from Massachusetts
- Robert G. Ingersoll (1833 - 1899), political activist
- Henry Cabot Lodge (1850-1924) Senator from Massachusetts
- Joseph McCarthy (1908 - 1957), Senator from Wisconsin and noted anti-communist
- Thomas Brackett Reed (1839 - 1902), Speaker of the House
- Nelson Rockefeller (1908 - 1979), Vice President, Governor of New York, and repeated presidential candidate
- Leland Stanford (1824 - 1893), Governor of California, Senator, and founder of Stanford University
- Robert Alphonso Taft (1889 - 1953), Senator and former presidential candidate
- Strom Thurmond (1902 - 2003), the oldest serving Senator in history (from South Carolina)
- Arthur H. Vandenberg (1884 - 1951), Senator from Michigan
- Earl Warren (1891 - 1974), Governor of California and Chief Justice of the United States

Lists


- List of African American Republicans
- List of Latino Republicans
- List of state Republican Parties in the U.S.
- List of Republican National Conventions
- List of liberal U.S. Republicans
- List of Republican celebrities

See also


- Republican National Convention
- College Republicans
- List of Republican Party Presidential nominees
- Republican Liberty Caucus
- Log Cabin Republicans
- Ripon Society
- South Park Republicans
- Rockefeller Republican
- Radical Republican
- International Democrat Union, of which the Republican Party is a member
- Teenage Republicans

External links


- [http://www.rnc.org/ Republican National Committee]
  - [http://www.gop.com/media/2004platform.pdf 2004 Platform] (PDF format)
- [http://www.crnc.org/ College Republican National Committee]
- [http://www.savethegop.com/ SavetheGOP.com]
- [http://www.pachyderms.org/ Grand Order of Pachyderm Clubs]
- [http://www.gopwing.com/ National Federation of Republican Assemblies]
- [http://www.republicanmainstreet.org/ Republican Main Street Partnership]
- [http://www.rlc.org/ Republican Liberty Caucus]
- [http://www.RepublicanIssues.com/ Republican Issues Campaign]
- [http://www.GOPToday.com/ Americans for a Republican Majority]
- [http://www.RepublicanLeadership.org/ Republican Leadership Coalition]
- [http://www.GOPinion.com/ GOPinion], conservative news from around the web
- [http://www.yrnf.com/ Young Republican National Federation]
- Thomas Frank, New Statesman, 30 August 2004, [http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FQP/is_4703_133/ai_n6247127 "Bush, the working class hero"] - How the Republicans captured the working class vote

Scholarly Secondary Sources


- American National Biography (20 volumes, 1999) covers all politicians no longer alive; online at many academic libraries.
- Barone, Michael, and Grant Ujifusa, The Almanac of American Politics 2006: The Senators, the Representatives and the Governors: Their Records and Election Results, Their States and Districts (2005) covers all the live politicians with amazing detail.
- Ehrman, John, The Eighties: America in the Age of Reagan (2005)
- Foner, Eric. Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men: The Ideology of the Republican Party Before the Civil War (1970) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=90104191 online at Questia]
- Frank, Thomas. What's the Matter with Kansas? : How Conservatives Won the Heart of America (2005), an insightful but unflattering appraisal.
- Gienapp, William E. The Origins of the Republican Party, 1852-1856 (1987).
- Gould, Lewis. Grand Old Party: A History of the Republicans (2003), the best overview.
- Jensen, Richard. The Winning of the Midwest: Social and Political Conflict, 1888-1896 (1971)
- Kennedy, David M. Freedom from Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929-1945 (2001) well balanced scholarly synthesis.
- Lamis, Alexander P. ed. Southern Politics in the 1990s (1999)
- Mayer, George H. The Republican Party, 1854-1966. 2d ed. (1967), older, well-balanced narrative.
- Patterson, James T. Grand Expectations: The United States, 1945-1974 (1997) well balanced scholarly synthesis.
- Patterson, James T. Restless Giant: The United States from Watergate to Bush vs. Gore (2005) well balanced scholarly synthesis.
- Patterson, James T. Mr. Republican;: A biography of Robert A. Taft (1972)
- Rutland, Robert Allen. The Republicans: From Lincoln to Bush (1996), less useful than Gould.
- Schlesinger, Arthur Meier, Jr. ed. History of American Presidential Elections, 1789-2000 (various multivolume editions, latest is 2001). For each election includes good scholarly history and selection of primary document. Essays on the most important election are reprinted in Schlesinger, The Coming to Power: Critical presidential elections in American history (1972)
- Silbey, Joel H. The American Political Nation, 1838-1893 (1991) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=94090777 online at Questia]
- Teixeira, Ruy and John B. Judis. The Emerging Democratic Majority, (2002) ISBN 0743254783, by two liberal Democrats.
- Wooldridge, Adrian and John Micklethwait. The Right Nation: Conservative Power in America sophisticated study by two British journalists (2004).

Primary Sources


- Schlesinger, Arthur Meier, Jr. ed. History of American Presidential Elections, 1789-1984 (various multivolume editions, 1986). For each election includes good scholarly history and selection of primary document. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Category:Conservative parties Republican Category:U.S. Republican Party Category:International Democrat Union ko:공화당 (미국) ja:共和党 simple:United States Republican Party

Herbert Hoover

Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) the 31st President of the United States (1929-1933). He was a successful mining engineer, humanitarian, and administrator.

Family background

Hoover was born into a Quaker family in West Branch, Iowa. He was the first President to be born west of the Mississippi River. Both of his parents, Jesse Hoover and Hulda Minthorn, died when Hoover was young. His father died in 1880, and his mother in 1884. In 1885 eleven-year-old "Bert" Hoover went to Newberg, Oregon to become the ward of his Uncle John Minthorn, a doctor and real estate developer whom Hoover recalled as "a severe man on the surface, but like all Quakers kindly at the bottom." Newberg, Oregon-91.]] Hoover learned self-reliance. "My boyhood ambition was to be able to earn my own living, without the help of anybody, anywhere," he once reported. As an office boy in his uncle's Oregon Land Company he mastered bookkeeping and typing, while also attending business school in the evening. Thanks to a local schoolteacher, Miss Jane Gray, the boy's eyes were opened to the novels of Charles Dickens and Sir Walter Scott. David Copperfield, the story of another orphan cast into the world to live by his wits, would remain a lifelong favorite.

Education

David Copperfield In the fall of 1891 Hoover became the first student at the new Leland Stanford Junior University at Palo Alto, California. Cutting a wider swath outside the classroom than in, Hoover managed the baseball and football teams, started a laundry, and ran a lecture agency. Teaming up with other students from less wealthy backgrounds against campus "swells," the reluctant candidate was elected student body treasurer on the "Barbarian" slate, then wiped out a student-government debt of $2,000. Hoover majored in geology and studied with Professor John Casper Branner, who also got him a summer job mapping terrain in Arkansas' Ozark Mountains. It was in Branner's lab that he met Lou Henry, a banker's daughter born in Waterloo, Iowa, in 1874. Lou shared her fellow Iowan's love of the outdoors and self-reliant nature. "It isn't so important what others think of you as what you feel inside yourself", she told college friends. In 1899 he married Lou Henry and they had 2 sons. Hoover graduated in May 1895; Stanford gave Hoover an identity, a profession, and a future bride. Most of all, Stanford became for the orphan from West Branch a surrogate family--a place to belong. 1895 He worked as a mining engineer in Australia for Bewick, Moreing and Company of London. They went to China, where he developed coal mines. In June, 1900 the Boxer Rebellion caught the Hoovers in Tianjin. For almost a month the settlement was under heavy fire. While his wife worked in the hospitals, Hoover directed the building of barricades, and once risked his life rescuing Chinese children. Between 1907 and 1912, Lou and Hoover combined their talents to create a translation of one of the earliest printed technical treatises: Georg Agricola's De re metallica, originally published in 1556. At 670 pages with 289 woodcuts, the Hoover translation remains the definitive English language translation of Agricola's work.

Humanitarian years

Bored with making money, the Quaker side of Hoover yearned to be of service to others. In August of 1914 he got his chance, when the assassinations in Sarajevo of the Austro-Hungarian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie, touched off long-simmering rivalries among the jealous nations of Europe. World War I was at hand, and few Americans were prepared. An estimated 120,000 of Hoover's countrymen, penniless and confused, were trapped on the wrong side of the Atlantic and needed help. The U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Walter Hines Page, sent an urgent request for assistance to Hoover on August 3rd. Within twenty-four hours, five hundred volunteers were assembled and the grand ballroom of the Savoy Hotel was turned into a vast canteen and distribution center for food, clothing, steamer tickets and cash. "I did not realize it at the moment, but on August 3, 1914 my engineering career was over forever. I was on the slippery road of public life." The difference between dictatorship and democracy, Hoover liked to say, was simple: dictators organize from the top down, democracies from the bottom up. democracy ]] Trapped between German bayonets and a British blockade, Belgium in the fall of 1914 faced imminent starvation. Hoover was asked to undertake an unprecedented relief effort. This would mean abandoning his successful career as mining engineer. He assumed the immense task on two conditions--that he receive no salary, and that he be given a free hand in organizing and administering what became known as the Commission for the Relief of Belgium (CRB). The CRB became, in effect, an independent republic of relief, with its own flag, navy, factories, mills and railroads. Its $12-million-a-month budget was supplied by voluntary donations and government grants. More than once Hoover made personal pledges far in excess of his total worth. In an early form of shuttle diplomacy he crossed the North Sea 40 times seeking to persuade the enemies in London and Berlin to allow food to reach the war's victims. He also taught the Belgians, who regarded cornmeal as cattle feed, to eat cornbread. In all, the CRB saved ten million people from starvation. Despite the obstacles put before him Hoover persisted, purchasing rice in Burma, Argentine corn, China beans and American wheat, meat and fats. Long before the Armistice of 1918 he was an international hero, in the words of Ambassador Page, "a simple, modest, energetic little man who began his career in California and will end it in heaven." After the United States entered the war, President Woodrow Wilson appointed Hoover head of the Food Administration. He succeeded in cutting consumption of foods needed overseas and avoided rationing at home, yet kept the Allies fed. The Armistice did not end Hoover's involvement with relief. After the end of the war, Hoover, a member of the Supreme Economic Council and head of the American Relief Administration, organized shipments of food for starving millions in Central Europe. To this end he employed a new formed Quaker organization, the American Friends Service Committee to carry out much of the logistical work in Europe. He extended aid to famine-stricken Bolshevist Russia in 1921. When a critic inquired if he was not thus helping Bolshevism, Hoover retorted, "Twenty million people are starving. Whatever their politics, they shall be fed!"

Presidency

Bolshevism After capably serving as Secretary of Commerce under Presidents Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge, and leading relief efforts in the wake of the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927, Hoover became the Republican Presidential nominee in 1928. He said then: "We in America today are nearer to the final triumph over poverty than ever before in the history of any land." Within months the Stock market crashed, and the nation's economy spiraled downward into what became known as the Great Depression. After the crash Hoover announced that while he would keep the Federal budget balanced, he would cut taxes and expand public-works spending. However, he signed the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, which raised tariffs on over 20,000 dutiable items, and later, the 1932 Revenue Act, which hiked taxes and fees (including postage rates) across the board. These acts are often blamed for deepening the depression, and being Hoover's biggest political blunders. Moreover, the Federal Reserve System's tightening of the money supply (for fear of inflation) is also regarded by most modern economists as a mistaken tactic given the situation. Hoover's Secretary of the Treasury was Andrew Mellon, a hold over from the Coolidge administration. Hoover was nominated for a second term but was defeated by Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the 1932 election. This was the first election in which the Republican party did not receive a majority of the African-American vote since Abraham Lincoln was elected in 1860. In part, this can be attributed to Hoover's having broken promises made to the African-American community following the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927. The trend continues to this day, with a majority of African-Americans voting for the Democratic Party.

The Bonus Army

Thousands of World War I veterans and their families demonstrated in Washington, D.C., during June 1932, calling for immediate payment of a bonus that had been promised by the Adjusted Service Certificate Law for payment in 1945. Although offered money by Congress to return home, several members of the "Bonus army" remained. Washington police attempted to remove the marchers, but they were unsuccessful and the conflict grew. Hoover sent U.S. Army forces, led by General Douglas MacArthur and aided by junior officers Dwight D. Eisenhower and George S. Patton, to remove the remaining veterans, and in the ensuing clash hundreds were injured and several were killed. The incident was a black eye for Hoover in the 1932 election, who was already fighting the perception that he did not care about those suffering from the Depression.

Hoover and the economy

Hoover's stance on the economy was based on volunteerism. From before his entry to the presidency, he was among the greatest proponents of the concept that public-private cooperation was the way to achieve high long-term growth. Hoover feared that too much intervention or coercion on behalf of the government would destroy individuality and self-reliance, which he considered to be important American values. Though he was not averse to taking action which he considered was in the public good - such as regulating radio broadcasting and aviation, he preferred a voluntary, non-government approach. In June 1931, to deal with a very serious banking collapse in Central Europe that threatened to cause a world-wide financial melt-down, Hoover issued the so-called Hoover Moratorium that called for a one-year halt in reparations payments by Germany to France and in the payment of Allied war debts to the United States. The Hoover Moratorium had the effect of temporarily stopping the banking collapse in Europe. In June 1932, a conference was held in Switzerland that cancelled all reparations payments by Germany. Hoover's economy was put to the test with the onset of the Great Depression in 1929. It was his vocal stance on non-intervention that led to public perception that he was a laissez-faire, 'do nothing' president, which his supporters deny. The following is an outline of other actions Hoover took to try to help end the depression through government taxing and spending: #Signed the Emergency Relief and Construction Act, the nation's first Federal unemployment assistance. #Increased public works spending. Some of Hoover's efforts to stimulate the economy through public works are as follows: ##Asked Congress for a $400 million increase in the Federal Building Program ##Directed the Department of Commerce to establish a Division of Public Construction in December 1929. ##Increased subsidies for ship construction through the Federal Shipping Board ##Urged the state governors to also increase their public works spending, though many failed to take any action. #Signed the Federal Home Loan Bank Act establishing the Federal Home Loan Bank system to assist citizens in obtaining financing to purchase a home. #Increased subsidies to the nation's struggling farmers with the Agricultural Marketing Act, but with only limited impact. #Established the President's Emergency Relief Organization to coordinate local, private relief efforts resulting in over 3,000 relief committees across the U.S. #Urged bankers to form the National Credit Corporation to assist banks in financial trouble and protect depositor's money. #Actively encouraged businesses to maintain high wages during the depression. Many businessmen, most notably Henry Ford, raised or maintained their worker's wages early in the Depression in the hope that more money into the pockets of consumers would end the economic downturn. #Signed the Reconstruction Finance Act. This act established the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, which made loans to the states for public works and unemployment relief. In addition, the RFC made loans to banks, railroads and agriculture credit organizations. #Raised tariffs to protect American jobs. After hearings held by the House Ways and Means Committee generated over 20,000 pages of testimony regarding tariff protection, Congress responded with legislation that Hoover signed despite some misgivings. Instead of protecting American jobs, the Smoot-Hawley tariff is widely blamed for setting off a worldwide trade war which only worsened the country's economic ills. Smoot-Hawley tariff In order to pay for these and other government programs, Hoover agreed to one of the largest tax increases in American history. The Revenue Act of 1932 raised taxes on the highest incomes from 25% to 63%. The estate tax was doubled and corporate taxes were raised by almost 15%. Hoover also encouraged Congress to investigate the New York Stock Exchange and this pressure resulted in various reforms. For this reason, some hold that Hoover's economics were in fact left-wing in character. During the 1932 elections, Franklin D. Roosevelt blasted the Republican incumbent for spending and taxing too much, increasing national debt, raising tariffs and blocking trade, as well as placing millions on the dole of the government. He attacked Herbert Hoover for "reckless and extravagant" spending, of thinking "that we ought to center control of everything in Washington as rapidly as possible," and of leading "the greatest spending administration in peacetime in all of history." Roosevelt's running mate, John Nance Garner, accused the Republican of "leading the country down the path of socialism". These policies pale beside the more drastic steps taken as part of the New Deal, however, and Hoover's opponents charge that they came too little, and too late. Even as he legislated for changes, he reiterated his view that while people must not suffer from hunger and cold, caring for them must be primarily a local and voluntary responsibility. Even so, New Dealer Rexford Tugwell (see [http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/goldengate/sfeature/sf_30s.html]) later remarked that although no one would say so at the time, "practically the whole New Deal was extrapolated from programs that Hoover started." Unemployment rose to 24.9% by the end of Hoover's presidency in 1933, a year that is considered to be the depth of the Great Depression. Even with massive intervention by his successor Roosevelt, the economy underwent only limited improvement, with unemployment falling to 14.3% in 1937, and then rising to 19% under a severe recession in 1937-1938 (a contraction labeled a depression by some economists). It was not until the war in the 1940s that the economy recovered fully. (Unemployment did not drop below 9.9% until 1942).

Cabinet


Achievements of the Hoover Administration

Even if the Hoover presidency has a negative imprint on it, it must be noted that there were some important reforms under the Hoover administration. The President expanded civil service protection, cancelled private oil leases on government lands and led the way for the prosecution of gangster Al Capone. He appointed a commission which set aside 3 million acres (12,000 km²) of national parks and 2.3 million of national forests; he appointed a Federal Farm Board that tried to fix farm prices, advocated tax reduction for low-income Americans, doubled the numbers of veteran hospital facilities, negotiated a treaty on St. Lawrence Seaway (which failed in the Senate), signed an act that made The Star-Spangled Banner the national anthem, wrote a Children's Charter that advocated protection of every child regardless of race and gender, built the San Francisco Bay Bridge, created an antitrust division in the Justice Department, required air mail carriers to improve service, proposed federal loans for urban slum clearances, organized the Federal Bureau of Prisons, reorganized the Bureau of Indian Affairs, proposed a federal Department of Education, advocated fifty-dollar-a-month pensions for Americans over 65, chaired White House conferences on child health, protection, homebuilding and homeownership. He also signed the Norris-La Guardia Act that paved the way for the New Deal's labor policy. In the foreign arena he helped to pave the way for Franklin D. Roosevelt's "Good Neighbor Policy" by withdrawing American troops from Nicaragua and Haiti, he also proposed an arms embargo on Latin America and a one-third reduction in the world's naval forces - the Hoover Plan. He and Secretary of State Henry Stimson outlined the Hoover-Stimson Doctrine that said that the United States would not recognize territories gained by force.

Supreme Court appointments

Hoover appointed the following Justices to the Supreme Court of the United States:
- Charles Evans Hughes - Chief Justice - 1930
- Owen Josephus Roberts - 1930
- Benjamin Nathan Cardozo - 1932

Post-Presidency

His opponents in Congress, whom he felt were sabotaging his program for their own political gain, painted him as a callous and cruel president. Hoover was badly defeated in the U.S. presidential election, 1932. After Roosevelt assumed the presidency, Hoover became a critic of the New Deal, warning against tendencies toward statism. His misgivings are in the book The Challenge to Liberty where he talks of fascism, communism, and socialism as enemies of traditional American liberties.socialism In 1938 Hoover went on a tour of Europe and met many heads of state, including Adolf Hitler. In 1940 Hoover spoke at the Philadelphia Republican convention. Numerous reporters, including Drew Pearson, wrote that Hoover was positioning himself for the nomination, which although taking place as France fell, was split between four candidates, the isolationists Thomas Dewey, Robert Taft and Arthur Vandenberg; along with eventual winner, and anti-Nazi, Wendell Willkie. Hoover said that Hitler's victory over Europe was assured, and what America needed was a man as President who could do business with Hitler, and who had never alienated him. This is detailed in the Charles Peters book "Five Days in Philadelphia." In 1947, President Harry S. Truman appointed Hoover to a commission, which elected him chairman, to reorganize the executive departments. This became known as the Hoover Commission. He was appointed chairman of a similar commission by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1953. Many economies resulted from both commissions' recommendations. Over the years, Hoover wrote many articles and books, one of which he was working on when he died at the age of 90 in New York City on October 20, 1964 at 11:35 AM, 31 years and seven months after leaving office. He had outlived his wife by 20 years. By the time of his death, he had rehabilitated his image and died praised as a beloved statesman. His was the longest retirement of any President. (Gerald Ford is now a close contender, and as of 2005, he has been out of office for 28 years). Hoover and his wife are buried at the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum in West Branch, Iowa. Hoover was honored with a state funeral, and it was America's third in a span of 12 months (The others were for JFK and General of the Army Douglas MacArthur). The Lou Henry and Herbert Hoover House, built in 1919 in Palo Alto, California, is now the official residence of the President of Stanford University, and a National Historic Landmark.

Quotes


- "True American Liberalism utterly denies the whole creed of socialism." The Challenge to Liberty, pg 57.
- "A chicken in every pot and a car in every garage" - Presidential Campaign Slogan 1928
- "I outlived the bastards" - answer to a question of how he managed to survive the long ostracism under the Roosevelt administration.

Scholarly Secondary Sources


- Barber, William J. From New Era to New Deal: Herbert Hoover, the Economists, and American Economic Policy, 1921-1933. (1985).
- Barry, John M. Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America (1998), Hoover played a major role.
- Burner, David. Herbert Hoover: A Public Life. (1979). The best one-volume biography.
- DeConde, Alexander. Herbert Hoover's Latin American Policy. (1951).
- Dodge, Mark M., ed. Herbert Hoover and the Historians. (1989).
- Fausold, Martin L. The Presidency of Herbert C. Hoover. (1985) standard scholarly overview.
- Fausold Martin L. and George Mazuzan, eds. The Hoover Presidency: A Reappraisal (1974).
- Ferrell, Robert H. American Diplomacy in the Great Depression: Hoover-Stimson Foreign Policy, 1929-1933. (1957).
- Gelfand, Lawrence E. ed., Herbert Hoover: The Great War and Its Aftermath, 1914-1923 (1979).
- Hamilton, David E. From New Day to New Deal: American Farm Policy from Hoover to Roosevelt, 1928-1933. (1991).
- Hatfield, Mark. ed. Herbert Hoover Reassessed (2002).
- Hawley, Ellis. Herbert Hoover as Secretary of Commerce: Studies in New Era Thought and Practice (1981). A major reinterpretation.
- Hawley, Ellis. Herbert Hoover and the Historians (1989).
- Hoff-Wilson, Joan. Herbert Hoover: Forgotten Progressive. (1975).
- Lichtman, Allan J. Prejudice and the Old Politics: The Presidential Election of 1928 (1979).
- Lisio, Donald J. The President and Protest: Hoover, MacArthur, and the Bonus Riot, 2d ed. (1994).
- Lisio, Donald J. Hoover, Blacks, and Lily-whites: A Study of Southern Strategies (1985).
- Lloyd, Craig. Aggressive Introvert: A Study of Herbert Hoover and Public Relations Management, 1912-1932 (1973).
- Nash, George H. The Life of Herbert Hoover: The Engineer 1874-1914 (1983), the definitive scholarly biography.
- Nash, George H. Life of Herbert Hoover: The Humanitarian, 1914-1917 (1988), vol. 2.
- Nash, George H. The Life of Herbert Hoover: Master of Emergencies, 1917-1918 (1996), vol. 3
- Nash, Lee, ed. Understanding Herbert Hoover: Ten Perspectives (1987)
- Olson, James S. Herbert Hoover and the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, 1931-1933 (1977).
- Romasco, Albert U. The Poverty of Abundance: Hoover, the Nation, the Depression (1965).
- Schwarz, Jordan A. The Interregnum of Despair: Hoover, Congress, and the Depression. (1970). Hostile to Hoover.
- Smith, Richard Norton. An Uncommon Man: The Triumph of Herbert Hoover, (1987) covers 1933-64.
- Wilbur, Ray Lyman, and Arthur Mastick Hyde. The Hoover Policies. (1937). In depth description of his administration by two cabinet members.

Primary Sources


- Hoover, Herbert C. Memoirs. New York, Macmillan, 1951–52. 3 v. v. 1. Years of adventure, 1874–1920; v. 2. The Cabinet and the Presidency, 1920–1933; v. 3. The Great Depression, 1929–1941.
- Myers, William Starr and Walter H. Newton, eds. The Hoover Administration; a documented narrative. New York, Scribner, 1936.
- Hawley, Ellis, ed. Herbert Hoover: Containing the Public Messages, Speeches, and Statements of the President, 4 vols. (1974-1977)
- Agricola, G., De Re Metallica, tr. by Herbert Clark Hoover and Lou Henry Hoover, The Mining magazine, London, 1912
- Hoover, Herbert C. The Challenge to Liberty, 1934
- Hoover, Herbert C. Addresses Upon The American Road, 1933-1938, Charles Scribner's Sons, NY, 1938
- Hoover, Herbert C. The Problems of Lasting Peace, with Hugh Gibson, Doubleday Doran, Garden City NY, 1942

Media

Related articles


- U.S. presidential election, 1928
- U.S. presidential election, 1932
- Hoover-Minthorn House
- Hoover Institution
- Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum - located near Iowa City in West Branch, Iowa.
- Hooverball - sport created by Hoover's physician, played nearly every morning of his presidency on the White House lawn
- Herbert Hoover National Historical Site - also in West Branch, Iowa
- Rapidan Camp - Hoover's presidential retreat and fishing camp in Virginia
- Hooverville

External links


-
- [http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi139.htm Hoover and Agricola]
- [http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/presiden/inaug/hoover.htm Inaugural Address]
- [http://vvl.lib.msu.edu/showfindingaid.cfm?findaidid=HooverH Audio clips of Hoover's speeches]
- [http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/hh31.html White House Biography]
- [http://www.americanpresident.org/history/herberthoover/ American President.org Biography]
- [http://www.usa-presidents.info/union/hoover-1.html Herbert Hoover First State of the Union Address]
- [http://www.usa-presidents.info/union/hoover-2.html Herbert Hoover Second State of the Union Address]
- [http://www.usa-presidents.info/union/hoover-3.html Herbert Hoover Third State of the Union Address]
- [http://www.usa-presidents.info/union/hoover-4.html Herbert Hoover Fourth State of the Union Address]
- [http://www.davidpietrusza.com/Herbert-Hoover-links.html Herbert Hoover Links] Hoover, Herbert Hoover, Herbert Hoover, Herbert Hoover, Herbert Category:Swiss-American people Hoover, Herbert Hoover, Herbert Hoover, Herbert Hoover, Herbert Hoover, Herbert Hoover, Herbert
- ja:ハーバート・フーヴァー simple:Herbert Hoover

United States/Democratic Party

The Democratic Party, founded in 1792, is the longest-standing political party in the world. It is one of the two major parties in the United States, the other being the Republican Party. Currently it is the minority party in the United States Senate and the House of Representatives. Democrats control 20 state legislatures, as do the Republicans (nine states have different parties in control of the upper and lower chambers, while Nebraska's unicameral legislature is elected on a nonpartisan basis). In 2005, the Democrats regained a majority of legislative seats nationwide. Of the two major U.S. parties, the Democratic Party is to the left of the Republican Party, though its politics are not as consistently leftist as the traditional social democratic and labor parties in much of the world. The Democratic Party is more notably factional than many major parties in the industrialized world, partly because American political parties in general do not have as much official power to control members as political parties in many other countries, and partly because the United States does not have a parliamentary goverment.

History

Beginnings

labor-1837).]] The Democratic Party's origins lie in the original Republican Party founded by Thomas Jefferson in 1792. Today, that party is usually referred to as the "Democratic-Republican Party" to avoid confusion. After the disintegration of the Federalist Party, the Democratic-Republicans were the only major party in American politics. For 20 years, different factions of the party contended for the presidency, whose candidates were nominated by congressional caucuses. In 1824, a particularly bitter election was thrown to the House of Representatives, and won by John Quincy Adams over Andrew Jackson, William H. Crawford, and Henry Clay. Jackson, recovering from his defeat, gathered together prominent leaders, including Martin Van Buren of New York and even Vice President John C. Calhoun to support his next bid for the presidency. By the election of 1828, the unified party broke into two. One became the National Republican Party, and backed the incumbent President, and the other, which became known as the Democratic Party, after their insistence that the President hold a national mandate from the people, backed Andrew Jackson. The National Republican faction became the Whig Party (after their opposition to "King Andrew"), which would disintegrate in the 1850s when dissident Whigs and Northern Democrats formed the Republican Party.

Antebellum

Initially the Democratic Party was a coalition between Western pioneers in the Ohio River valley and Illinois - the "North West" of the U.S. at that time - and Southern planters and agrarians from the Jeffersonian coalition. This coalition was very similar to the one that Jefferson and Madison had worked to create, and lead to the belief that Jackson, and not John Quincy Adams, represented a continuous "Jeffersonian" tradition. This was in opposition to the Federalist and Hamiltonian conception of government which Adams was said to represent. The key issues were election access and the Bank of the United States. The Jeffersonians had opposed the first bank, but had allowed it to continue for 20 years of their time in power. The issue of the Bank, and tariffs would be the central domestic policy issue from 1828 to 1850, even though it was increasingly overshadowed by expansion and nativism in the run up to the Civil War. The Democratic Party would lose the presidency to William Henry Harrison, only to gain it back when his Vice President took office, and proceeded to enact many policies the party favored. James Polk would solidify the party's hold on power with a coalition that was increasingly based on holding a solid South and taking enough states in the North to win national power. The party also became increasingly associated with continuation of slavery, including pressing for more and more aggressive laws to enforce the recapture of enslaved individuals who had escaped, and for more of the Great Plains to be opened to slavery. This ran into the Missouri Compromise, which had set a free line, north of which slavery would be prohibited, in return for keeping a balance of power in the Senate. With the disintegration of the Whig Party in 1856 into two factions, the American Party of Millard Fillmore and the Republican Party whose first candidate was John Fremont, it seemed as if the Democratic Party would have a permanent dominance of political power.

Civil War and Reconstruction

In the 1850s, following the disintegration of the Whig Party, the Democratic Party became increasingly divided, with its Southern wing staunchly advocating the expansion of slavery into new territories, in opposition to the newly founded Republican Party, which sought to prohibit such expansion. Democrats in the Northern states joined the Republicans in opposing the expansion of slavery, 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 to defeat with the election of Republican Abraham Lincoln, a link in the chain of events leading up to the Civil War. During the war, Northern Democrats divided into two factions, War Democrats, who supported the military policies of President Abraham Lincoln, and Copperheads, who strongly opposed them. After 1864, the Democratic Party's main opposition has come from the modern Republican Party. The Democrats were shattered by the war but nevertheless benefited from white Southerners' resentment of Reconstruction and consequent hostility to the Republican Party. Once Reconstruction ended, and the disenfranchisement of blacks was re-established, the region was known as the "Solid South" for nearly a century because it reliably voted Democratic and there was, in many places, effectively only one party, there being no significant Republican presence. Though Republicans continued to control the White House until 1885, the Democrats remained competitive, especially in the mid-Atlantic and lower Midwest, and controlled the House of Representatives for most of that period. In the election of 1884, Grover Cleveland, the reforming Democratic Governor of New York, won the Presidency, a feat he repeated in 1892, having lost (but won the popular vote) in the election of 1888 (as had Samuel J. Tilden in the election of 1876).

Populism and Republican dominance

In the presidential election of 1896, widely regarded as a political realignment, Democrats favoring Free Silver defeated their conservative counterparts and succeeded in nominating William Jennings Bryan for the presidency (as did the agrarian Populist Party). Bryan, perhaps best known for his "Cross of Gold" speech delivered at the 1896 convention, waged a vigorous campaign attacking Eastern monied interests, but lost to Republican William McKinley in an election which was to prove decisive: the Republicans controlled the presidency for 28 of the following 36 years.

The New Deal

William McKinley The stock market crash of 1929 and the ensuing Great Depression set the stage for a more progressive government and Franklin D. Roosevelt won a landslide victory in the election of 1932, campaigning on a platform of "Relief, Recovery, and Reform". This came to be termed "The New Deal" after a phrase in his acceptance speech. The Democrats also swept to large majorities in both houses of Congress, and among state Governors. Roosevelt altered the nature of the Party, away from laissez-faire capitalism, and towards an ideology of economic regulation and insurance against hardship. After winning re-election in 1936, Roosevelt embarked on an ambitious legislative program that came to be called "The Second New Deal." He was stymied, however, by an alliance of Republicans and conservative Democrats, as well as by the Supreme Court. Frustrated by the conservative wing of his own party, Roosevelt made an attempt to rid himself of it; in 1938, he actively campaigned against five incumbent conservative Democratic senators, and to appoint more justices to the Court. However, Roosevelt's attempt to chastise the conservatives failed when all five senators won re-election despite Roosevelt's efforts, and his attempts to add justices to the Court became derisively known as "Court Packing". Roosevelt's New Deal programs focused on job creation through public works projects as well as on social welfare programs such as Social Security. It also included sweeping reforms to the banking system, work regulation, transportation, communications, stock markets and attempts to regulate prices. His policies soon paid off by uniting a diverse coalition of Democratic voters called the New Deal Coalition, which included labor unions, minorities (most significantly, Catholics and Jews), and liberals. This united voter base allowed Democrats to be elected to Congress and the presidency for much of the next 30 years. Under Roosevelt, the Democratic Party became identified more closely with modern liberalism, which included the promotion of social welfare, civil rights, and regulation of the economy.

Civil Rights Movement

In 1924 at the Democratic National Convention, a resolution denouncing the white-supremacist Ku Klux Klan was introduced. After much debate, the resolution failed by just a single vote. This resolution later passed during the 1948 Democratic National Convention as part of a larger resolution endorsing civil rights. civil rights when he signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964.]] The New Deal Coalition began to fracture as more Democratic leaders voiced support for civil rights, upsetting the party's traditional base of conservative Southern Democrats. After Harry Truman's platform showed support for civil rights and anti-segregation laws during the 1948 Democratic National Convention, many Southern Democratic delegates decided to split from the Party and formed the "Dixiecrats", led by South Carolina governor Strom Thurmond. Over the next few years, many conservative Democrats in the "Solid South" drifted away from the party. On the other hand, African Americans, who had traditionally given strong support to the Republican Party since its inception as the "anti-slavery party", shifted to the Democratic Party due to its New Deal economic policies. The national party's dramatic reversal on civil rights issues culminated when Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Meanwhile, the Republicans were beginning their Southern strategy, which aimed to solidify the Republican Party's electoral hold over conservative white Southerners. Southern Democrats took notice of the fact that 1964 Republican Presidential candidate Barry Goldwater had voted against the Civil Rights Act on states rights grounds, and in the presidential election of 1964, Goldwater's only electoral victories outside his home state of Arizona were in the states of the Deep South. The degree to which the Southern Democrats had abandoned the party became evident in the 1968 Presidential election when every former Confederate state except Texas voted for either Republican Richard Nixon or independent George Wallace, the latter a former Southern Democrat. Defeated Democrat Hubert Humphrey's electoral votes came mainly from the Northern states, marking a dramatic shift from the 1948 election 20 years earlier, when the losing Republican candidate's electoral votes were mainly concentrated in the Northern states.

1970s

In 1972, the Democrats nominated South Dakota Senator George McGovern as the Party's presidential candidate on a platform which advocated, among other things, U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam and a guaranteed minimum income for all Americans. McGovern was defeated in a landslide by incumbent Republican President Richard Nixon, the former winning only Massachusetts and Washington, D.C. By 1976, however, things had changed dramatically. Nixon, under criticism during the Watergate scandal, resigned from the presidency in 1974. Prior to that, his Vice President, Spiro Agnew had been forced out by a separate scandal. After Agnew resigned, Nixon appointed Gerald Ford, a Republican Representative from Michigan as Agnew's replacement. Thus, when Nixon resigned, Ford became the first President in the nation's history to have been neither elected President nor Vice President. Ford soon pardoned Nixon. Mistrust of the administration, complicated by a combination of economic recession and inflation, sometimes called "stagflation," led to Ford's defeat in 1976 to Jimmy Carter, a former Governor of Georgia. In 1980, Carter lost to Ronald Reagan after serving one term in office.

1980s

Instrumental in the election of Republican President Ronald Reagan in 1980, were Democrats who supported many conservative policies. The "Reagan Democrats" were Democrats before the Reagan years, and afterwards, but they voted for Ronald Reagan in 1980 and 1984 (and for George H. W. Bush in 1988), producing their landslide victories. They were mostly white ethnics in the Northeast who were attracted to Reagan's social conservatism on issues such as abortion, and to his strong foreign policy. They did not continue to vote Republican in 1992 or 1996, so the term fell into disuse except as a reference to the 1980s. The term is not used to describe southern whites who became permanent Republicans in presidential elections. Stanley Greenberg, a Democratic pollster analyzed white ethnic voters, largely unionized auto workers, in suburban Macomb County, Michigan, just north of Detroit. The county voted 63 percent for Kennedy in 1960 and 66 percent for Reagan in 1984. He concluded that Reagan Democrats no longer saw Democrats as champions of their middle class aspirations, but instead saw it as being a party working primarily for the benefit of others, especially African Americans and the very poor. Bill Clinton targeted the Reagan Democrats with considerable success in 1992 and 1996. The failure to hold the Reagan Democrats and the white South led to the final collapse of the New Deal coalition. Reagan carried 49 states against former Vice President and Minnesota Senator Walter Mondale, a New Deal stalwart, in 1984. Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis, running not as a New Dealer but as an efficiency expert in public adminsitration, lost by a landslide in 1988 to Vice President George H. W. Bush. In response to these landslide defeats, the Democratic Leadership Council was created. It worked to move the Party rightwards to the ideological center. With the Party retaining left-of-center supporters as well as supporters holding moderate or conservative views on some issues, the Democrats became generally a catch all party with widespread appeal to most opponents of the Republicans.

1990s

catch all party In 1992, for the first time in 12 years, the United States elected a Democrat to the White House. They seemingly revived themselves only to lose both the House and Senate in the mid-year 1994 elections. While President Bill Clinton claimed and got credit for a balanced federal budget and welfare reform, congressional Republicans won on policy throughout the 1990’s. Clinton for example vetoed two welfare reform bills before signing the third, largely the same, right before the 1996 presidential elections. 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 these labor unions, much to the disappointment of those on the left of the Party. When the DLC attempted to move the Democratic agenda in favor of more centrist positions, prominent Democrats from both the centrist and conservative factions (such as Terry McAuliffe) assumed leadership of the party and its direction. Some liberals and progressives felt alienated by the Democratic Party, which they felt had become unconcerned with the interests of the common people and left-wing issues in general. Some Democrats challenged the validity of such critiques, citing the Democratic role in pushing for progressive reforms.

21st century

During the 2000 Presidential election, the Democrats chose Vice President Al Gore to be the Party's candidate for the presidency. Although Gore and George W. Bush, the Republican candidate, clearly disagreed on issues such as abortion, gun control, environmentalism, gay rights, foreign policy, public education, trade unionism, alternative fuel research, global warming, judicial appointments, and affirmative action, some critics -- Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader in particular -- asserted that Bush and Gore were too similar because they held the same views on free trade and reductions in government-funded social welfare. On election day, Gore won the popular vote by just over 500,000 votes, but lost in the electoral college by four votes. Some election observers blamed Nader's third-party candidacy for Gore's defeat. They pointed to the states of New Hampshire (4 electoral votes) and Florida (25 electoral votes), where Nader's total votes exceeded Governor Bush's margin of victory. In Florida, Nader received 97,000 votes; Bush defeated Gore by a mere 538. Winning either Florida or New Hampshire would have given Gore enough electoral votes to win the presidency. Florida by 538 votes in Florida in one of the most controversial elections, although he won the national popular vote.]] Republican Senators went from the majority in the 106th Congress to a split minority in the 107th Congress (with a Republican Vice President breaking a tie). However, when liberal Republican Sen. Jim Jeffords (Vermont) changed his party affiliation to unaffiliated and chose to quorum with the Democrats, majoritarian status went to the Democrats but they lost it again in 2002. In the aftermath of the September 11th attacks, the nation's focus was changed to issues of national security. All but one Democrat voted with their Republican counterparts to authorize President Bush's 2001 invasion of Afghanistan. Senatorial Democratic leader Tom Daschle pushed for his party to approve the USA PATRIOT Act and the invasion of Iraq. The Democrats were split over the 2003 invasion of Iraq and increasingly expressed concerns about both the justification and progress of the War on Terrorism and the domestic effects including threats to civil rights and civil liberties from the USA PATRIOT Act. In the wake of the financial fraud scandal of Enron and other corporations, Congressional Democrats were integral in pushing for and developing a legal overhaul of business accounting with the intention of preventing further accounting fraud. With job losses and bankruptcies across regions and industries increasing in 2001 and 2002, the Democrats generally campaigned on the issue of economic recovery. The Democrats began fielding Presidential candidates as early as December 2002, when Gore announced he would not run again in 2004. Ex-Governor Howard Dean of Vermont, an opponent of the war and a critic of the Democratic establishment, was the frontrunner leading into the Democratic primaries. Dean had immense grassroots support, especially from the left wing of the Party. John Kerry, a much more centrist figure, was nominated because he was seen as more "electable" than Dean. In the time from 2003 to 2004, layoffs of American workers occurring in various industries due to outsourcing, some Democrats (including Howard Dean and Senatorial candidate Erskine Bowles of North Carolina) began to refine their positions on free trade and some even questioned their past support for it. By 2004, the failure of George W. Bush's administration to find weapons of mass destruction, mounting combat casualties and fatalities in Iraq, and the lack of any end point for the War on Terror were frequently debated issues in the election. That year, Democrats generally campaigned on surmounting the jobless recovery, exiting Iraq, and counterterrorism. jobless recovery Despite strong campaigning, the Republican Party won across the board. Kerry lost both the popular and electoral vote. Republicans gained four seats in the Senate and three seats in the House of Representatives. Also, for the first time since Barry Goldwater of Arizona won his first election to the Senate, the Democratic leader of the Senate lost re-election. In the end there were 3,660 Democratic state legislators across the nation to the Republicans' 3,557, and Democrats had gained governorships in