Difference between revisions of "Democratic Party"

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Official logo of the Democratic Party.

The Democratic Party is one of the two major political parties in the United States of America. It is generally seen as being politically between center and left of center, while the rival Republican Party is positioned to the right of center (see political spectrum theory). Members and supporters of the Democratic Party are known as Democrats.

The Democrats currently control the United States House of Representatives and the Senate, together with the majority of State governorships and legislatures. ^[1] According to a Pew Research Center poll, 50 percent of Americans identify themselves with the Democratic Party as opposed to 35 percent for the Republican Party.^[2] However, Democrats have served out only three of the last ten presidential terms. Democrats in the US Congress currently have a 52.6% disapproval and a 38% approval rating according to the RealClearPolitics Average of several dozens of Congressional Job Approval polls conducted 04/05 - 04/18. ^[3]

Like the Republicans, the Democrats are currently selecting their candidate for the 2008 presidential election; the front-runners in the contest are Senator Hillary Clinton of New York and Senator Barack Obama of Illinois. The most recent president who was a Democrat was Bill Clinton, who served from 1993 to 2001.

History

The Democratic Party was founded in 1792 by Thomas Jefferson as a congressional caucus to fight for the Bill of Rights and to oppose the elitist Federalist Party.

In 1798 , the party was officially named the "Democratic-Republican Party", and in 1800 Jefferson was elected as the first Democrat President of the United States. Jefferson, a member of the landed gentry and a slave owner, served two terms as president with distinction, and was succeeded by another Democrat, James Madison, in 1808 . During Madison's tenure, the United States fought the United Kingdom to a draw in the War of 1812. James Monroe, another Democratic-Republican, was elected president in 1816 and led the nation through a period of economic growth commonly known as "The Era of Good Feelings". In this period, the party dominated American politics with little opposition. Monroe was followed by John Quincy Adams who won the hotly contested election of 1824, becoming the first son of a former president to be elected president. Andrew Jackson won the 1828 election. During his term, the United States passed the Indian Removal Act, which resulted in the wholesale deportation of Native Americans from the Southeastern states to Indian Territory (present day Oklahoma). <http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llsl&fileName=004/llsl004.db&recNum=458> On the plus side, the Jacksonian period did see the expansion of the voting franchise as most states did away with, or decreased property requirements for voting. However, the beneficiaries of the expansion of the franchise were nearly all white males. According to the Democratic National Committee's website is "considered — along with Jefferson — one of the founding fathers of the Democratic Party." ^[4] Annual Jefferson-Jackson Day celebrations nationwide by local chapters of the Democratic Party commemorate the two founders of the Democratic Party. ^[5]

Franklin Roosevelt, president during the Great Depression and Second World War, was a Democrat, as was his successor, Harry Truman.

Policies and criticism

In June 2005, while Democrats held a mock impeachment inquiry in President's Bush's foreign policy, anti-Semitic materials were distributed at the Democratic Party National headquarters. The literature claimed that an Israeli company had warning of the September 11, 2001 attacks, and an "insider trading scam" on Wall Street had occured simultaneously. ^[6]

It should be noted that the views of individual Democrats sometimes diverge from the party's official stance as expressed in its national platform. The same is true of individual Republicans. Nonetheless, Tyrell accuses Democrats of wearing ideological blinders:

Can anything embarrass Speaker Pelosi and the rest of the Democratic leadership? Frankly I doubt it. They are all neatly shut off from the world in their fantasy of moral and intellectual superiority. [1]

Economic policy

In the field of economic policy, Democrats favor high progressive taxes, higher government spending and a relatively high minimum wage.'^{[Citation Needed]}

The Democratic Party has historically had ties to organized labor. The National Education Association,^[7] the largest union of public school teachers, is a backbone of the party, supplying the largest number of delegates to its national conventions.^{[Citation Needed]}

Foreign and military policy

According to its platform, the Democratic Party has the objective of strengthening America. Democratic national leadership has been accused of being ambivalent about terrorism^[8] and insufficiently patriotic ^[9], such as Saxby Chambliss' campaign against Senator Max Cleland--a Vietnam veteran and triple amputee.^[10]

Education

An organization affiliated with the Democratic Leadership Council called the Progressive Policy Institute which claims a long standing opposition to school vouchers ^[11] reported Jonathan Alter of Newsweek saying,

"Can wealthy white liberals - many of whom send their kids to private school - really say to poor parents: 'We can have choices, but you must not?'...This is a glaring hypocrisy sitting at the heart of the liberal opposition to targeted vouchers… Right now, Democrats are in a highly compromised position on education." ^[12]

Environment vs Labor

Two other important coalition groups also find themselves in direct conflict with each other within the Democratic party coalition--Environmentalists and Labor Unions. While environmentalists support efforts like clean air and alternative fuels, for example, this creates tension with the workers of American automobile manufactures whose jobs are threatened by environmental policies such as increasing regulations and high costs. Such policies can lead to cutbacks and layoffs. Balancing these issues is difficult because some sacrifices of interests must be made by both sides.

Healthcare

The Democrat fondness for heavy government intervention into the marketplace and social engineering means that a significant proportion of their base and of their candidates for the 2008 U.S. Presidential Election ideologically favor introducing a system of socialized healthcare; regardless of the crippling tax burden this would require to sustain itself and the low standard of care achieved by socialized health programs in other countries compared to the United States. Among the leading proponents for this idea include Sen. Barack Hussein Obama and Sen. John Edwards; the latter formerly being the running mate to Sen. John Kerry in the disastrous 2004 Presidential Election.

Homosexual Agenda

Democrat lawmakers and opinion-formers consistently favor measures such as the establishment of same-sex civil unions, gay marriage and gay adoption of heterosexual children over defense of the traditional family. Likewise they are vigorous in attempting to amend "hate crime" laws to make criticism of the homosexual lifestyle illegal; while at the same time supporting efforts to disseminate favorable opinions regarding homosexuality through channels such as the mainstream media and even the educational system in the face of opposition from churches and religious authorities, a broad coalition of Republican and Independent politicians and a clear majority of the American public. Democrats reject that the Homosexual agenda exists so would not consider themselves to be in thrall to it, preferring to speak in terms of "gay rights" when this issue is raised; but from their actions the Democrat Party can certainly be considered the United States' largest and most powerful de facto supporter of the Homosexual Agenda.

Other Policies

Democrats frequently support abortion, gun control, same- sex civil unions, and the separation of church and state.

Religion

In the United States, there is some correlation between religious and political affiliation, though people of all faiths and denominations can be found among the supporters of each of the main parties.

Both historically and today, Catholic voters have had a tendency to identify with the Democratic Party, and a number of Democratic office-holders, such as Senator Jim Webb of Virginia, are Catholics. However, several general ideals of the Democratic Party's platform - most notably, the party's overall support for the legality of abortion - are contrary to the position of the Catholic Church.

With regard to Protestant Christians, members of Evangelical churches in particular are associated with the Republican Party. One unusual feature of the Democratic Party, however, is that it draws substantial support both from committed African-American Protestant Christians and from secular and atheist white voters. The strong opposition to homosexuality found among many Black Protestant Christians (and, indeed, among orthodox Catholics) contrasts strikingly with the support frequently shown by other Democrats for the homosexual agenda.

References

1. ↑ Multistate.com Post-Election 2006 Maps
2. ↑ Trends in Political Values and Core Attitudes: 1987-2007 Pew Research Center, 22 March 2007
3. ↑ RealClearPolitics Congressional Job Approval Poll, 04/09 - 05/01
4. ↑ Democratic National Committee, Our History, retrieved 25 March 2007.
5. ↑ String of Successes Enlivens Democratic Party, Michael D. Shear, The Washington Post, 22 February 2007.
6. ↑ Democrats Play House To Rally Against the War, Dana Milbank, Washington Post, June 17, 2005.
7. ↑ National Education Association homepage
8. ↑ "Democrats, ACLU Outraged Over Traveler Terrorism Screening Program" C. Johnson, Associated Press
9. ↑ CNN Saturday Morning NewsTranscript: December 1, 2001
10. ↑ "Dirty-Bomb Politics" Mary McGrory, The Washington Post, 20 June 2002
11. ↑ 21st Century Schools Project Bulletin: Special Edition Putting Vouchers in Perspective, PPI E-newsletter 2 July 2002
12. ↑ Center For Education Reform, Monthly Letter to Friends No. 75, Back to School 2002.