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).

The Democrats currently control the United States House of Representatives and the Senate, together with the majority of State governorships and legislatures. 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. However, Democrats have served out only three of the last ten presidential terms, and the Democrats in the US Congress currently have a 56.8% Disapproval rating, with only a 36% Approve rating according to the PealClearPolitics Average of several dozens of Congressional Job Approval polls.

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 . Madison strengthened America's armed forces and helped to reaffirm American independence by defeating the United Kingdom in the War of 1812. James Monroe, another Democratic-Republican, was elected president in 1816 and led the nation through a time commonly known as "The Era of Good Feeling". In this period, the party dominated American politics with little opposition. Andrew Jackson, who signed into law the Indian Removal Act of 1830 according to the Democratic National Committee's website is "considered — along with Jefferson — one of the founding fathers of the Democratic Party." Annual Jefferson-Jackson Day celebrations nationwide by local chapters of the Democratic Party commemorate the two founders of the Democratic Party.

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

Policies and criticism

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.

Economic policy

In the field of economic policy, Democrats favor high 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, 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 and insufficiently patriotic , such as Saxby Chambliss' campaign against Senator Max Cleland--a Vietnam veteran and triple amputee.

Education

An organization affiliated with the Democratic Leadership Council called the Progressive Policy Institute which claims a long standing opposition to school vouchers 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."

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.

Other Policies

Democrats frequently support a woman's right to choose, gun control, homosexual marriage 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.