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The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, the other being the Republican Party. Since the 2006 midterm elections the Democratic Party is the majority party for the 110th Congress; the party holds an outright majority in the United States House of Representatives and the Democratic caucus constitutes a majority in the United States Senate. Democrats also hold a majority of state governorships and control a plurality of state legislatures.
Current structure and composition
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) assists party candidates in House races; its current chairman (selected by the party caucus) is Rep. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland. Similarly the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) raises large sums for Senate races. It is currently headed by Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York. The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee (DLCC), currently chaired by Joan Fitz-Gerald of Colorado, is a smaller organization with much less funding that focuses on state legislative races. The DNC sponsors the College Democrats of America (CDA), a student-outreach organization with the goal of training and engaging a new generation of Democratic activists. The Young Democrats of America (YDA) is a youth-led organization that attempts to draw in and mobilize young people within the Democratic Party. The Democratic Governors Association (DGA) is an organization supporting the candidacies of Democratic gubernatorial nominees and incumbents; it is currently chaired by Governor Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas. Each state also has a state committee, made up of elected committee members as well as ex-officio committee members (usually elected officials and representatives of major constituencies), which in turn elects a chair. County, town, city and ward committees generally are comprised of individuals elected at the local level. State and local committees often coordinate campaign activities within their jurisdiction, oversee local conventions and in some cases primaries or caucuses, and may have a role in nominating candidates for elected office under state law. Rarely do they have much funding, but in 2005 DNC Chairman Dean began a program (called the "50 State Strategy") of using DNC national funds to assist all state parties and paying for full time professional staffers. Ideology and voter baseSince the 1890s, the Democratic Party has favored "liberal" positions. (The term "liberal" in this sense dates from the New Deal era.) The party has favored farmers, laborers, labor unions, and religious and ethnic minorities; it has opposed unregulated business and finance, and favored progressive income taxes. In foreign policy, internationalism (including interventionism) was a dominant theme from 1913 to the mid 1960s. In the 1930s, the party began advocating welfare spending programs targeted at the poor. The party had a pro-business wing, typified by Al Smith, that shrank in the 1930s. The Southern conservative wing shrank in the 1980s. The major influences for liberalism were the labor unions (which peaked in the 1936-1952 era), and the African American wing, which has steadily grown since the 1960s. Since the 1970s, environmentalism has been a major new component. In recent decades, the party advocates civil liberties, social freedoms, equal rights, equal opportunity, fiscal responsibility, and a free enterprise system tempered by government intervention (what economists call a mixed economy). The party believes that government should play a role in alleviating poverty and social injustice, even if that means a larger role for government and progressive taxation to pay for social services. The Democratic Party, once dominant in the Southern states of the former Confederacy, is now strongest in the Northeast (Mid-Atlantic and New England), Upper Midwest and Great Lakes Region and along the Pacific Coast, including California and in Hawaii. The Democrats are also strongest in major cities, such as New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, Detroit, San Francisco, Dallas, and Washington D.C.. Recently, Democrats have been faring better in some southern states, such as Virginia, Arkansas, and Florida, and in the Rocky Mountain states, especially Colorado and Montana. Recent issue stancesEconomic issues
Democrats favor a higher minimum wage, and more regular increases, in order to assist the working poor. The Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007 is an early component of the Democrats' agenda during the 110th Congress. In 2006, the Democrats supported six state ballot initiatives to increase the minimum wage; all six initiatives passed.
Democrats have opposed tax cuts and incentives to oil companies, favoring a policy of developing domestic renewable energy. Democratic governors have led the way in this issue, such as Montana's state-supported wind farm and "clean coal" programs.
Democrats are trying to position their party as the party of fiscal responsibility. Democrats increasingly call for responsible tax policies and government spending that keeps the budget deficit under control. The Democratic-led House of Representatives reinstated the PAYGO (pay-as-you-go) budget rule at the start of the 110th Congress.[2] DNC Chairman Howard Dean has cited Bill Clinton's presidency as a model for fiscal responsibility.
Democrats call for "affordable and quality health care," and many advocate an expansion of government intervention in this area. Many Democrats favor a national health insurance system in a variety of forms to address the rising costs of modern health insurance. Some Democrats, such as Senator Edward Kennedy, have called for a program of "Medicare for All."[3] Some Democratic governors have supported purchasing Canadian drugs, citing lower costs and budget restrictions as a primary incentive. Recognizing that unpaid insurance bills increase costs to the service provider, who passes the cost on to health-care consumers, many Democrats advocate expansion of health insurance coverage.
The Democratic Party generally sides with environmentalists and favors conservation of natural resources together with strong environmental laws against pollution. Democrats support preservation of endangered lands and species, clean land management and regulation on pollutants. The most contentious and concerning environmental issue championed by the party is global warming. Democrats, most notably former Vice President Al Gore, have pressed for stern regulation of greenhouse gases.
Most Democrats have the long term aim of having low-cost, publicly funded college education with low tuition fees (like in much of continental Europe) which should be available to every eligible American student, or alternatively, with increasing state funding for student financial aid such as the Pell grant or college tuition tax-deduction.[4][5]
The Democratic Party has a mixed record on international trade agreements that reflects a diversity of viewpoints in the party. Generally, more conservative and moderate Democrats favor free trade agreements while those further to the left, supporters of fair trade, populists, and unions often oppose them. In the 1990s, the Clinton administration and a number of prominent Democrats pushed through a number of agreements such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Since then, the party's shift away from free trade became evident in the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) vote, with 15 House Democrats voting for the agreement and 187 voting against.[6][7] Social issues
Democrats support Equal Opportunity for all Americans regardless of sex, age, race, sexual orientation, religion, creed, or national origin. The Democratic Party mostly supports affirmative action as a way to redress past discrimination and ensure equitable employment regardless of ethnicity or gender, but opposes the use of quotas in hiring. Democrats also strongly support the Americans with Disabilities Act to prohibit discrimination against people on the basis of physical or mental disability.
The Democratic Party is divided on the subject of same-sex marriage. Some members favor civil unions for same-sex couples, others favor legalized marriage, and others are opposed to same-sex marriage on religious grounds. The 2004 Democratic National Platform stated that marriage should be defined at the state level and it repudiated the Federal Marriage Amendment. Almost all agree, however, that discrimination against persons because of their sexual orientation is wrong.
The Democratic Party believes that all women should have access to birth control, and supports public funding of contraception for poor women. The Democratic Party, in its national platforms since 1992, has called for abortion to be "safe, legal and rare"—namely, keeping it legal by rejecting laws that allow governmental interference in abortion decisions, and reducing the number of abortions by promoting both knowledge of reproduction and contraception, and incentives for adoption. The Democratic Party opposes attempts to reverse the 1973 Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade which recognized abortion as a right. As a matter of the right to privacy and of gender equality, many Democrats believe all women should have the ability to choose without governmental interference. They believe that each woman, conferring with her conscience, has the right to choose for herself whether abortion is morally correct. Many Democrats also believe that poor women should have a right to publicly funded abortions.
The Democratic Party has voiced overwhelming support for all stem cell research with federal funding. In his 2004 platform, John Kerry affirmed his support of federally funded stem-cell research "under the strictest ethical guidelines." He explained, "We will not walk away from the chance to save lives and reduce human suffering." Foreign policy issues
Democrats in the House of Representatives and United States Senate near-unanimously voted for the authorization of military force against "those responsible for the recent attacks launched against the United States" in Afghanistan in 2001, supporting the NATO coalition invasion of the nation. Most elected Democrats continue in their support of the Afghanistan conflict, and some have voiced concerns that the Iraq War is shifting too many resources away from the occupation of Afghanistan.
In 2002, Democrats were divided as most in the Senate voted for the authorization of the use of force against Iraq while most Democrats in the House voted against it. Since then, many prominent Democrats have expressed regret about this decision, such as former Senator John Edwards, and have called it a mistake. Amongst lawmakers, Democrats constitute some of the most vocal critics of the Iraq War and the President's management of the war. Democrats in the House of Representatives near-unanimously supported a non-binding resolution disapproving of President Bush's decision to send additional troops into Iraq in 2007.
Democrats mostly oppose the doctrine of unilateralism, which dictates that the United States should use military force without any assistance from other nations whenever it believes there is a threat to its security or welfare. They believe the United States should act in the international arena in concert with strong alliances and broad international support. This was a major foreign policy issue of John Kerry's 2004 presidential campaign, and unilateralism has been blamed for the failures in Iraq. In a general sense, the modern Democratic Party is more closely aligned with the international relations theories of liberalism and neoliberalism than realism and neorealism, though realism has some influence on the party. Legal issues
Democrats are opposed to use of torture against individuals apprehended and held prisoner by the military of the United States, and deny that categorizing military prisoners as unlawful combatants excludes them from the rights granted under the Geneva Conventions. Democrats contend that torture is inhumane, decreases the United States' moral standing in the world, and produces questionable results.
All Democrats in the U.S. Senate except for Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold voted for the original USA PATRIOT Act legislation. After voicing concerns over the "invasion of privacy" and other civil liberty restrictions of the Act, the Democrats split on the renewal in 2006. Most Democratic Senators voted to renew it, while most Democratic Representatives voted against renewal. It should be noted renewal was only allowed after many of the most invasive clauses in the Act were removed or curbed.
The Democratic Party believes that individuals should have a right to privacy, and generally supports laws which place restrictions on law-enforcement and intelligence agency monitoring of U.S. citizens. Some Democratic Party officeholders have championed consumer-protection laws that limit the sharing of consumer data between corporations. Most Democrats believe that government should not regulate consensual non-commercial sexual conduct (among adults), as a matter of personal privacy.
Democrats often focus on methods of crime prevention, believing that preventive measures save taxpayers' money in prison, policing and medical costs, and prevent crime and murder. They emphasize improved community policing and more on-duty police officers in order to help accomplish this goal. The party's platform in 2000 and 2004 cited crackdowns on gangs and drug trafficking as preventive methods. The party's platforms have also addressed the issue of domestic violence, calling for strict penalties for offenders and protection for victims. With a stated goal of reducing crime and homicide, the Democratic Party has introduced various gun control measures, most notably the Gun Control Act of 1968, the Brady Bill of 1993 and Crime Control Act of 1994. However, many Democrats, especially rural, Southern, and Western Democrats, favor fewer restrictions on firearm possession and warned the party was defeated in the 2000 presidential election in rural areas because of the issue.[8] In the national platform for 2004, the only statement explicitly favoring gun control was a plan calling for renewal of the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban. Current factionsIn the House of Representatives, the Blue Dog Democrats, a caucus of fiscal and social conservatives and moderates, primarily southerners, forms part of the Democratic Party's current faction of Conservative Democrats. They have acted as a unified voting bloc in the past, giving its forty plus members some ability to change legislation and broker compromises with the Republican leadership. Pro-life Democrats are sometimes classified as conservatives. Though centrist Democrats differ on a variety of issues, they typically foster a mix of political views and ideas. Compared to other Democratic factions, they are mostly more supportive of the use of military force, including the war in Iraq, and are more willing to reduce government welfare, as indicated by their support for welfare reform and tax cuts. One of the most influential factions is the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC), a non-profit organization that advocates centrist positions for the party. The DLC hails President Bill Clinton as proof of the viability of third way politicians and a DLC success story. Former Representative Harold Ford, Jr. of Tennessee is its current chairman. Liberal Democrats are to the left of centrist Democrats. The liberal faction was dominant in the party for several decades, although they have been hurt by the rise of centrist forces such as President Bill Clinton. Compared to conservatives and moderates, liberal Democrats generally have advocated fair trade and other less conservative economic policies, and a less militaristic foreign policy, and have a reputation of being more forceful in pushing for civil liberties. Liberals are increasingly identified as being part of the larger progressive wing of the party. Many progressive Democrats are descendants of the New Left of Democratic Presidential candidate/Senator George McGovern of South Dakota; others were involved in the presidential candidacies of Vermont Governor Howard Dean and U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio; and still others are disaffected former members of the Green Party. Unifying issues among progressive Democrats have been opposition to the War in Iraq, opposition to economic and social conservatism, opposition to heavy corporate influence in government, support for universal health care, revitalization of the national infrastructure and steering the Democratic Party in the direction of being a more forceful opposition party. Compared to other factions of the party, they've been most critical of the Republican Party, and most supportive of social and economic equality. The Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) is the single largest Democratic caucus in the House of Representatives. Since the 1930s, a critical component of the Democratic Party coalition has been organized labor. Labor unions supply a great deal of the money, grass roots political organization, and voting base of support for the party. The overall percentage of employed wage and salary workers that are union members has significantly declined from U.S. unions' peak membership of 36% in the mid-1950s. The historic decline in union membership over the past half century has also been accompanied by a growing disparity between public sector and private sector union membership. The three most significant labor groupings in the Democratic coalition today are the AFL-CIO and Change to Win labor federations, as well as the National Education Association, a large, unaffiliated teachers' union. Both the AFL-CIO and Change to Win have identified their top legislative priority for 2007 as passage of the Employee Free Choice Act. Other important issues for labor unions include support for industrial policy (including protectionism) that sustains unionized manufacturing jobs, raising the minimum wage and promoting broad social programs such as social security and universal health care. Civil libertarians also often support the Democratic Party because its positions on such issues as civil rights and separation of church and state are more closely aligned to their own than the positions of the Republican Party, and because the Democrats' economic agenda may be more appealing to them than that of the Libertarian Party. They oppose gun control, the "War on Drugs," protectionism, corporate welfare, governmental borrowing, and an interventionist foreign policy. The Democratic Freedom Caucus is an organized group of this faction. HistoryOrigins: 1792-1828Image:Thomas Jefferson by Sully.jpg Democrats regard Thomas Jefferson as the founder of the party. The Democrats trace their roots to the Democratic-Republican Party, established by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison in the 1790s. The party arose from opposition to the policies of the ruling Federalist Party, dominated by Alexander Hamilton, that advocated a strong central government, a loose interpretation of the Constitution, and a republic governed by well-educated elites. The Jeffersonians (before 1801) favored France in the wars between Britain and France, and opposed the Jay Treaty (which restored peace with Britain) because, they believed, it might help monarchist elements inside the United States. Democratic-Republicans idealized the independent ("yeoman") farmer as the exemplar of virtue, and distrusted cities, banks, and other monied interests. Jefferson and his close collaborator Madison made states' rights a keystone of the party in 1798. The party was strongest in the south and west, and weakest in New England. The party won control of the Presidency and Congress in 1800, and later elected Henry Clay as the powerful Speaker of the House in the 1810s. The Federalists collapsed as serious rivals to the Democratic-Republicans by the end of the War of 1812. After the war and the decline of the Federalists, little held Democratic-Republicans together and the party split into factions. War hero General Andrew Jackson of Tennessee emerged as the leader of the faction that, after he was elected president in 1828, became the Democratic Party. Jacksonian democracy: 1828-1854Image:Andrew Jackson Sully.jpg President Andrew Jackson (1829-1837) With the decline of the Federalists, the Whig Party became the Democrats' main opponents. The Democrats continued winning national elections by building a nationwide coalition that was strongest in New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and the frontier; it was weakest in New England. Like the Democratic-Republican Party from which it developed, the Democrats voiced strong anti-elite opposition to "aristocracy" and banks, and put their faith in "the people." By the 1820s suffrage with no property restrictions was the norm for nearly all white men in the U.S. The Democratic Party was a complex coalition that included farmers from all parts of the country and working-men's groups in the cities. The key issues in the 1830s were: use of patronage to build a strong party machine, opposition to state and national banks, and opposition to modernizing programs that would build up industry at the expense of the taxpayer. The Democrats strongly favored expansion to new farm lands, as typified by their expulsion of eastern American Indians and acquisition of vast amounts of new land in the West after 1846. Martin Van Buren won the presidency in 1836, but the Panic of 1837 caused his defeat in the 1840 presidential election. James K. Polk won in the 1844 election, directed the Mexican-American War (in which he acquired modern-day Washington, Oregon and the American Southwest), lowered tariffs, set up a sub-treasury system, and then retired. In the 1848 election, the new Free Soil Party, which opposed slavery expansion, split the Democratic Party. Democrats in Congress passed the Compromise of 1850. As the Whigs splintered over slavery and nativism, the Democrats easily elected Franklin Pierce in 1852 and James Buchanan in 1856. Civil War and Reconstruction: 1854-1877The main Democratic leader in the Senate, Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois, pushed through the pro-slavery Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854 despite strong protest. Driven by the increasingly contentious issue of slavery, a major realignment took place among voters and politicians, with new issues, new parties, and new rules. The Whig Party dissolved entirely. While the Democrats survived, many northern Democrats (especially Free Soilers from 1848) joined the newly established Republican Party. Buchanan split the party on the issue of slavery in Kansas; most Democrats in the North rallied to Stephen Douglas. In 1860, Douglas was unable to gain the two-thirds vote needed for the party's nomination. The party nominated Douglas in the North, and John C. Breckinridge in the South. The Republicans famously nominated Abraham Lincoln from Illinois. During the Civil War, no party politics were allowed in the Confederacy, but partisanship flourished in the North. After the attack on Ft. Sumter, Douglas rallied northern Democrats behind the Union. But Douglas died and the party lacked an outstanding national figure. There was a deep split between the anti-war Copperheads and the War Democrats. The party did well in the 1862 congressional elections, but in 1864 it nominated General George McClellan, a War Democrat, on a peace platform, and lost badly as many War Democrats bolted to support National Union candidate Abraham Lincoln. In the 1866 elections, the Radical Republicans won two-thirds majorities in Congress and took control of national affairs. Ulysses S. Grant led the Republicans to landslides in 1868 and 1872. The nationwide depression of 1873 allowed the Democrats to retake control of the House in the 1874 Democratic landslide. The Democrats benefited from white Southerners' resentment of Reconstruction and consequent hostility to the Republican Party. After Redeemers ended Reconstruction, and the disenfranchisement of African Americans took place in the 1890s, the South, voting Democratic, became known as the "Solid South." In most of the South, there was effectively only one party, and victory in the Democratic primary was tantamount to election. Image:President Grover Cleveland.jpg President Grover Cleveland (1885-1889 and 1893-1897), the only Democrat elected president between 1860 and 1912 The Gilded Age: 1877-1896
The national vote was very evenly balanced in the 1880s. Though Republicans continued to control the White House until 1884, the Democrats remained competitive. Dominated by conservative pro-business Bourbon Democrats led by Samuel J. Tilden and Grover Cleveland, they had a solid base in the South and great strength in the rural lower Midwestern United States, and in ethnic German American and Irish American enclaves in large cities, mill towns and mining camps. They 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. He was defeated in the election of 1888 but was re-elected in 1892. Cleveland was the leader of the conservative Bourbon Democrats who represented mercantile, banking and railroad interests, opposed imperialism and overseas expansion, fought for the gold standard, opposed bimetallism, and crusaded against corruption and high taxes and tariffs. The Bourbon Democrats were overthrown by William Jennings Bryan in 1896. Bryan, Wilson, and the Progressive Era: 1896-1932In the presidential election of 1896, widely regarded as a political realignment, agrarian Democrats demanding free silver defeated the Bourbons and nominated William Jennings Bryan (the Populist Party then followed suit). Bryan, having gained the nomination after his stirring "Cross of Gold" speech delivered at the 1896 convention, waged a vigorous campaign attacking Eastern moneyed interests, but he lost to Republican William McKinley in an election which was to prove decisive, and marks the beginning of the Fourth Party System. The Republicans controlled the presidency for 28 of the following 36 years, dominating most of the Northeast, the Midwest, and half of the West. Bryan, with a base in the South and the Great Plains, was strong enough to get the nomination in the elections of 1900, again losing to McKinley, and 1908, losing to William Howard Taft. Bourbon conservatives controlled the convention in 1904, but they faced a Theodore Roosevelt landslide. By 1908, Bryan had dropped his free silver and anti-imperialism rhetoric and supported mainstream progressive issues, especially "anti-trust" or opposition to the big trusts. Image:Wwilson.gif President Woodrow Wilson (1913-1921), the only Democrat elected president between 1896 and 1932 Taking advantage of a deep split in the GOP, the Democrats took control of the House in 1910 and elected intellectual reformer Woodrow Wilson in 1912 and 1916. Wilson successfully led Congress to a series of progressive laws, including the Underwood Tariff that reduced tariffs; the Clayton Antitrust Act that systematized the antitrust system; the income tax on individuals; new programs for farmers; and the 8-hour day for railroad workers. His most important innovation was the Federal Reserve System that created a strong central bank. A law to outlaw child labor was reversed by the Supreme Court. Wilson ordered the segregation of the federal Civil Service. The Eighteenth Amendment establishing Prohibition and the Nineteenth Amendment establishing Women's suffrage were passed in Wilson's second term, but they were bipartisan efforts. In effect, Wilson laid to rest the issues of tariffs, money and antitrust that had dominated politics for 40 years. Wilson led the U.S. to victory in World War I and helped write the Versailles Treaty, which included his goal of a League of Nations. But in 1919 Wilson's political skills faltered, as did his health; suddenly everything turned sour. The Senate rejected the Versailles Treaty and the League, and a nationwide wave of strikes and violence caused unrest. Prohibition opened a bitter split in the party between the Catholic and ethnic Northern "wets" and the Southern "dries." The deeply divided party was hit by Republican landslides in the presidential elections of 1920, 1924, and 1928. However, Al Smith helped build a strong Catholic base in the big Eastern cities in 1928, and Franklin D. Roosevelt's election as governor of New York that year brought a new leader to center stage. The New Deal and World War II: 1933-1945Image:FDR in 1933.jpg President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1933-1945), the only person elected four times to the presidency. The Great Depression set the stage for a more liberal government, and Franklin D. Roosevelt won a landslide victory in the presidential election of 1932, campaigning on a vague platform that promised repeal of Prohibition and criticizing Herbert Hoover's presidential failures. Within 100 days of taking office on March 4, 1933, Roosevelt came forth with a massive array of programs, the New Deal. These focused on Relief, Recovery, and Reform; that is, relief of unemployment and rural distress, recovery of the economy back to normal, and long-term structural reforms to prevent a repetition of the Depression. The 1932 election brought Democrats large majorities in both houses of Congress, and among state governors; the 1934 election increased those margins. The 1933 programs, called "the First New Deal" by historians, represented a broad consensus; Roosevelt tried to reach out to business and labor, farmers and consumers, cities and countryside. By 1934, however, he was moving toward a more confrontational policy. Roosevelt sought to move the party away from its business base toward a new base of farmers and workers. The New Deal was a program of economic regulation and insurance against hardship. Two old words took new meanings. "Liberal" now meant a supporter of the New Deal; "conservative" meant an opponent. Conservative Democrats were outraged; led by Al Smith, they formed the American Liberty League in 1934 and counterattacked, but were ineffective. Image:SamRayburn55.jpg Sam Rayburn of Texas was the longest-serving (non-consecutive) Speaker of the House (1940-1947, 1949-1953, 1955-1961). After making gains in Congress in 1934 Roosevelt embarked on an ambitious legislative program that came to be called "The Second New Deal." It was characterized by building up labor unions, nationalizing welfare by the Works Progress Administration, setting up Social Security, imposing more regulations on business (especially transportation and communications), and raising taxes on business profits. He built a new, diverse majority coalition called the New Deal Coalition, which included labor unions, minorities (most significantly, Catholics, Jews, southern whites, and for the first time, Blacks). The New Deal coalition won all but two presidential elections (1952 and 1956) until it came apart in 1968. After a triumphant landslide reelection in 1936, Roosevelt announced plans to enlarge the Supreme Court, which tended to oppose his New Deal. A firestorm of opposition erupted, led by his own vice president, John Nance Garner. Roosevelt was defeated by an alliance of Republicans and conservative Democrats, who formed a new Conservative coalition that managed to block nearly all liberal legislation and dominate Congress for the remainder of FDR's presidency. Threatened by the conservative wing of his party, Roosevelt made an attempt to purge it; in 1938, he actively campaigned against five conservative Democratic senators. They denounced national interference in state affairs, and all five senators won re-election. New Deal liberalism meant the promotion of social welfare, labor unions, civil rights, and regulation of business. The opponents, who stressed long-term growth and support for entrepreneurship and low taxes, now started calling themselves "conservatives." Truman to Kennedy: 1945-1963Image:Harry-truman.jpg President Harry S. Truman (1945-1953) Roosevelt died in office on April 12, 1945, and Harry S. Truman took over. The rifts inside the party that FDR had papered over began to emerge. Former Vice President Henry A. Wallace denounced Truman as a war-monger for his anti-Soviet programs, the Truman Doctrine, the Marshall Plan, and NATO. However the Wallace supporters and far left were pushed out of the party and the CIO in 1946-48 by young anti-Communists like Hubert Humphrey, Walter Reuther, and Arthur Schlesinger Jr.. On the right the Republicans blasted Truman’s domestic policies. "Had Enough?" and "To err is Truman" were winning slogans for Republicans, who recaptured Congress in 1946 for the first time since 1928. Many party leaders were ready to dump Truman, but they lacked an alternative. Truman counterattacked, pushing out Strom Thurmond and his Dixiecrats and, as an audacious and inspired strategic move, calling the GOP-controlled Congress into speci | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
