President Kennedy once said – “Change is the law of the life. Those who look only to the present are certain to miss the future”
Claims to the Democratic Heritage
The history of our country is a history of change. Year after year, we have evolved, innovated, and overcome the major challenges of our time. America’s genius throughout has been its ability to renew our promise to provide citizens the opportunity for a better life—and though our own history isn’t perfect, the mission of the Democratic Party has been to make that promise a reality.
Democrat party was founded on the conviction that wealth and privilege shouldn’t be an entitlement to rule and the belief that the values of hardworking families are the values that should guide us.
We didn’t become the most prosperous country in the world by rewarding greed and recklessness or by letting those with the most influence write their own rules. We got here by rewarding hard work and responsibility, by investing in people, and by growing our country from the bottom up.
Today Democrats are fighting to repair a decade of damage and grow an economy based on the values of Main Street, not greed and reckless speculation. Democrats are focused on rescuing our economy not just in the short run but also rebuilding our economy for the long run—an economy that lifts up not just some Americans, but all Americans.
Change is the inescapable driver of history in the United States. Our party’s founders believed then, just as we do now, that being a Democrat means meeting the challenges of changing times so that all Americans can prosper. That’s why the people of this county have always turned to Democrats when times got tough.
In the 1930s, Americans turned to Democrats and elected President Franklin Roosevelt to end the Great Depression. President Roosevelt offered Americans a New Deal that put people back to work, stabilized farm prices, and brought electricity to rural homes and communities.
Under President Roosevelt, Social Security established a promise that lasts to this day: growing old would never again mean growing poor.
In 1944, FDR signed the G.I. Bill — a historic measure that provided veterans with the opportunity to go to college and help move our country forward.
These investments helped restore America’s promise to be the land of opportunity and offered new avenues to expand the middle class.
Harry Truman helped rebuild Europe after World War II with the Marshall Plan and oversaw the formation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. By integrating the military, President Truman helped to bring down barriers of race and gender and pave the way the way for civil rights advancements in the years that followed.
In the 1960s, Americans again turned to Democrats and elected President John Kennedy to tackle the challenges of a new era. President Kennedy dared Americans to put a man on the moon, created the Peace Corps, and negotiated a treaty banning atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons.
And after President Kennedy’s assassination, Americans looked to President Lyndon Johnson, who offered a new vision of a Great Society and signed into law the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act.
President Johnson’s enactment of Medicare was a watershed moment in America’s history that redefined our country’s commitment to our seniors—offering a new promise that all Americans have the right to a healthy retirement.
In 1976, in the wake of the Watergate scandal, Americans elected Jimmy Carter to restore dignity to the White House. He created the Departments of Education and Energy and helped to forge a lasting peace between Israel and Egypt.
In 1992, after twelve years of Republican presidents, record budget deficits, high unemployment, and increasing crime, Americans turned to Democrats once again and elected Bill Clinton to get America moving again. As President, Clinton balanced the budget, helped the economy add 23 million new jobs, and oversaw the longest period of peacetime economic expansion in history.
And in 2008, Americans turned to Democrats and elected President Obama to reverse our country’s slide into the largest economic downturn since the Great Depression and undo eight years of policies that favored the few over the many.
Under President Obama’s direction and congressional Democrats’ leadership, we reformed a health care system that was broken and extended health insurance to 32 million Americans.
We reined in a financial system that was out of control and delivered the toughest consumer protections ever enacted.
We reworked our student loan system to make higher education more affordable and won the fight for equal pay for women.
We passed the Recovery Act, which created or helped to save millions of jobs and made unprecedented investments in the major pillars of our country.
From America’s beginnings to today, people have turned to Democrats to meet our country’s most pressing challenges. We are America’s best hope to foster the promise and opportunity ingrained in our history. And we will succeed if we continue to govern by the same principles that have made America the greatest nation on earth.
In the 1960s, President John F. Kennedy challenged an optimistic nation to build on its great history.
The Democratic Party is often called “the party of Jefferson,” while the modern Republican Party is often called “the party of Lincoln.” The Jeffersonian Republican party split into various factions during the 1824 election, based more on personality than on ideology. When the election was thrown to the House of Representatives, House Speaker Henry Clay backed Secretary of State John Quincy Adams to deny the presidency to Senator Andrew Jackson, a longtime personal rival and a hero of the War of 1812. The Jacksonians held their first national convention as the “Republican Party” in 1832. By the mid-1830s, they referred to themselves as the “Democratic Party,” but also as “Democratic Republicans.” The name “Democratic Party” has been official since 1844. Leaders of the Democratic Party have traced their party’s lineage to Jefferson and his Republican Party. Martin Van Buren wrote that the party’s name had changed from Republican to Democratic and that Jefferson was the founder of the party. Thomas Jefferson Randolph, grandson of Jefferson, told the 1872 Democratic National Convention of his “life of eighty years spent in the Democratic – Republican Party”. In 1991 the Democratic Party-controlled United States Senate passed “A bill to establish a commission to commemorate the bicentennial of the establishment of the Democratic Party of the United States,” thus endorsing the view the party was founded by Jefferson (as opposed to Jackson).
Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party’s social liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous operation in the United States, and is one of the oldest political parties in the world. The party had 72 million registered voters in 2004. Barack Obama is the 15th Democrat to hold the office of President of the United States.
The Democratic Party evolved from Anti-Federalist factions that opposed the fiscal policies of Alexander Hamilton in the early 1790s. Thomas Jefferson and James Madison organized these factions into the Democratic-Republican Party. The party favored states’ rights and strict adherence to the Constitution; it opposed a national bank and wealthy, moneyed interests. The Democratic-Republican Party ascended to power in the election of 1800. After the War of 1812, the party’s chief rival, the Federalist Party disbanded. Democratic-Republicans split over the choice of a successor to President James Monroe, and the party faction that supported many of the old Jeffersonian principles, led by Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren, became the Democratic Party. Along with the Whig Party, the Democratic Party was the chief party in the United States until the Civil War. The Whigs were a commercial party, and usually less popular, if better financed. The Whigs divided over the slavery issue after the Mexican–American War and faded away. In the 1850s, under the stress of the Fugitive Slave Law and the Kansas-Nebraska Act, anti-slavery Democrats left the party. Joining with former members of existing or dwindling parties, the Republican Party emerged.
The Democrats split over the choice of a successor to President James Buchanan along Northern and Southern lines, while the Republican Party gained ascendancy in the election of 1860. As the American Civil War broke out, Northern Democrats were divided into War Democrats and Peace Democrats. The Confederate States of America, seeing parties as evils, did not have any. Most War Democrats rallied to Republican President Abraham Lincoln and the Republicans’ National Union Party in 1864, which put Andrew Johnson on the ticket as a Democrat from the South. Johnson replaced Lincoln in 1865 but stayed independent of both parties . The Democrats benefited from white Southerners’ resentment of Reconstruction after the war and consequent hostility to the Republican Party. After Redeemers ended Reconstruction in the 1870s, and the extremely violent disenfranchisement of African Americans took place in the 1890s, the South, voting Democratic, became known as the “Solid South.” Though Republicans won all but two presidential elections, the Democrats remained competitive. The party was dominated by pro-business Bourbon Democrats led by Samuel J. Tilden and Grover Cleveland, who represented mercantile, banking, and railroad interests; opposed imperialism and overseas expansion; fought for the gold standard; opposed bimetallism; and crusaded against corruption, high taxes, and tariffs. Cleveland was elected to non-consecutive presidential terms in 1884 and 1892.
Agrarian Democrats demanding Free Silver overthrew the Bourbon Democrats in 1896 and nominated William Jennings Bryan for the presidency (a nomination repeated by Democrats in 1900 and 1908). Bryan waged a vigorous campaign attacking Eastern moneyed interests, but he lost to Republican William McKinley. The Democrats took control of the House in 1910 and elected Woodrow Wilson as president in 1912 and 1916. Wilson effectively led Congress to put to rest the issues of tariffs, money, and antitrust that had dominated politics for 40 years with new progressive laws. The Great Depression in 1929 that occurred under Republican President Herbert Hoover and the Republican Congress set the stage for a more liberal government; the Democrats controlled the House of Representatives nearly uninterrupted from 1931 until 1995 and won most presidential elections until 1968. Franklin D. Roosevelt, elected to the presidency in 1932, came forth with government programs called the New Deal. New Deal liberalism meant the promotion of social welfare, labor unions, civil rights, and regulation of business. The opponents, who stressed long-term growth, support for business, and low taxes, started calling themselves “conservatives.”
Issues facing parties and the United States after World War II included the Cold War and the Civil Rights Movement. Republicans attracted conservatives and white Southerners from the Democratic coalition with their resistance to New Deal and Great Society liberalism and the Republicans’ use of the Southern strategy. African Americans, who traditionally supported the Republican Party, began supporting Democrats following the ascent of the Franklin Roosevelt administration, the New Deal, and the Civil Rights movement. The Democratic Party’s main base of support shifted to the Northeast, marking a dramatic reversal of history. Bill Clinton was elected to the presidency in 1992, governing as a New Democrat. The Democratic Party lost control of Congress in the election of 1994 to the Republican Party. Re-elected in 1996, Clinton was the first Democratic President since Franklin Roosevelt to be elected to two terms. Following twelve years of Republican rule, the Democratic Party regained majority control of both the House and the Senate in the 2006 elections. Some of the party’s key issues in the early 21st century in their last national platform have included the methods of how to combat terrorism, homeland security, expanding access to health care, labor rights, environmentalism, and the preservation of liberal government programs. In the 2010 elections, the Democratic Party lost control of the House, but kept a small majority in the Senate (reduced from the 111th Congress). It also lost its majority in state legislatures and state governorships.
The Democratic Party traces its origins to the inspiration of Democratic-Republican Party, founded by Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and other influential opponents of the Federalists in 1792. That party also inspired the Whigs and modern Republicans. Organizationally, the modern Democratic Party truly arose in the 1830s, with the election of Andrew Jackson. Since the division of the Republican Party in the election of 1912, it has gradually positioned itself to the left of the Republican Party on economic and social issues. Until the period following the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Democratic Party was primarily a coalition of two parties divided by region. Southern Democrats were typically given high conservative ratings by the American Conservative Union while northern Democrats were typically given very low ratings. Southern Democrats were a core bloc of the bipartisan conservative coalition which lasted through the Reagan-era. The economically activist philosophy of Franklin D. Roosevelt, which has strongly influenced American liberalism, has shaped much of the party’s economic agenda since 1932, and served to tie the two regional factions of the party together until the late 1960s. In fact, Roosevelt’s New Deal coalition usually controlled the national government until the 1970s.
In 2004, it was the largest political party, with 72 million voters (42.6% of 169 million registered) claiming affiliation. By comparison, the Republican Party had 55 million members at that time. During the first quarter of 2009, 52% of Americans identified more closely with the Democratic party while 39% did so more closely with the Republican Party. A Pew Research Center survey of registered voters released August 2010 stated that 47% identified as Democrats or leaned towards the party, in comparison to 43% of Republicans.
The now-famous Democratic donkey was first associated with Democrat Andrew Jackson’s 1828 presidential campaign. His opponents called him a jackass (a donkey), and Jackson decided to use the image of the strong-willed animal on his campaign posters. Later, cartoonist Thomas Nast used the Democratic donkey in newspaper cartoons and made the symbol famous.
College education
Most Democrats have the long-term aim of having low-cost, publicly funded college education with low tuition fees (like in much of Europe and Canada), 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.
Youth
Studies have shown that younger voters tend to vote mostly for Democratic candidates in recent years. Despite supporting Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush, the young have voted in favor of the Democratic presidential candidate in every election since Bill Clinton in 1992, and are more likely to identify as liberals than the general population. In the 2004 presidential election, Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry received 54% of the vote from voters of the age group 18–29, while Republican George W. Bush received 45% of the vote from the same age group. In the 2006 midterm elections, the Democrats received 60% of the vote from the same age group. Polls suggest that younger voters tend to be more liberal than the general population and have more liberal views than the public on same-sex marriage and universal healthcare, helping Barack Obama carry 66% of their votes in 2008. The Young Democrats of America are an affiliated organization of members of the party younger than 36 that advocates for youth issues and works for youth voter turnout.
Working class / American social classes
While the American working class has lost much of its political strength with the decline of labor unions, it remains a stronghold of the Democratic Party and continues as an essential part of the Democratic base. Today, roughly a third of the American public is estimated to be working class with around 52% being either members of the working or lower classes. Yet, as those with lower socioeconomic status are less likely to vote, the working and lower classes are underrepresented in the electorate. The working class is largely distinguished by highly reutilized and closely supervised work. It consists mainly of clerical and blue-collar workers. Even though most in the working class are able to afford an adequate standard of living, high economic insecurity and possible personal benefit from an extended social safety net, make the majority of working class person left-of-center on economic issues. Most working class Democrats differ from most liberals, however, in their more socially conservative views. Working class Democrats tend to be more religious and likely to belong to an ethnic minority. Socially conservative and disadvantaged Democrats are among the least educated and lowest earning ideological demographics. In 2005, only 15% had a college degree, compared to 27% at the national average and 49% of liberals, respectively. Together socially conservative and the financially disadvantaged comprised roughly 54% of the Democratic base. The continued importance of the working class votes manifests itself in recent CNN exit polls, which shows that the majority of those with low incomes and little education vote for the Democratic Party.
Asian Americans
The Democratic Party also has considerable support in the growing Asian American population. Historically, most Asian Americans have tended to hold more pro-business views than other minority groups. Partly for this reason, the Asian American population was a stronghold of the Republican Party through the 1992 presidential election in which George H. W. Bush won 55% of the Asian American vote, compared to Bill Clinton‘s 31%, and Ross Perot‘s 15%. The strong Republican support in the past has been due to the votes of anti-communist Vietnamese Americans, Taiwanese Americans, and Chinese Americans, and conservative Korean Americans, Indian Americans, Filipino Americans, and Pakistani Americans. The Democrats made gains among the Asian American population starting with 1996 and in 2006, won 62% of the Asian American vote. This may be due to demographic shifts in the Asian American community, with growing numbers of Chinese and Indian immigrants that are typically fiscal centrists but lean leftward on social policy, and newer generations of more liberal Vietnamese American and Filipino American youth have also began to replace older more conservative generations that have voted reliably Republican. Vietnamese Americans still vote mostly Republican, while Chinese Americans, Japanese Americans, Indian Americans, people of Southeast Asian descent other than Vietnamese, and Pacific Islander Americans have voted mostly Democratic. Americans of Filipino, Korean, and Pakistani descent have recently begun to lean Democratic. Younger Asian-Americans of all ethnic backgrounds aged 18–30 have gravitated towards the Democratic Party in the last few elections.
Hispanic and Latino Americans
The Hispanic population, particularly the large Mexican American and Salvadoran American population in the Southwest and the large Puerto Rican and Dominican populations in the Northeast, have been strong supporters of the Democratic Party. They commonly favor liberal views on immigration. In the 1996 presidential election, Democratic President Bill Clinton received 72% of the Hispanic vote. Since then, however, the Republican Party has gained increasing support from the Hispanic community, especially among Hispanic Protestants and Pentecostals. Along with Bush’s much more liberal views on immigration, President Bush was the first Republican president to gain 40% of the Hispanic vote (he did so in the 2004 presidential election). Yet, the Republican Party’s support among Hispanics eroded in the 2006 midterm elections, dropping from 44 to 30 percent, with the Democrats gaining in the Hispanic vote from 55% in 2004 to 69% in 2006.
The shift in the Hispanic population’s support back to the Democratic party was largely due to the immigration debate, which was sparked by H. R. 4437, a Republican enforcement-only bill concerning illegal immigration. Democrats increased their share of the Hispanic vote in the 2008 presidential election, with Barack Obama receiving 67%. Cuban Americans still heavily vote Republican, though there has been a noticeable change since the 2008 elections. During the 2008 elections Barack Obama received 47% of the Cuban American vote in Florida. According to Bendixen’s exit polls, 84% of Miami-Dade Cuban American voters 65 or older backed McCain, while 55% of those 29 or younger backed Obama. Showing that the younger Cuban-American generation have shifted to becoming more liberal. But Mexican Americans, Puerto Rican Americans, Dominican Americans, and Central American and South American immigrants have all voted dependably for Democrats. Unaffiliated Hispanic advocacy groups that often support progressive candidates and causes include the National Council of La Raza and the League of United Latin American Citizens. In the House of Representatives, the Democratic caucus of Hispanic Americans is the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. Throughout the decade of the 2000s, 60% or more of Hispanic Roman Catholics registered voters have identified as either Democratic or leaning towards the Party
Arab and Muslim Americans
Arab Americans and Muslim Americans have leaned Democratic since the Iraq War. Zogby found in June 2007 that 39% of Arab Americans identify as Democrats, 26% as Republicans, and 28% as independents. Arab Americans, generally socially conservative but with more diverse economic views, historically voted Republican until recent years, having supported George W. Bush over Al Gore in 2000.
Women and marital status
Although the “gender gap” has varied over many years, women of all ages are more likely than men to identify as Democrats. Recent polls have indicated that 41% of women identify as Democrats while only 25% of women identify as Republicans and 26% as independents, while 32% of men identify as Democrats, 28% as Republicans and 34% as independents. Among ethnic minorities, women also are more likely than males to identify as Democrats. Also, Americans that identified as single, living with a domestic partner, divorced, separated, or widowed are more likely to vote Democratic, in contrast to married Americans, which split about equally between Democrat and Republican. Again, women in these categories are significantly likely than males in these categories to vote Democratic. The National Federation of Democratic Women is an affiliated organization meant to advocate for women’s issues. National women’s organizations that often support Democratic candidates are Emily’s List and the National Organization for Women.
LGBT Americans
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Americans typically vote Democratic in national elections within the 70-77% range, according to national media exit polling. In heavily gay precincts in large cities across the nation, the average was higher, ranging from 85-94%. This trend has continued since 1996 when Bill Clinton won 71% of the LGBT vote compared to Bob Dole’s 16% and 13% for others. In 2000 Al Gore won 70% to George W. Bush’s 25% with 5% for others, in 2004 John Kerry won 77% to George W. Bush’s 23% and in 2008 Barack Obama won 70% to John McCain’s 27% with 3% to others. Patrick Egan, a professor of politics at New York University specializing in LGBT voting patterns, calls this a “remarkable continuity.” Saying “about three-fourths vote Democratic and one-fourth Republican from year to year.” Notable LGBT Democrats include current Representatives Barney Frank of Massachusetts, Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, Jared Polis of Colorado and David Cicilline of Rhode Island. The late activist and San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk was a Democrat. The National Stonewall Democrats is an LGBT advocacy group associated with the Democratic Party. The LGBT Equality Caucus is a congressional caucus of 76 Democrats and 1 Republican that work and advocate for LGBT rights within the House of Representatives.
African Americans
From the end of the Civil War, African Americans almost unanimously favored the Republican Party due to its overwhelming political and more tangible efforts in achieving abolition, particularly through President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. The south had long been a Democratic stronghold, favoring a state’s right to legal slavery. In addition, the ranks of the fledgling Ku Klux Klan were composed almost entirely of white Democrats angry over poor treatment by northerners, both perceived and actual. However, as years passed and memories waned, African Americans began drifting to the Democratic Party, as Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal programs gave economic relief to all minorities, including African Americans and Hispanics. Support for the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s by Democratic presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson helped give the Democrats even larger support among the African American community, which consistently vote between 85-95% Democratic. In addition, recent Caribbean and African immigrants have voted solidly Democratic.
Prominent modern-day African-American Democratic politicians include Jim Clyburn, Ed Towns, Maxine Waters, John Lewis, Deval Patrick, Charles Rangel, John Conyers, and the current President of the United States, Barack Obama, who managed to net over 95% of the African American vote in the 2008 election. Despite being unaffiliated, the NAACP often participates in organizing and voter turnout drives and advocates for progressive causes, especially those that affect people of color. Within the House of Representatives, the Congressional Black Caucus, consisting of 44 black Democrats, serves to represent the interests of African Americans and advocate on issues that affect them.
Social issues/Discrimination
The Democratic Party supports equal opportunity for all Americans regardless of sex, age, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, creed, or national origin. The Party supports affirmative action programs to further this goal. Democrats also strongly support the Americans with Disabilities Act to prohibit discrimination against people based on physical or mental disability.
The Party That Created Medicare for America’s Seniors
I’m unveiling a new Compact with America’s Seniors that will be a building block for the initiatives seniors can count on . . . My Compact with America’s Seniors says the Greatest Generation should be able to count on Medicare and Social Security, on affordable prescription drugs, on quality options for long-term care. You’ve earned it.”
In 1965, over 80% of House and Senate Democrats voted to create the federal Medicare government program for our nation’s seniors. Only 50% of Republicans voted for Medicare; most Republican leaders including Senator Bob Dole voted against it. “President Clinton, who had offered Republicans a deal to boost the drug coverage in exchange for tax cuts elsewhere, said, ‘the bottom line is their plan is designed to benefit the companies who make the prescription drugs, not the older Americans who need to take them.’” In 2003, over 80% of Republicans supported placing Medicare’s prescription drug benefit in the hands of private pharmaceutical companies. In contrast, 80% of Democrats rejected transferring Medicare’s prescription drug plan to private companies.
BUSH AND HIS REPUBLICAN COHORTS BETRAYED AMERICA’S SENIORS WITH PHONY MEDICARE DRUG PLAN Republicans Overwhelmingly Supported Bush Administration’s Corporate-Written Prescription Drug Bill. In the Senate, 80% of Republicans supported Bush’s corporate-written prescription drug bill and 84% of House Republicans also voted to support privatizing Medicare’s prescription drug coverage. In contrast, 80% (190) of House Democrats and 80% (35) of Democratic Senators voted to reject privatizing Medicare’s prescription drug plan.
And now that the Greatest Generation is getting older, I think it is the responsibility of all Americans to make sure we do our part for America’s seniors. “Few will have greatness to bend history; but each of us can work to change a small portion of the events, and in the total of all these acts will be written the history of this generation”.
Thank You!!!
Asian American Democratic Alliance.
