Transcript Sixth Party System

History 1302: United States
History since 1877
American Political Parties,
Part II: Since 1856
OUTLINE
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Introduction: History of American Parties
Third Party System: 1856-1894
Fourth Party System: 1896-1930
Fifth Party System: 1932 - 1960
Sixth Party System: 1964 - Present
Sources
Introduction:
History of American Parties
• Six “party systems” or historical eras
• Dominated by two parties
• Third parties usually have brief lives; platforms
co-opted by the two large parties
Realignment
Changes in the nature of the two parties
– Which voters support which party
– What issues each party adopts
First Party System:
1790-1824
Federalists vs Anti-Federalists
(actually, more like political clubs)
Second Party System, 1824-1856
Democrats vs Whigs
Third Party System:
1856-1894
Third Party System: 1856-1894
• Civil War and Post Civil War party system
• Business expansion more powerful than
political leaders
• Current Republican versus Democrats, but
different issues and constituencies
• Dominated by the newly formed Republican
Party
Republican Party
• Founded 1854.
• Combination of Whigs, northern Democrats,
Free Soil, Know Nothings, and Abolitionists
• Controlled presidency with Civil War heroes
• Issues: industrial growth with high tariff laws,
restrictions on labor, Homestead Act, land
grants to railroads
Republican Presidents:
Third Party System
• Abraham Lincoln (1861- Assassinated 1865).
Succeeded by Democrat Vice President Andrew
Johnson (1865-1869)
• Ulysses S. Grant (1869-1877)
• Rutherford B. Hayes (1877-1881)
• James A. Garfield (1881)
• Chester A. Arthur (1881-1885)
• Benjamin Harrison (1889-1893)
Democratic Party
• Party of the South
• Democrat President Andrew Johnson (1865-1869)
• Only won presidency twice (Grover Cleveland 1885-1889; 18931897)
• More competitive in Congress
• Party of Jim Crow
• Low tariffs
• Toward turn of century added urban immigrants, who were locked
out of the Republican party
• Third Party System ended with the Rise of the Populist Movement
Fourth Party System:
1896-1930
Republican Party
• Republican William McKinley won in 1896
• Reemerged as a much stronger party
• Controlled presidency 1896-1932, except for
Woodrow Wilson (1913-1921) elected due to
split in Republican party
Fourth Party System: 1896-1930
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Dominance of Democratic and Republican Parties
Challenged by third parties (Populist; Socialist)
Socialist Party (1901-1972)
Failure by Democrats and Republicans to realign along class lines
Economic strains in 1890s, urban and rural
• Populist movement (People’s Party, 1891-1901)
– Use government to aid “little guy”
– For graduated income tax
– 8 hour day for labor
– Populist platform absorbed by two main parties, which led to the
Progressive Era, 1900-1917.
Progressive Movement
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Embraced by both parties, 1900-1917
Some reform of food and drug industries
Upton Sinclair, The Jungle (1906)
The Harrison Narcotics Tax Act of 1914 outlawed
cocaine and heroin.
• Primaries
• Civil service rather than patronage
• Fourth Party System ended with the Great
Depression (1929 on).
Fifth Party System:
1932 - 1964
Fifth Party System: 1932 - 1964
• Great Depression
• Hoover and the Republicans blamed
• 1932 Democratic Franklin Delano Roosevelt
won by “default.”
New Deal. A government program designed to
rescue the country from The Great Depression.
1939-1945. WWII.
New Deal Programs
• WPA
• Massive building of roads, electrical grids,
paving of city streets, schools, hospitals, etc.
• Tennessee Valley Authority
• Social Security Pensions
• Medicare and Medicaid
• AFDC
Fifth Party System: 1932 - 1964
Democratic majority party but split between liberal North and
conservative South factions
• Republicans minority
– Only Republican President: Dwight Eisenhower in 1950s
– Republicans controlled Congress only twice
• Even Republican President Dwight Eisenhower (1953-1961)
embraced New Deal era programs and supported the United
Nations and NATO. Eisenhower expanded civil liberties,
criminals’ rights, restricted school prayer and, most
significantly, forced racial integration in education upon the
segregated South.
Democratic New Deal Realignment
• Large Democratic majority allow dramatic new social
service policies to be passed
• Benefits cement loyalties of new voters
• Democratic constituency included recent immigrants
from southern and Eastern Europe, Catholic or Jews,
northern blacks, union members, and the poor
• Retained conservative southern Democrats
• New Deal originally did not include ANY civil rights
legislation.
The Democratic New Deal Coalition
During the Roosevelt administration (19321945), the Democratic Party emerged into a
coalition that included:
• farmers.
• the white supremacist South.
• industrial workers.
• Northern African-Americans included.
Changes in Party Structures
• Rise of politician more independent from party
• Media and technology
• Fifth Party System ended with the passing of the Civil
Rights Act of 1964.
Sixth Party System:
1964 - Present
Collapse of the New Deal Coalition
• 1964 Civil Rights Act breaks New Deal
Coalition
• Southern Democrats become Republican
voters
• 1970s-1980s. Exodus of Northern white
Democrats. Busing of children. K-12 School
Integration.
Sixth Party System: 1964 - Present
• 1964 Civil Rights Act
• Purge of Republican Moderates (Eisenhower-likes).
Party dominated by ultra-conservatives from then
on.
• Dominated by Republicans and Democrats
• Evenly matched parties
• Rise of independent voters and split-ticket voting
• Frequently divided government
• Candidate-centered campaigns
• Presidential nominations through primaries
Changing Constituencies
• Strengthening loyalties of African
Americans to Democratic party
• Feminists loyal to Democrats
1964 Presidential Republican Primary and
the Defeat of Republican Moderates
Nelson Rockefeller
A moderate.
As 49th Governor of New York
(1959–1973), his achievements
included
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Expansion of the State University of New
York
Efforts to protect the environment
Building of the Nelson A. Rockefeller
Empire State Plaza in Albany
Increased facilities and personnel for
health care
Creation of the New York State Council on
the Arts.
Barry Goldwater
A conservative.
Senator for Arizona.
His 1964 Presidential Platform
included:
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States rights
Distrust of national government
Opposed racial integration
Opposed New Deal social programs
Favored corporate interests
Lower taxes
Bellicose foreign policy. Anti-Communism
Sixth Party System: 1964 – Present:
Dog Whistle Politics
Democrats
Soft spoken but hostile
foreign policy
Increasingly conservative
Moderate tax cuts
Moderate increase in
defense spending and
borrowing
Somewhat committed to
minorities
Republicans
Blunt foreign policy
Extremely conservative
Extreme tax cuts
Extreme increase in
defense spending and
borrowing
Increasingly hostile to
minorities
Realignment
• Long-term (30 years) change in nature of parties
• Increasing influence of money in political campaigns
• Change in majority status. 60% of the white vote is not
enough to win the White House anymore
• Increasing influence of Hispanics in elections
Tea Party Patriots starting in 2007
• An insurgency within the Republican Party
• Fear by older, white voters of the uncertainty of a demographically
changing country (growth of Latino and Asian population).
• Resentment against African Americans.
• A highly energetic base
• c. 18% of overall eligible voters.
• Dominate Republican primaries in many states
• “The Tea Party Patriots' mission is to restore America's founding principles
of Fiscal Responsibility, Constitutionally Limited Government and Free
Markets.” (teapartypatriots.org).
• Financed by billionaires such as Rupert Murdoch and brothers David and
Charles Koch
Sixth Party System: Ethnic
Minorities in the 21st Century
• 60% of white vote not enough to capture the
White House (McCain-Palin 2008; RomneyRyan 2012)
• Republicans able to capture super-majorities
in states like Texas (governorship, Senate
seats), but able to win enough votes to retain
the White House after 2008.
• Division between traditional Republicans and
Tea Party Republicans
State Governorships in 2013
Blue: Democratic Party
Red: Republican Party
Gray: Independent (American Samoa)
Green: Covenant Party (Northern Mariana Islands)
Sixth Party System: Politics and
Money in the 21st Century
• Increasing influence of money in political
campaigns
• The “Fox-Can-Lie” Florida Appeals Case 2003
• Citizens United Supreme Court Decision 2010
• Campaign Spending in 2012 reached $6 Billion
U.S.
The “Fox-Can-Lie”
Florida Appeals Case
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1997. Jane Akre and and Steve Wilson were fired from WTVT (Fox TV station in
Tampa, Florida), after refusing to lie about their report on Monsanto’s RBGH, a
drug designed to make cows produce more milk which causes cancer in humans.
They successfully sued under Florida’s whistle blower law and were awarded a US
$425,000 settlement by jury decision.
2003. Fox appealed to Florida Court of Appeals and won.
The court agreed with WTVT’s (Fox) argument “that the FCC’s policy against the
intentional falsification of the news — which the FCC has called its “news
distortion policy” — does not qualify as the required “law, rule, or regulation”
under section 448.102.[...] Because the FCC’s news distortion policy is not a “law,
rule, or regulation” under section 448.102, Akre has failed to state a claim under
the whistle-blower’s statute.”
Their logic: A "policy" is not a rule. So it's okay to lie and call it news. Furthermore,
if reporters refuse to lie, they can be fired at will.
Implications for the future
Citizens United v. Federal Election
Commission (2010)
• Bottom Line: The Supreme Court removed limits on corporate and labor
union election spending… However, corporations have far more money
than labor unions.
• Tax deductible only if disguised as donations to non-profit organizations.
• Details:
- In a 5-4 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that corporations
and unions have the same political speech rights as individuals under
the First Amendment.
- It found no compelling government interest for prohibiting
corporations and unions from using their general treasury funds to
make election-related independent expenditures.
- Thus, it struck down a federal law banning this practice and also
overruled two of its prior decisions.
Source: State of Connecticut General Assembly
http://www.cga.ct.gov/2010/rpt/2010-R-0124.htm
Small Group Activity
(3 to 5 people per group)
• You are forming a third political party.
• Give your political party a name (example:
Junior College Students Party).
• Write four or more main bullet points to
include in your political platform.
• You have ten minutes.
• Choose a different spokesperson
• Report to class
Sources
• Eric Foner, Give Me Liberty!: An American History, Seagull Fourth Edition.
New York and London: W. W. Norton & Company, 2014.
• Jacqueline Jones, et.al., Created Equal: A History of the United States,
Fourth Edition. New York: Pearson Longman, 2013.
• Kevin M. Schultz, HIST. Boston: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, 2013.
• Carol Berkin, et.al., Making America: A History of the United States.
Boston: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, 2012.
• John Mack Faragher, et.al., Out of Many: A History of the American People,
Combined Volume, Seventh Edition. New York: Pearson Longman, 2011.
• Edward L. Ayers, et.al. American Passages: A History of the United States,
4th Edition. Boston: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, 2009.
• Howard Zinn, A People’s History of the United States, 1492-Present. New
York: Harper Collins, 2003.