Factions in the Democratic Party (United States)
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The Democratic Party of the United States is composed of various different factions, with some overlap and enough agreement between them to coexist with each other within the party.
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[edit] Liberals
[edit] Progressive Democrats
Progressives, or "social liberals," tend to advocate a relatively centrist economic and left-wing social agenda.[1] Unifying issues among progressive Democrats include 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 direct government action as a means to establish social and economic equality.
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Professionals are college-educated workers who produce primarily ideas and services... In the 1950s, they were the most Republican of occupational groups, but over the last 30 years they have swung to the Democrats... Their political outlook is very different from the blue-collar or minority Democrats who entered the party earlier... These college-educated workers are... products of the social and cultural revolution that began in the colleges during the 1960s and has steadily swept through the country. They avidly support women's rights and civil rights and tolerance toward gays. They are fiscally moderate or conservative and socially liberal. - John B. Judis, Salon, July 2003 |
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The Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) is a caucus of progressive Democrats, along with one independent, in the U.S. Congress. It is the single largest Democratic caucus in the House of Representatives. Its members have included Dennis Kucinich, John Conyers (Michigan), Jim McDermott (Washington), John Lewis (Georgia), the late Senator Paul Wellstone (Minnesota), Barbara Lee (California), Sherrod Brown (Ohio), and Bernie Sanders (I-VT).
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. This groups consists mostly of college-educated professionals.[1] A recent study by the Pew Research Center found that a plurality, 41%, reisded in mass affluent households and 49% were college graduates.[2] Progressive Democratic candidates for public office have had popular support as candidates in metropolitan areas outside the South, and among African-Americans nationwide.
[edit] Liberal Democrats
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.
Prominent liberal Democrats include U.S. Senators Barbara Boxer (California), Russ Feingold (Wisconsin), Ted Kennedy (Massachusetts), Tom Harkin (Iowa), and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (California).
[edit] Unions
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. In recent years union membership in the United States has been declining substantially. The overall percentage of employed wage and salary workers that are union members fell to 12 percent in 2006, a significant decline from U.S. unions' peak membership of 36 percent in the mid-1950s. This historic decline in union membership has also been accompanied by a growing disparity between public sector and private sector union membership, as currently about 36.5 percent of public sector workers are union members, whereas approximately 7.8 percent of private sector workers belong to unions. Despite declining membership numbers, union members and their families vote in disproportionately greater numbers than the population at large, with as many as one in four votes in the 2004 election coming from union households.[3] Because union members vote in high numbers, as well as the organizational and financial resources unions can bring to bear, they continue to have significant influence on the Party.
The three most significant labor groupings in the Democratic coalition today are the AFL-CIO, a labor federation of 53 national unions representing 9 million public and private sector workers; the Change to Win Federation, which broke away from the AFL-CIO in 2005 and currently includes seven national unions representing approximately 6 million public and private sector workers; and the National Education Association, a 3.2 million member independent union unaffiliated with either the AFL-CIO or Change to Win, which primarily represents teachers and other education workers. Both the AFL-CIO and Change to Win have identified their top legislative priority for 2007 as passage of the Employee Free Choice Act, a bill which would allow private sector workers to join unions more easily and would increase penalties for employer violations of the National Labor Relations Act. Other important issues for labor unions include support for industrial policy (including fair trade) that sustains unionized manufacturing jobs, raising the minimum wage, and promoting broad social programs such as social security and universal health care.
Prominent politicians associated with the labor wing include Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown (also a member of the Progressive Caucus) and Byron Dorgan, the populist senator from North Dakota, as well as prospective 2008 Presidential candidate John Edwards. Most of the members in this faction identify with the progressive faction of the party.
[edit] Christian left
The Christian left shares many policy goals with Democratic Party, although the movement is arguably smaller and less influential on the party when compared to the Religious right, which is generally more affiliated with the Republican Party.
Christian left includes Peace churches, elements of Protestant mainline churches, elements of Roman Catholicism and some parts of the evangelical community. Their concerns regarding social justice, welfare, universal health care, education and foreign aid are more in line with the Democratic economic agenda than the laissez-faire economic approach of the Republicans. Their social views of capital punishment, defense and militarism, civil rights and equality are also left-wing. On moral issues such as abortion, euthanasia and homosexuality, the Christian left are often, although not always, more in line with Democrats. They may either disagree with Biblical literalism on these issues or may hold opposition but choose to prioritize social justice and other issues over a divisive social agenda.
Prominent Christian left Democrats include Reverend Jesse Jackson (a Democratic presidential candidate in 1988) and Reverend Al Sharpton (a Democratic presidenital candidate in 2004).
[edit] Moderates and Conservatives
[edit] Moderate Democrats
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. The DLC was dominant in the Democratic party from 1993 until 2005.
One of the most influential factions is the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC), a non-profit organization that advocates centrist positions for the party. Members often self-identify under the title "New Democrat." Selected former party leaders of the 1980s founded the DLC in response to the landslide victory of Ronald Reagan over Walter Mondale in 1984, believing that the Democratic Party needed to reform its political philosophy if it were to ever retake the White House. The DLC hails President Bill Clinton as proof of the viability of third way politicians and a DLC success story. However, despite centrists' claims that their ideas are more in line with the majority of Americans, the Democratic Party was in the minority in both houses of Congress during the years of DLC dominance.
Prominent politicians associated with the DLC include its former chairman President Bill Clinton, former chairman Connecticut Senator Joseph Lieberman (elected over the Democratic nominee for Senate in 2006), New York Senator Hillary Clinton, former Vice President Al Gore (up to 2000, but not since), and former Virginia Governor Mark Warner. The DLC was founded and continues to be led by Al From. Former Representative Harold Ford, Jr. of Tennessee is the current chairman. The DLC has no official allegiance with or control over the Democratic National Committee, however Howard Dean is the first DNC Chair since 1992 to not be aligned or involved with the DLC.
[edit] Conservative Democrats
The Democratic Party had a conservative element, mostly from the South and Border regions, into the 1980s. Their numbers declined sharply as the Republican Party built up its Southern base. They were sometimes humorously called "Yellow dog Democrats," or "boll weevils," "Dixiecrats." Nowadays, they are often called a Democrat In Name Only. In the House, they form the Blue Dog Democrats, a caucus of fiscal and social conservatives and moderates, primarily southerners, willing to broker compromises with the Republican leadership. They have acted as a unified voting bloc in the past, giving its forty plus members some ability to change legislation. The Blue Dogs added nine new members as a result of the 2006 midterm elections.[4]
Prominent conservative Democrats of recent time include Senators Ben Nelson (Nebraska), Zell Miller (Georgia) and John Breaux (Louisiana); as well as Congressmen Ike Skelton (Missouri), Gene Taylor (Mississippi), Henry Cuellar (Texas), Collin Peterson (Minnesota), and Jim Marshall (Georgia).
A newly emerging trend is the return of active pro-life Democratic groups and candidates. Some of these candidates have won office or are backed by the party establishment in their state. The largest national pro-life group within the party is the Democrats for Life of America. Pro-life candidate Bob Casey, Jr. (Pennsylvania) was elected as a U.S. Senator in the 2006 midterm elections.
The 2006 Congressional elections also brought to Congress a significant bloc of conservative Democrats who are likely to support protectionist policies.[5]
[edit] Libertarian Democrats
Civil libertarians, and people against large national debt, 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, although it prefers to use terms such as "freedom Democrats" or "freedom-oriented Democrats", and does not use the term "libertarian" on its website, because while it advocates individual liberty and limited government power, it considers its economic policies to be more progressive than, for example, the Libertarian Party, especially because it is in the tradition which holds that land and natural resources are subject to fundamentally different economic laws than human-made products (such as machinery, buildings, etc.), so its view of economic freedom advocates somewhat different economic policies. [6]
[edit] Ethnic Minorities
A large portion of the Democratic voting base are ethnic minorities. The Democrats positions on Affirmative Action, labor unions, and immigration appeal to most ethnic minorities.
[edit] African Americans
Originally, the Republican Party was favored by African Americans after the end of the civil war and emancipation of black slaves. This trend started to gradually change in the 1930's with Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal programs that gave economic relief to all minorities including African Americans and Hispanics. Support for the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960's by Democratic presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson helped give the Democrats even larger support among the African American community, although their position also alienated the Southern white population.
[edit] Hispanics
The Hispanic population, particularly the large Mexican American population in the Southwest and large Puerto Rican and Dominican populations in the Northeast have been strongholds for the Democratic Party. Hispanic Democrats commonly favor liberal views on immigration. In the 1996 U.S. Presidential Election, Democratic President Bill Clinton received 72% of the Hispanic vote. The Republican Party's support among Hispanics eroded in the 2006 mid-term elections, dropping from 44% down to 30%, with the Democrats gaining in the Hispanic vote from 55% in 2004 to 69% in 2006. [1]
[edit] Asian Americans
The Democratic Party also has strong support in the small but growing Asian American population. The Asian population had been a stronghold of the Republican Party until the 1992 Presidential in which George H. W. Bush won 55% of the Asian vote, compared to Bill Clinton winning 31%, and Ross Perot winning 15% of the Asian vote. Originally, the vast majority of Asian Americans consisted of Vietnamese refugees and Filipinos, the latter being economically and socially conservative. The Democratic party made gains among the Asian American population starting with 1996 and in 2006, won 62% of the Asian vote. This is dued to demographic shifts in the Asian American community, with growing numbers of Chinese and Asian Indian immigrants that are typically economic centrist and social progressives.
[edit] Others
The Democratic Party also has strong support among the Native American population, particularly in Arizona, New Mexico, Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota.
Jewish communities tend to be a stronghold for the Democratic Party, with more than 70% of Jewish voters having cast their ballots for the Democrats in the 2004 and 2006 elections. And of the 43 Jewish Congressman and Senators currently serving in Congress, 38 are Democrats (40 if independent Senators Joe Lieberman of Connecticut and Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who caucus with Senate Democrats, are counted.)
[edit] Overlap
There is some overlap between the factions. Liberals, progressives and organized labor are all closely linked, for example. Also, the lines between social and economic progressivism, centrism and conservatism can be unclear, so it can be hard to define the difference between Moderates and Conservatives.
[edit] See also
[edit] Notes
- ^ a b Judis, B. J. (11 July, 2003). The trouble with Howard Dean. Salon.com.. Retrieved on 2007-07-19.
- ^ Pew Reasearch Center. (10 May, 2005). Beyond Red vs. Blue.. Retrieved on 2007-07-12.
- ^ "Union Movement Set to Get Out the Vote in 2006", AFL-CIO Blog, 2006. Retrieved on 2007-03-12.
- ^ Reiss, Cory. "House Blue Dogs ready to hunt", The Star-News, 2006-11-16. Retrieved on 2006-11-18.
- ^ Brodzinsky, Sibylla; Goodman, Peter S.. "Latin Americans Wonder If Democrats Are Traders", The Washington Post, 2006-11-23. Retrieved on 2006-12-02. See also: Weisberg, Jacob. "The Lou Dobbs Democrats", Slate, 2006-11-08. Retrieved on 2006-12-02.
- ^ Democratic Freedom Caucus, Platform.
