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Running Head: Political Parties

How Presidents Have Helped Evolve Americas Main Political Parties

Sean T. Deibel
Glen Allen High School
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Abstract

This paper looks at the evolution of Americas two main political parties, Republican and

Democrat, and how the presidents have influence the change. Throughout Americas history,

there has been a rise and fall in political power between the two parties. The parties have

changed in primarily three different ways: ideological, geographic, and demographic. While all

three of these categories go hand and hand with one another, they do not change at the same

time. Party shifts occur at different speeds, depending on the issue or conflict at hand, and

dramatic change occurs in a realigning election. In the United States history, there have been

four different eras in modern politics, each defined by a ground shaking election that changed

the electoral college map and ideals of the parties. The purpose of this capstone is to look at

these four different eras and see how Presidents have impacted political parties shifts and and

how these changes impact the future as well.

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Introduction

The first conflict between Republicans and Democrats was in 1860 when Abraham

Lincoln and the new Republican party ran on an anti-slavery platform focused on preserving the

union. Lincoln was able to rally the north and west together to give him a landslide victory over

two Democrat candidates, John C. Breckinridge and Stephen A. Douglass, as well as John Bell

of the Constitutional Union, all without winning a single southern state (270 to win, 2017).

Following the results of the election, South Carolina seceded from the United States, which the

rest of their fellow southern states joining in and creating the Confederacy. This caused the first

geographical shaping of the political map: North and West voting Republican,and the South

voting Democrat. The Republican party also received support from the small demographic of

free black men who could vote. The Union victory in the Civil War gave the Republicans power

due to the promises they made of preserving the United States as a whole, and abolishing slavery.

Therefore, they were able to dominate American politics for over fifty years.

Early Dominance of Republicans (1860-1929)

After the Unions victory in the Civil War, the Republican Party was almost able to

completely maintain control of the executive branch at the national level for sixty-nine years.

The only Democrats to be president during this time period were Andrew Johnson, for the last

year of his second term, Grover Cleveland, and Woodrow Wilson. Throughout Americas

history, the public has tended to consistently vote for a party if they are successful and the

country is relatively stable. To put it in simple terms, American citizens vote on the principle of

if it is not broken, then do not fix it. The consistent success of the Republican party in this era

helped them maintain power for decades , causing many Democrats to be concerned with their
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inability to break the Republican oval office trend. The Democrat Party then got into internal

battles and could not find a solid platform that the politicians could get behind to competitive

compete against the Republicans.

Who, then, can prevent the election of a Democrat as President? The answer is swift and

certain. Only the Democrats themselves. They, too, lack cohesion and their leaders,

experience. It is not, perhaps, their fault. How could they have been expected to develop

recognized authority among their men while virtually ostracized from public

consideration? Doubtless as much native talent lives in the heads of one of the halves of

American citizens as in the other, but it has either slept or sought expression and found

stimulation in the professions, in pedagogy, in business, in finance. A solitary demagogue

has held the partisan mil lions in the hollow of his hand for nearly two decades and even

now threatens to palsy the prospects of success. Happily, his immeasurable folly in

robbing himself of his vaunted " regularity "- his only remaining claim to recognition-

has restricted his influence to communities where it can not affect results, but it is still

active, still baneful and still reckoned by the timorous as worthy of conciliatory regard

(Democratic Party Commit Suicide, 1911).

Tragic, chaotic, or otherwise negative events, however, such as war, a bad law, or

economy failure, will cause the majority of voters to change their opinion of the current

politicians and party in power and completely flip the system when Republicans started to

branch out from the Lincoln foundation and bring in more laissez faire policy. (Dunning, 1910).

The party started to divide and look at have different beliefs on some issues based on the

geography region one was from, west or northeast. There was no unity in a national party,

instead each geographic region had the two main parties, and the parties would go back and forth
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on issues that affected that part of the country.

What right has a Republican in Massachusetts to impose his views as to some local

matter upon the Republicans of California? Each State has its own local problems, and

the party therein should be left to choose its own attitude as to them.(Fowler, 1913).

Republicans were initially successful adopting a laissez-faire platform, uniting the party

under a free market economic policy. This time period was so stable that President Garfield was

known for taking naps in the oval office (270 to win, 2017). Unfortunately, not every President

gets to be in office during the roaring twenties. The Republicans economic policy eventually

would hurt them, as the lack of interaction with business and the economy in combination with

economic factors outside of the governments domain caused the Stock Market to crash on

October 29th, 1929. While President Hoover went down in history as the scapegoat for the Great

Depression, a title he deserves to a certain extent, the twenty years prior to his presidency helped

caused this tragedy, which ultimately gave an opportunity to Democrats to gain power.

Democrats Take Control (1929-1969)

In the 1928 Presidential Election, Herbert C. Hoover defeated Alfred E. Smith 444-87 in

electoral votes, as well as over 6 million in the popular vote. In the 1932 Presidential Election,

Franklin D. Roosevelt defeated the incumbent Hoover 472 to 59 in electoral votes and by more

than 7 million in the popular vote (270 to win, 2017). The Democrats went from not being able

to comprehend having the executive branch to it falling in their lap.

The rise in power for a party rarely occurs due to their own success, but to the party

previously in power making a mistake. Then, the party not in power changes their platform to

counter how the current power party handled the issue, thus creating a new issue in the parties
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platforms. Democrats in 1932 are a prime example of this, the Republicans had a crisis occur

under their presidency when the Stock Market crashed in 1929 due to their laissez-faire policy.

After this devastating tragedy occurred the Democrats swooped in and changed their platforms to

go against the hands off tactic and have the government more involved in the economy. While

not all Democratic politicians were on board with the government getting involved in certain

industries of the economy Roosevelt believed that the nation should have two effective and

responsible parties, one liberal and the other conservative to give the two major parties a divide

when it came to economic policy (Rosenfeld, 2010). Before Roosevelt politicians had beliefs on

the economy but it had no association to ones party until some Republicans started to use

laissez-faire tactics in the early 20th century (Historical President Elections, 2017). Roosevelt

was frustrated with his partys struggle for the last seventy years, which he felt were due to their

primary concern with issues that primarily were southern state issues and not focusing on the

countrys issues (Rosenfeld, 2010). His social policies attempted to change the Democratic

Partys focus points and officially created the conservative and liberal divide seen today.

Roosevelt was slow to turn toward ideological party-building in response. The famously

pragmatic politician had specialized in strange-bedfellow and bipartisan alliances during

his first term, an approach befitting both the economic emergency and an existing party

system that was ideologically scrambled to an extent almost unfathomable today. But his

second-term travails gradually convinced Roosevelt to leverage his popularity on behalf

of a purge campaign, to be overseen by an "elimination committee" of aggressive liberal

advisers including Harold Ickes, Tommy Corcoran, and Harry Hopkins (Rosenfeld,

2010).

President Roosevelt forcing his party to move shift based on economic policies was a
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major change in the parties and how geographic and social groups voted. His changed in

direction flipped the north to vote Democratic, and created two different types of Democrats:

Northern Liberals and Dixiecrats. The two were able to work together and control the executive

branch for forty years. The only Republican to hold office during this time period was war hero

Dwight Eisenhower, who was known for being a moderate. The northern liberal, President

Kennedy, followed Eisenhower, and he teamed up with Texan Lyndon B. Johnson to keep the

liberal, dixiecrat alliance. They began working on civil rights, as it became an issue Kennedy

started to get involved in to gain the black vote. Initially, Kennedy was primarily doing it for the

sake of politics, however, his view eventually changed and he actually started to buy into the

change. A similar evolving mindset occurred with Johnson. He did not really care about the

civil rights issue, he was simply playing politics and going along with it. However, after the

assassination of Kennedy, and he was pushed into the presidency his perception started to change

and he began working with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.. President Johnson passing the Civil

Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 destroyed the political map that everyone

once knew for most of the 20th century.

One of the most fascinating part of politics during this time frame is that there were

parties were completely unified across the country like we see today. A New York Republican

was very different from a Republican from Missouri. the parties have been ideals and platforms

in different geographic regions. Liberals and dixiecrats were able to play the system to

perfection. While many of them despised each other they were able to make their own districts

or states happy by passing laws that they wanted and then passed legislation to appease the other

side of the partys voters This back and forth helped the Democrats stay in power for most of

this era, until President Johnson crossed the dixiecrat line and flipped with the liberals on the
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only issue the two could not agree on, segregation.

Transition Period (1969-2008)

In the 1968 election Nixon won by a landslide due to the strong negative wrap of the

Vietnam War and Johnsons support in it. This led to Republicans gaining power, but also shifted

the geographic map. The south felt betrayed by a fellow dixiecrat in Johnson, which caused

some politicians to flip to the Republican party, however, the older ones stayed in the Democrat

party but did not associate with the national party. This led to the southern states to slowly

change to red. In 1972, Richard Nixon won the election for this second term, in that election

only three states voted Democrat. Then in 1976, Gerald Ford, Nixons replacement due to

Watergate, lost to Georgian Jimmy Carter, who won all of the south (270 to win, 2017). While

Watergate played a big factor in the election results, it is very surprising to see in an eight-year

time frame the south goes from disgusted with the Democrat party to voting form them in a

block again. This was due to the transition they took. Jimmy Carter was an example of a

politician who did not associate with modern, liberal, Democrat party, but an old school dixiecrat

that southerners could relate to (Democrats and Republicans Switch, 2017). This helped him the

popular vote by a hair and the election overall. However, his term did not go as plan which led

all of the south, and most of the country, but his home state to vote for Ronald Reagan.

Reagan with his sound economic tactics and strategy during the Cold War allowed the

country to fall in love with him, giving him new Republican voters. These voters were in

southeast part of Michigan that were known as Reagan Democrat or Reagan Coalition. These

and many other voters felt that Reagan was setting a strong foundation for the next wave of

American politics, especially the executive branch (Why did, 2012). Then in 1988, Reagans

vice president, George Bush, won the electoral vote easily running off the Reagan platform.
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However, due to a recession that occurred while he was in office he felt the need to raise taxes,

even though he ran his campaign off low tax rates. This led to frustration from the American

people and gave the Democrats another opportunity.

The Democrat party was in a difficult situation for the 1992 election. They needed a

candidate that the north and Midwest would get behind since most of their support came from the

north during the eighties. Minnesota was the only state that voted Democrat in the 1980

presidential election, but the Democrats could not pick a strong liberal candidate since that

would lead the south to vote Republican and could potentially give Bush a second term (270 to

win, 2017). The Democrats found the perfect candidate; William Clinton, the senator from

Arkansas that was a moderate. He had enough similarities to Reagans views to get the Reagan

Democrats back voting blue, and could connect with Southerners to get the few that still had ties

to the Democrat party to vote blue one more time. It ended up working out and he won the 1992

election 370 to 168 in electoral votes and 44,908,254 million to 39,102,343 million in the

popular vote (270 to win, 2017). In 1996 he lost support in some fellow southern state, Georgia,

but the others that voted for him in 1992, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, and

Tennessee, stayed with him, plus the addition of Florida. The 1996 election was the last time

that southern states voted for a Democrat president, excluding Florida (270 to win, 2017).

The 2000 election was an election that was supposed to define how the map was going to

be. Now that Clintons presidency was over the south was predicted to shift back to red, while

those southern states voted for Clinton for his two elections, they ended up going back to their

roots and voting Republican in 2000. The 2000 election was one of the closest races in

American political history. With a west coast establishing a blue mentality due to Clinton gave

Democrats 72 solid electoral college votes, something they have never had since 1964. The
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north stayed with the liberal approach, as predicted. With the Midwest states as the x-factor for

the election. The Mid-Atlantic region going red was the nail in the coffin for Democrats. Bush

was very successful in his first term he gained a lot of support after 9/11 with the Patriot Act.

However, in his second term support fell off due to the War on Terror, similar to President

Johnson, which led to a change in power again in 2008.

Modern Day with Battleground States (2008-present day)

Obama winning the 2008 election completely changed the map. He was able to flip

Virginia who had voted Republican for 44 straight years, and North Carolina who had been red

since 1976 (270 to win, 2017). Along with the additions of Florida, Colorado, and most of the

Midwest he was able to gain power for Democrats in the oval office. Then in 2012 Obama lost

some support, but not enough to make any Democrats sweat come election night. This was

starting to show the shift of the American people to a more liberal mindset and potentially giving

Democrats the next era in power. Then in 2016 arguably the biggest upset in history for the

American presidency occurred when Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton giving Republicans

control of the executive branch, even if some did not want it. Trump is an unconventional

politician that does not agree with all of the Republican platform. However, the one thing that he

did well was understand how the system has changed. Currently, it is not regions voting in

blocks so one party will stay in power until they make a big enough blunder to get the

uneducated swing voters to flip slides. In modern day politics there are a few states that are

battleground states that can actually flipped parties each election, and have enough electoral

votes to matter so that one would most likely need that state to win on election night. These

states have been Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Virginia. Winning a good

amount of these states are crucial to winning the election (270 to win, 2017). President Trump
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was also able to flip states that were considered to be hard blue in Michigan and Wisconsin.

Having President Trump win showed it may be the end of era for one party dominating the

executive branch in American government. It is now about winning battle ground states. If

Trump has a successful first term and is able to still connect to Reagan Democrats again for his

next election, he could potentially start a new era and have defined region blocks, similar to how

politics were in the 20th century.

Conclusion

This paper looked at the initial conflicts between the Republican and Democrat parties,

and seeing their rises and falls in power. Throughout the first one hundred years both parties

adapted their platforms to address the others mistakes. This caused the voters to change

allegiances too. Initially it was north and west versus the south, due to the issue of slavery. The

voters slowly evolved and started to focus on more issues which saw the west and most of the

north vote Democrat, for President Roosevelt, due to the Great Depression. The Democrats

address the Republicans mistake to gain the oval office started the spark of how the two parties

go back and forth in power. As we see, the political parties changed dramatically over time as a

result of a negative event occurring, whether it be over ethnicity, war, or economic depression.

What is certain is that voters took notice of these events, , causing voters to flip their votes to

the other party during times of crisis. Therefore, the power of voters , represents the power of

American democracy and the phrase We the People. since the people ultimately have the final

say in elections.
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