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The Evolving Ideologies of the Parties
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14718 |
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Section : |
CURRENT ISSUES
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| Issue
Date : |
11 / 1988 |
2,377 Words |
| Author
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Gerald Pomper
Gerald Pomper is professor of political science at the
Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University.
Chatham House will soon publish The Election of 1988, the
latest of his 14 books on American politics. |
Consider the following election year quiz of just two questions: (1) Which political party's program has included balancing the federal budget, protecting states' rights against an overbearing national government, and asserting traditional morality against secular values?
(2) Which party has stood for vigorously enforcing civil rights laws on behalf of blacks, protecting American industry against foreign trade competition, and adding the Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution?
Most readers think they know the obvious answers: (1) Republicans and (2) Democrats. But the answers, historically, are actually the opposite. This demonstrates the parties' readiness to change their ideology to fit new social and electoral demands. Such changes are evident in current politics, right up to the presidential election on November 8.
From the time of Andrew Jackson, the Democratic Party opposed increases in the power of the national government, as in the creation of a national bank. At the turn of the century, as the nation became a world industrial power, William Jennings Bryan spoke for traditionalist America in his denunciation of the "cross of gold." As late as Franklin D. Roosevelt's first election in 1932, the Democratic platform called for "an immediate and drastic reduction of governmental expenditures." Today's Democrats are certainly different from their political ancestors.
Republicans are also historically inconsistent. The party was born in opposition to slavery, led the Civil War, and devised Reconstruction on behalf of blacks. For most of
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