The Challenge of Democratic Political Realignment- Part 1 (Aristarchus Patrinos)
Two of the of the Democratic Party’s greatest celebrities, James Carville and President Bill Clinton, have publicly speculated about the genuine possibility of a new age of political dominance for the Democratic Party and progressive politics, respectively, lasting 30-40 years.
The history of America’s “two-party system” reads as a series of epochs of political dominance by one major party over the other. It is a history of “party dynasties”, each founded by more or less exceptionally effective presidents, whose administrations secured not only a majority for his own party, but also effectuated some degree of political realignment. Carville and Clinton see the possibility that the 2008 election of Democrat Barrack Obama represents a fundamental political realignment, akin to the 1932 election of Democrat Franklin Roosevelt, and the 1968 election of Republican Richard Nixon.
FDR’s New Deal Coalition established a foundation for Democrats and progressives to dominate national politics from 1933-1968. Fundamental political realignments like these will generally be implemented with a new vision for the direction of the country. Such a vision will likely involve new ideas about “how the world works”, generally in the context of the “old ideas” having been discredited by manifestly bad results. Taking office during the harsh conditions of the “Great Depression”, FDR effectively discredited the “old ideas”, and ushered in a new era of American government. He promised the American people a “New Deal”.
The Republican Party arguably occupied a similarly dominant position from 1969-2008. With a political coalition built under President Richard Nixon, and a political message perfected by President Ronald Reagan, GOP right-leaning conservatism has had a dominant role in shaping American policies these last forty years. Moreover, they have been the dominant force in shaping the terms of American political debate.
The infamous August 2009 town hall rallying cry: ‘Get your government out of my Medicare’, illustrates the lingering power that the Reagan Republican ideology and rhetoric have on the minds of average Americans. Reagan’s 1981 inaugural address: ‘Government is the problem… Not the solution!’ was a signal that the New Deal economic ideology was under direct attack by the Oval Office, with a presumed mandate from the American people.
Richard Nixon brought the Republican Party (including the newly Republican South) into the second half of the twentieth century by embracing both civil rights and the Social Security. This political compromise would be necessary to build the new Republican coalition, breaking with the 1964 Goldwater conservatives (including Reagan) and the far right. The GOP would determine the future terms of the political debate, but these two monuments of Democratic political rule would stand.
President Reagan was a master television political pitchman. From the pulpit of the White House he was able to substantially change the terms of the debate on the role of government, and consequently a wide variety of government policies. “Reaganomics”, supply-side economics and industry deregulation, was a direct rebuke of the “demand side” or Galbraith-Keynesian economics, which animated the regulatory economic vision of the New Deal. Reagan explained these policies to the American public as being necessary to fix the economic disaster that he had inherited. Excessive government intervention was strangling the economy, and giving the wrong incentives to the more and to the less productive sectors of American society, respectively. ‘Government was the problem’.
This contradicted the New Deal ideology that the federal government should have an important role in preserving American capitalism, given capitalism’s inherently destabilizing economic cycles, and the problematic relationship between “Big Labor” and “Big Business”. Moreover, that effective government regulation and intervention was necessary to preserve the American political system itself, in light of the way the Great Depression had contributed to the collapse of governments across the continent of Europe. Many feared the same for the US. FDR’s administration revolutionized the role of the federal government in the American economy and society. Reagan’s “counterrevolution” spoke to an audience long removed from the tribulations of the Great Depression, and were consequently more easily persuaded of an economic ideology which undercut the New Deal vision.
The town hall cry: ‘Get your government out of my Medicare’ reflects the remarkable success of the Reagan ideological counterrevolution. One of the important principles of the New Deal economic philosophy was that the government should create federal agencies to handle certain sectors of the economy, which were poorly suited to American private industry. This was particularly true for certain types of insurance. Social Security, one of the jewels of the New Deal legacy, is a type of public or “social” insurance, which has long been seen as untouchable in American politics. The same may be said of the New Deal’s “unemployment insurance”, or the insurance provided by the FDIC to middle class account holders at commercial banks. The idea is that the relevant government agency acts as a kind of public insurance company, either instead or alongside of private industry.
The enduring popularity of the Great Society program, Medicare, signaled a shift in American policy to the understanding that certain sectors of the health insurance industry were better managed by federal agencies. “Get your government out of my Medicare” is a statement of strong support for both the Reagan ideology and this popular Great Society program. This may seem to be a contradiction, since the Reagan ideology is a manifestly vitriolic attack on the ideas that supported Medicare and Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society policies more generally.
In fact, during the 1960’s Ronald Reagan was the key celebrity spokesman in an American Medical Association (AMA) sponsored campaign to prevent the enactment of Medicare. Reagan made a record for mass distribution entitled: “Ronald Reagan Speaks out Against Socialized Medicine”. He argued that Medicare was a policy introduced with the secret intention to bring about a Soviet Union style socialist country, cleverly and devilishly disguised as a humanitarian policy for America’s senior citizens. In 1964, Reagan was a “Goldwater Republican,” staunchly advocating the dismantling of Social Security. Reagan’s record offered an ideological lesson that while the American people would buy into the idea of a humanitarian program for the elderly; they would not buy into the idea of “socialized medicine”, even if the two phrases described the exact same policy. President Reagan keenly understood the political importance of defining the terms of the debate.
Still, we are faced with a seeming contradiction: an average voter who
The Challenge of Democratic Political Realignment
Photo: dbking
Two of the Democratic Party’s greatest celebrities, James Carville and President Bill Clinton, have publicly speculated about the genuine possibility of a new age of political dominance for the Democratic Party and progressive politics, respectively, lasting 30-40 years.
The history of America’s “two-party system” reads as a series of epochs of political dominance by one major party over the other. It is a history of “party dynasties”, each founded by more or less exceptionally effective presidents, whose administrations secured not only a majority for his own party, but also effectuated some degree of political realignment. Carville and Clinton see the possibility that the 2008 election of Democrat Barrack Obama represents a fundamental political realignment, akin to the 1932 election of Democrat Franklin Roosevelt, and the 1968 election of Republican Richard Nixon.
FDR’s New Deal Coalition established a foundation for Democrats and progressives to dominate national politics from 1933-1968. Fundamental political realignments like these will generally be implemented with a new vision for the direction of the country. Such a vision will likely involve new ideas about “how the world works”, generally in the context of the “old ideas” having been discredited by manifestly bad results. Taking office during the harsh conditions of the “Great Depression”, FDR effectively discredited the “old ideas”, and ushered in a new era of American government. He promised the American people a “New Deal”.
The Republican Party arguably occupied a similarly dominant position from 1969-2008. With a political coalition built under President Richard Nixon, and a political message perfected by President Ronald Reagan, GOP right-leaning conservatism has had a dominant role in shaping American policies these last forty years. Moreover, they have been the dominant force in shaping the terms of American political debate.
The infamous August 2009 town hall rallying cry: ‘Get your government out of my Medicare’, illustrates the lingering power that the Reagan Republican ideology and rhetoric have on the minds of average Americans. Reagan’s 1981 inaugural address: ‘Government is the problem… Not the solution!’ was a signal that the New Deal economic ideology was under direct attack by the Oval Office, with a presumed mandate from the American people.
Richard Nixon brought the Republican Party (including the newly Republican
South) into the second half of the twentieth century by embracing both civil rights and the Social Security. This political compromise would be necessary to build the new Republican coalition, breaking with the 1964 Goldwater conservatives (including Reagan) and the far right. The GOP would determine the future terms of the political debate, but these two monuments of Democratic political rule would stand.
President Reagan was a master television political pitchman. From the pulpit of the White House he was able to substantially change the terms of the debate on the role of government, and consequently a wide variety of government policies. “Reaganomics”, supply-side economics and industry deregulation, was a direct rebuke of the “demand side” or Galbraith-Keynesian economics, which animated the regulatory economic vision of the New Deal. Reagan explained these policies to the American public as being necessary to fix the economic disaster that he had inherited. Excessive government intervention was strangling the economy, and giving the wrong incentives to the more and to the less productive sectors of American society, respectively. ‘Government was the problem’.
This contradicted the New Deal ideology that the federal government should have an important role in preserving American capitalism, given capitalism’s inherently destabilizing economic cycles, and the problematic relationship between “Big Labor” and “Big Business”. Moreover, that effective government regulation and intervention was necessary to preserve the American political system itself, in light of the way the Great Depression had contributed to the collapse of governments across the continent of Europe. Many feared the same for the US. FDR’s administration revolutionized the role of the federal government in the American economy and society. Reagan’s “counterrevolution” spoke to an audience long removed from the tribulations of the Great Depression, and were consequently more easily persuaded of an economic ideology which undercut the New Deal vision.
The town hall cry: ‘Get your government out of my Medicare’ reflects the remarkable success of the Reagan ideological counterrevolution. One of the important principles of the New Deal economic philosophy was that the government should create federal agencies to handle certain sectors of the economy, which were poorly suited to American private industry. This was particularly true for certain types of insurance. Social Security, one of the jewels of the New Deal legacy, is a type of public or “social” insurance, which has long been seen as untouchable in American politics. The same may be said of the New Deal’s “unemployment insurance”, or the insurance provided by the FDIC to middle class account holders at commercial banks. The idea is that the relevant government agency acts as a kind of public insurance company, either instead or alongside of private industry.
The enduring popularity of the Great Society program, Medicare, signaled a shift in American policy to the understanding that certain sectors of the health insurance industry were better managed by federal agencies. “Get your government out of my Medicare” is a statement of strong support for both the Reagan ideology and this popular Great Society program. This may seem to be a contradiction, since the Reagan ideology is a manifestly vitriolic attack on the ideas that supported Medicare and Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society policies more generally.
In fact, during the 1960’s Ronald Reagan was the key celebrity spokesman in an American Medical Association (AMA) sponsored campaign to prevent the enactment of Medicare. Reagan made a record for mass distribution entitled: “Ronald Reagan Speaks out Against Socialized Medicine”. He argued that Medicare was a policy introduced with the secret intention to bring about a Soviet Union style socialist country, cleverly and devilishly disguised as a humanitarian policy for America’s senior citizens. In 1964, Reagan was a “Goldwater Republican,” staunchly advocating the dismantling of Social Security. Reagan’s record offered an ideological lesson that while the American people would buy into the idea of a humanitarian program for the elderly; they would not buy into the idea of “socialized medicine”, even if the two phrases described the exact same policy. President Reagan keenly understood the political importance of defining the terms of the debate.
Read Part 2 of Get your Government out of my Medicare.
FDR’s New Deal Coalition established a foundation for Democrats and progressives to dominate national politics from 1933-1968. Fundamental political realignments like these will generally be implemented with a new vision for the direction of the country. Such a vision will likely involve new ideas about “how the world works”, generally in the context of the “old ideas” having been discredited by manifestly bad results. Taking office during the harsh conditions of the “Great Depression”, FDR effectively discredited the “old ideas”, and ushered in a new era of American government. He promised the American people a “New Deal”.
South) into the second half of the twentieth century by embracing both civil rights and the Social Security. This political compromise would be necessary to build the new Republican coalition, breaking with the 1964 Goldwater conservatives (including Reagan) and the far right. The GOP would determine the future terms of the political debate, but these two monuments of Democratic political rule would stand.
In fact, during the 1960’s Ronald Reagan was the key celebrity spokesman in an American Medical Association (AMA) sponsored campaign to prevent the enactment of Medicare. Reagan made a record for mass distribution entitled: “Ronald Reagan Speaks out Against Socialized Medicine”. He argued that Medicare was a policy introduced with the secret intention to bring about a Soviet Union style socialist country, cleverly and devilishly disguised as a humanitarian policy for America’s senior citizens. In 1964, Reagan was a “Goldwater Republican,” staunchly advocating the dismantling of Social Security. Reagan’s record offered an ideological lesson that while the American people would buy into the idea of a humanitarian program for the elderly; they would not buy into the idea of “socialized medicine”, even if the two phrases described the exact same policy. President Reagan keenly understood the political importance of defining the terms of the debate.
