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This article uses too much jargon, which needs explaining or simplifying. Please help improve the page to make it understandable for everybody, without removing the technical details. (July 2020) A party realignment in the United States is when the country transitions from being mostly run by one political party to mostly run by another political party. During party realignments, some groups of people who used to vote for one party vote for the other one. Sometimes, political parties end and new ones begin. Party realignments can happen because of important events in history or because of changes in the kinds of people in the country.
In the early 1800s, America had the "First Party System" with the Federalist Party and the Democratic-Republican Party. When James Monroe was elected President of the United States, the Federalists died out. There was an "Era of Good Feelings" of one-party rule by the Democratic-Republicans. In the United States presidential election, 1824, four different men ran for President, all as Democratic-Republicans. John Quincy Adams was elected.
After the election, Andrew Jackson formed a new party called the Democrats. Jackson's party was strongest in the South and West, and in some cities (at this time, only a few Americans lived in cities). Soon after Jackson's election, another party formed around supporters of Adams and Henry Clay. It was first called the National Republican Party, and later the Whig Party. The Whigs were strong in the North, and among the middle class and businessmen. The system of Democrats and Whigs is called the "Second Party System."
After the Kansas-Nebraska Act, the "Second Party System" ended:
- Whigs and Democrats who did not want to pass the Kansas-Nebraska Act (which would use popular sovereignty), and Free-Soilers (who, as a rule, opposed the expansion of slavery) formed a new party called the Republicans. The Republicans' main goal was stopping slavery, but they also liked many of the things the Whigs liked.
- The Whig Party broke up. Some Whigs joined the Know-Nothing Party or other small parties for the 1856 election. More joined the Republicans or Democrats.
- In the 1860 election, Know-Nothings and Southern Democrats who supported the Union formed the Constitutional Union Party. During and after the American Civil War, the Know-Nothings and Unionists were part of the Republican Party.
- In 1860, what was left of the Democratic Party broke into Northern and Southern wings, one on each side of the Civil War.
- By 1868, the Democratic Party came back together and there was the "Third Party System" of Democrats and Republicans.
America went from being mostly Republican in the 1920s to mostly Democratic in the 1930s. This was due to America becoming much more urban, and the Great Depression. Franklin D. Roosevelt formed a coalition that would mostly last until 1964 called the "New Deal coalition."
- Urban areas became very Democratic. They voted very heavily for people like Al Smith and Roosevelt. They had been growing rapidly, due in part to immigrants who were part of democratic political machines.
- African American citizens had been moving from the South into large Northern cities, in large part due to racial segregation. Before the 1930s, they had either not voted or voted Republican. Under Roosevelt, they mostly voted Democratic
- Roosevelt also made gains in every part of the country, due to his mass appeal and the desire to end the depression
In the 1960s and 70s, the New Deal coalition fell apart. This was due to the Civil Rights Movement, Roe v. Wade, Vietnam War and the suburbanization of America. What changed:
- After the 1964 Civil Rights Act, many white, conservative Southern Democrats became Republicans. The South had been mostly Democratic before 1964; it was mostly Republican after (Although on the local level continued to be heavily democratic for decades).
- Many "values voters" became Republicans. These were people who voted based on their own form of morality. To them, abortion and gay rights were immoral. In the 1960s, sex was closely tied to morality. In this way, people who opposed abortion and gay rights, for example Jerry Falwell, and the changes to society happening in the 1960s and 70s, became Republicans.
- Republicans also made some gains among working-class Catholics, who are mostly conservative on social issues.
- The Democrats were able to make gains among more liberal Republicans and with Latino voters.
- Working-class Democrats voted for Republicans in the 1980 election. They were called Reagan Democrats because they voted for Ronald Reagan.
Retrieved from "//simple.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Party_realignment_in_the_United_States&oldid=8257548"
In 1932 a political tidal wave slammed into the Senate. On November 8 of that year, Senate Democrats scored one of the greatest electoral victories in their party’s history.
Going into the 1932 election, Republicans controlled the Senate by a one-vote margin. President Herbert Hoover had campaigned for reelection on the premise that the Great Depression’s death grip on the American economy was gradually loosening, but the improving economic numbers on which he based his optimism abruptly turned downward in the weeks before election day. Senate Republican Majority Leader James Watson, known as “Sunny Jim” for his normally upbeat demeanor, offered the president a dark assessment. When Hoover professed to be encouraged by the large crowds that turned out during his cross-country rail tour, Watson advised, “They are only here to see a president of the United States.” Fearful about what lay in store on election day owing to the souring economy and resentment over the failed experiment with Prohibition, Watson continued, “We are all going into the ash heap together.” As the majority leader predicted, both he and Hoover went down to defeat on November 8. They had lots of company. Like many other Americans, nine incumbent Republican senators lost their jobs that year.
On November 8, 1932, Franklin Roosevelt became the first Democrat in 80 years to win the presidency by a majority vote, rather than a plurality. On Capitol Hill, House Democrats gained 97 seats for a nearly three-to-one margin over the Republicans. In the Senate, Democrats picked up 12 seats, making it the party’s largest two-year gain to that time. (In 1958, Senate Democrats set a new record by adding 15 members.) The Senate’s new 59-vote Democratic majority in 1933 was predominately liberal in political orientation, but it included three conservatives who ended up serving longer than any of their more progressive classmates. They were Nevada’s Patrick McCarran, Virginia’s Harry Byrd, Sr., and Georgia’s Richard Russell.
The results of 1932 echoed through the next two Senate election cycles. In 1934, when the Republican senators who were swept into office with the 1928 election of President Hoover stood for reelection, Democrats picked up 10 more seats for a total of 69. In 1936 that number rose to 76, causing the remaining 16 Republicans to sit quietly as the Democrats’ increasingly polarized factions proved that there can be a majority that is too large.