The New Deal Coalition

By 1928, the Democratic Pary was irreverent. Herbert Hoover had navigated himself to an impressive electoral victory and the Republicans held control of the entire government. The whole court system was stacked against the Democrats. The people viewed the Democrat Party as antiquated, racist, and stuck in the 1800s. The only positive was the groundwork laid by Al Smith for future elections. He was the first Democrat to start to bring together Northern Industrial Dems and Southern Whites in an attempt to win back power in Washington. 

That idea laid out by Al Smith came to fruition in the election of 1932 which was a landslide for the Democratic Party. Under the guidance of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the party was able to regain Congress, State Houses, Governorships, and the Presidency in a complete repudiation of the Republican Party. The voters gave the Democratic Party a mandate to lead America out of the Depression and into a new age. FDR, for the first time in American history, was able to combine western farmers, white-collar bankers, southern sharecroppers, blue-collar industrial workers, minorities, Southern Whites, men, women, people young and old into a grand coalition.

The formation of this coalition began, as mentioned above, during the Great Depression. After giving Roosevelt the White House in 1932, the Coalition was forged closer together thanks, to FDR's first 100 days in which he was constructed the New Deal. This brought together labor unions, liberals, religious, ethnic and racial minorities, the poor, Southern Whites, and citizens on relief rolls. Because of this, many voters began to see the Democratic Party as the party of prosperity and inclusion. 

This coalition helped the Democrats, with the exception of New Deal Republican Dwight D. Enieshower, hold on to the White House until 1968, the Senate (with the exception of 4 years, 1947-1949 and 1953-1955) until 1981, and the House (with the exception of the years 1947-1949 and 1953-1955) until 1995. 

The coalition, though, began to fracture in the 1960s, as many new and pressing issues outside of the economy began to emerge. Issues such as civil rights, the Vietnam War, and affirmative action slipt up the coalition into fractions and pitted them against each other. Younger voters opposed the War while older ones wanted America to lead on against the Communists. Minorites and Northern Whites believed in the Civil Rights Act and Affirmative Action while Southern Whites strongly opposed it. Richard Nixon and his fellow Republicans were able to capitalize on this in the 1968 election by continuing to push this "wedge issues" front and center. Implementing the Southern Strategy, Nixon was able to take back the White House and weaken the Democratic Majorities in Congress. 

Although the Democrats were weaker after the election of 1968, the party did hold onto its congressional majorities until 1981 and 1995 respectively. It would take one of there own, Ronald Reagan, to eventually began to truly destroy the coalition. 

From the 1980s to today the Democratic Party has never quite been or even tried to reconstruct the New Deal Coalition that brought it to most extreme heights of political power. 

The party since Obama has lost over 1,000 State and Federal seats. The party, once built on the idea of big tent politics and coalition building now focuses on identity politics. The New Deal Coalition which treated elites of the Coast the same as blue-collar voters in the Heartland is nonexistent in today's Democratic Party; a party that values Coastal Elitism over the needs of every single American. If the losses over the past 8 years and the election of Donald Trump are not enough for today's Democratic Party to look back into history and copy what worked, I do not what is. 

C. Shell