Through an examination of key historical documents, this book chronicles the Democratic Party's complete transformation from the small-government, Jeffersonian party to a party of activist government and social progressivism during the presidencies of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Lyndon Johnson, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama. What are the objectives of today's Democratic Party, and what historic events have guided its evolution from a decidedly different ideological starting point more than 200 years ago? The Democratic Party: Documents Decoded supplies a thorough historical examination of the Democratic Party from its distant origins in George Washington's administration to the two-term administration of Barack Obama. Told through key documents and speeches, this history comes alive in the words and thoughts of those who built, sustained, and transformed the Democratic Party. No other book uses documents in this way to tell a comprehensive history of this party. The book utilizes primary documents to investigate a breadth of topics such as the Democratic party's positions on civil rights, discrimination, voting rights, taxation, representation, immigration, primary elections, caucuses, the Republican opposition, relations between church and state, the role of government, and foreign policy. The scholarly commentary provides essential context that bridges the gaps between documents and insightful explanations and clarifications of specific passages or terms to ensure reader comprehension. A work unlike any other on the history of the Democratic Party, this book will serve advanced high school students in government and history classes as well as undergraduate students taking courses in political science and history.

The Democratic Party’s Unholy Agenda offers Christian Americans a jarring but much-needed wake-up call on what the Democratic Party and it’s anti-Biblical agenda are really about and specific reasons why true Christians should not vote for that party’s candidates. Written from the perspective of a former Democrat, this book is unique for two very important reasons. First, it details the unholy aspects of the Democratic Party’s agenda like no other book ever has. Second, it is the only book that shows how this party’s evil 21st century agenda is, in effect, an updated version of its horrific 19th century agenda. The Democratic Party’s Unholy Agenda, more than any other book, enlightens the reader on what it means to be a true Christian both outside and inside of the voting booth. Finally, this book is a warning to Christians that our votes could well determine the fate of our country and our souls.

This provocative account of presidential party leadership in the turbulent 1960s uses many primary sources and numerous interviews to reveal the influences of Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson on the Democratic Party.

Campaign Finance Reform and the Future of the Democratic Party offers a new interpretation of the dynamics of the American political system. Schneider explains how campaign finance reform would enable the Democratic Party to reverse the decades-long decline in their voter base. Reform would incentivize the Party to reallocate $1 trillion per year in contribution-driven waste to popular programs, without which the kind of progressive economic policies that have always energized the Democratic base will continue to be starved of resources. Schneider shows that, contrary to conventional wisdom, writing an effective reform law that can't be loopholed is feasible. So is a set of specific measures to force Congress to enact an effective law. In the end, reform holds the key to the democratic character and dynamics of the political system. Reform also holds the key to investments for future U.S productivity growth and the reduction of inequality.

Fighting fascism at home and abroad begins with the consolidation of a progressive politics Seventy-five years ago, Henry Wallace, then the sitting Vice President of the United States, mounted a campaign to warn about the persisting "Danger of American Fascism." As fighting in the European and Japanese theaters drew to a close, Wallace warned that the country may win the war and lose the piece; that the fascist threat that the U.S. was battling abroad had a terrifying domestic variant, growing rapidly in power: wealthy corporatists and their allies in the media. Wallace warned that if the New Deal project was not renewed and expanded in the post-war era, American fascists would use fear mongering, xenophonbia, and racism to regain the economic and political power that they lost. He championed an alternative, progressive vision of a post-war world-an alternative to triumphalist "American Century" vision then rising--in which the United States rejected colonialism and imperialism. Wallace's political vision - as well as his standing in the Democratic Party - were quickly sidelined. In the decades to come, other progressive forces would mount similar campaigns: George McGovern and Jesse Jackson more prominently. As John Nichols chronicles in this book, they ultimately failed - a warning to would-be reformers today - but their successive efforts provide us with insights into the nature of the Democratic Party, and a strategic script for the likes of Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

The phrase 'Young America' connoted territorial and commercial expansion in the antebellum United States. During the years leading up to the Civil War, it permeated various parts of the Democratic party, producing new perspectives in the realms of economics, foreign policy, and constitutionalism. Led by figures such as Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois and editor John L. O'Sullivan of New York, Young America Democrats gained power during the late 1840s and early 1850s. They challenged a variety of orthodox Jacksonian assumptions, influencing both the nation's foreign policy and its domestic politics. This 2007 book offers an exclusively political history of Young America's impact on the Democratic Party, complementing existing studies of the literary and cultural dimensions of this group. This close look at the Young America Democracy sheds light on the political realignments of the 1850s and the coming of the Civil War, in addition to showcasing the origins of America's longest existing political party.

Drawing on the experiences of grassroots political activists from different socio- economic and ethnic backgrounds, Green Shoots of Democracy explores how self-identified progressives manage (or fail to manage) to work within a big city political machine. Although the book focuses on the work of progressives to foster democracy and transparency within the Philadelphia Democratic Party, lessons gleaned from their experiences are applicable beyond Philadelphia. Americans have long had a history of volunteerism; however, grassroots partisan politics is often not considered a worthy volunteer endeavor—not as worthy as, for example, working in a homeless shelter or a literacy center. Green Shoots of Democracy argues for a more democratic, transparent party structure—one that is sorely needed to counter the widespread perception that electoral politics is dirty business rather than an honorable civic project.

Democrat or Republican? The two political parties have become fixtures in the American political experience-main choices in all elections, from the national to the local level. But the distinction was not always so clear. When the Democratic Party wa