Political Parties in the United States

Beginning in the 1960s, conservative Republicans argued that “me-tooism” was a recipe for continual failure and sought to reposition the Republican Party as a genuine alternative to the Democrats. In 1964, for example, Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater, author of The Conscience of a Conservative (1960), argued in favor of substantially reduced levels of taxation and spending, less government regulation of the economy, and the elimination of many federal social programs. Although Goldwater was defeated by Lyndon Johnson, the ideas he put forward continue to be major themes for the GOP.

The Goldwater message, however, was not enough to lead Republicans to victory. It took Richard Nixon’s “Southern strategy” to give the GOP the votes it needed to end Democratic dominance of the political process. In 1968 Nixon appealed strongly to disaffected white Southerners and with the help of third-party candidate and former Alabama governor George Wallace, sparked the shift of voters that eventually gave the once-hated “party of Lincoln” a strong position in all the states of the former Confederacy. In the 1980s, under the leadership of Ronald Reagan, Republicans added another important group to their coalition–-religious conservatives who were offended by Democratic support for abortion and gay rights, as well as alleged Democratic disdain for traditional cultural and religious values.

While Republicans built a political base around economic and social conservatives and white Southerners, the Democratic Party maintained its support among unionized workers and upper middle class intellectuals and professionals. Democrats also appealed strongly to racial minorities. The 1965 Voting Rights Act had greatly increased black voter participation in the South and helped the Democratic Party retain some congressional seats in the South. And, while the GOP appealed to social conservatives, the Democrats appealed strongly to Americans concerned with abortion rights, gay rights, feminism, environmentalism, and other progressive social causes.

The result, thus far, has been a relatively even balance between the two parties. The 2000 presidential election ended in a virtual tie between Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Al Gore and left the two houses of Congress almost evenly divided between the two parties. The 2004 presidential election again revealed a closely divided country, although in 2004, unlike 2000, Bush won the popular vote with 51 percent. Bush’s margin in the electoral college, over Democratic rival John Kerry, was a relatively narrow 286 electoral votes to 252 for Kerry. However, the Republicans increased their majority in both the House and Senate.

Despite the dominance of the two major parties, third-party movements were significant in 1968, 1992, and especially in 2000. In 1968 the third-party candidacy of segregationist George Wallace took 14 percent of the vote and eroded support for Democrat Hubert Humphrey who was running on the platform of the Great Society. In 1992 billionaire businessman H. Ross Perot drew almost 19 percent of the popular vote, the highest percentage for a third-party presidential candidate since Theodore Roosevelt’s run in 1912. Polls showed that Perot’s voters were predominantly Republicans disenchanted with incumbent Republican president George H. W. Bush. Although Perot gained no electoral votes, his third-party effort helped erode the Republican’s base and helped elect Democrat Bill Clinton.

The third-party candidacy of Ralph Nader in 2000 probably cost the Democrats the White House. Running on the Green Party ticket, the liberal Nader captured almost 3 percent of the vote nationwide and more than 97,000 votes in the key state of Florida. Exit polls showed that most Nader supporters would have voted for Gore if Nader had not run. With those votes Gore could have captured both New Hampshire and Florida, where he lost by about 500 votes in the disputed presidential election. Nader ran again in 2004 as an independent with an endorsement by the Reform Party but was not a factor in the outcome of the election.