The Fall of the Democratic Party

It was a sad day, that day in November. 8 years after the debacle in Florida there was no state so contested. The rain drizzled down on the roof in the same lethargic way I slouched down on the couch watching the election results. It must have been around midnight as Nevada starting coming in. It was made all the more depressing because this was the first election I could vote in. But the signs were clear. We couldn't even get 49% of the popular vote this time. I wondered if the Democratic party would ever recover. I tried to remember how this had all started, but I hadn't been born at the time...

The modern Democratic party rose to power by constructing the New Deal coalition, a group of voters who voted their pocket books to get us out of the Great Depression. It was the destruction of this coalition, then, that brought the downfall of the Democratic party. When the Culture War started in the 60s there was no turning back. The Civil Rights movement caused white southerners to abandon the Democratic party, and over the next forty years their voting patterns and party registration changed to favor the Republicans. Poor, rural voters, who would have been (and had been) helped the by Democrats economic policy began supporting Republicans because of social and religious issues. It got to the point where the term 'liberal' was a four letter word, one that the Republicans loved calling Democrats. When the Republicans seized all three branches of government in 2000, it might have just been a temporary swing of power. After all, in a two-party system, sometimes one party is in control, then the other. But when the Republicans retained their control (and picked up seats in the House and the Senate) in 2008, the indication was clear. The Dems were dead.