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Democratic donkey necktie.

The Consultants Who Lost Democrats the Working Class

The rivalry of two men tells the story of how Democrats fumbled with their traditional base—and how they can win again.
by Ben Metzner via The New Republic on October 15, 2024
People holding antiwar signs at the 1968 Democratic National Convention.

A Brief History of the Democratic Party

The Democratic Party, and the US political system as a whole, is a very strange beast.
by Doug Henwood, Adam Hilton via Jacobin on August 6, 2024
W.E.B. Du Bois

When Did Black Voters Shift to Democrats? Earlier Than You Might Think

A look at how and why African Americans first started to abandon the GOP for the Democratic Party.
by Blake Wilson via Retropolis on June 30, 2024

The Life of the Party

In his latest book, Michael Kazin argues that the Democrats have long sought to build a “moral capitalism.” Have they ever succeeded?
by Osita Nwanevu via New York Review of Books on August 29, 2023
Exhibit

A Big Tent

Exploring the history of the Democratic Party, from its earliest days through the New Deal, the Long Sixties, and the post-Cold War era.
Bill Clinton in the background, another man in the foreground.

What the 1990s Did to America

The Law and Economics movement was one front in the decades-long advance of a revived free-market ideology that became the new American consensus.
by Henry M. J. Tonks via Public Books on May 17, 2023
Drawing of a crowd of delegates at the 1972 Democratic National Convention. (Franklin McMahon / Getty Images)

A Big Tent

The contradictory past and uncertain future of the Democratic Party.
by Nicholas Lemann via The Nation on July 11, 2022
Blue and red donkey logo of the Democratic Party.

Hope in the Desert: Democratic Party Blues

In 'What It Took to Win,' Michael Kazin traces the history over the past two centuries of what he calls ‘the oldest mass party in the world’.
by Eric Foner via London Review of Books on May 4, 2022
Kamala Harris, Joe Biden, and Barack Obama walking together

How to Tell the History of the Democrats

What connection does the party of Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson have to the party of Barack Obama and Kamala Harris?
by Michael Kazin, Timothy Shenk via Dissent on April 25, 2022
Henry Wallace.

The Past and Future of the Left in the Democratic Party

Centrist Democrats who blamed the left for election losses would do well to remember the people who have fought for and shaped the party’s history.
by Michael Brenes, Michael Koncewicz via The Nation on December 9, 2020
A drawing in the style of a 1980s video game of shooting at rainbows.

Jesse Jackson’s Political Revolution

Before Bernie Bros vs. the DNC, there was Jesse Jackson vs. the Atari Democrats.
by Lily Geismer via Jacobin on February 19, 2020

Haunted by the Reagan Era

Past defeats still scare older Democratic leaders — but not the younger generation.
by Ryan Grim via Washington Post on July 5, 2019

Democrats Aren’t Moving Left. They’re Returning to Their Roots.

Many on both sides are worried about the party’s leftward swing. They say it’s a deviation from the mainstream. It’s not.
by Joshua Zeitz via Politico Magazine on November 4, 2018

The New Old Democrats

It’s not the 1990s anymore. People want the government to help solve big problems. Here’s how the Democrats must respond.
by Jake Sullivan via Democracy Journal on June 20, 2018

The Bobby Kennedy Myth

Many on the left have learned the wrong lessons from his ill-fated presidential bid.
by Joshua Zeitz via Politico Magazine on June 5, 2018

Identity Politics Can Make or Break the Democratic Party

Racial justice energized the party in the past. It can today too.
by Eric Schickler via Vox on April 16, 2018

The Party of Hubert Humphrey

The Democratic leader believed that the ordinary American was open to a message of collective responsibility and common purpose.
by James Traub via The Atlantic on April 7, 2018

The New Working Class

Democrats should abandon the specter of the right-wing hard hat, and recognize today's working class for what it really is.
by Gabriel Winant via Dissent on June 27, 2017

Why Did White Workers Leave the Democratic Party?

Historian Judith Stein debunks liberal myths about racism, the New Deal, and why the Democrats moved right.
by Judith Stein, Connor Kilpatrick via Jacobin on September 6, 2016

How Women Changed American Politics

How feminism and antifeminism created Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.
by Jill Lepore via The New Yorker on June 27, 2016

The Art of the New Deal

Despite a fractured party and health concerns, FDR capitalized on name recognition to win the 1932 presidential election.
by Rebecca Onion via Slate on March 31, 2016
Bill Clinton in front of a poster that reads "New Democrats".

Atari Democrats

As organized labor lost strength, the Democratic Party turned to professional-class voters to shore up its base.
by Lily Geismer via Jacobin on February 8, 2016
Black Democrats raise their hands at the Democratic Convention.

23 Maps That Explain How Democrats Went From the Party of Racism to the Party of Obama

The longest-running party in America has seen significant shifts in its ideological and geographic makeup.
by Andrew Prokop via Vox on December 8, 2014
A political cartoon of Franklin Delano Roosevelt with a crow on his shoulder, representing Jim Crow.

The Not-So-New Deal

The New Deal brought Black voters over to the Democratic Party, but was marred by racial inequality.
by C. Vann Woodward via New York Review of Books on December 8, 1983
Portrait of Martin Van Buren.

The Father of the Party System

Because Martin Van Buren was an unsuccessful president, his more significant contributions to the nation’s political life have also been obscured.
by James M. Bradley via OUPblog on October 18, 2024
Harris carved in stone next to Mount Rushmore.

Kamala Harris Must Grapple with America’s Founding Fathers

To achieve a new political settlement, she has to resolve a tension dating from the Revolution.
by Justin H. Vassallo via New Statesman on October 12, 2024

How John Lewis Put a Legacy of Heroism to Use

As the civil-rights era receded, his personal heroism loomed larger. But movement politics didn’t easily translate into party politics.
by Kelefa Sanneh via The New Yorker on October 7, 2024
A McDonald's worker handing a bag of food to someone in a drive through.
partner

What Harris Talking About Her McDonald's Job Reveals

Harris' rhetoric about working at McDonald's shows how Democrats have rethought their 1990s emphasis on fast food jobs.
by Alex Park via Made By History on September 24, 2024
A drawing of two people speaking with a third person's head listening between them.

Diverging Majority

Demography has not managed to be destiny in the past half-century—but predictions of a millenarian shift have not lost their appeal.
by Rick Perlstein, Geraldo Cadava via The Baffler on September 3, 2024
Art piece of a hand holding barbed wire.

Do Border

Who can migrate to the US and make their home here? Who gets to drop US-made bombs, and who is expected to suffer them? These are not unrelated questions.
by Daniel Denvir via n+1 on August 22, 2024
Aaron Henry of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party delegation speaks at the 1964 Democratic National Convention.

60 Years Ago, Courage Confronted Racism at the Democratic Convention

My grandmother and the fight over the 1964 Mississippi delegation.
by Margaret McMullan via The Bulwark on August 21, 2024
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