National Party History

National Committees

DNC and RNC

Hill Committees

DCCC and NRCC

DSCC and NRSC
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PRELUDE:  WILLKIE AND ROOSEVELT.  Four years earlier, FDR -- on tape!! -- talked about publicizing Willkie's extramarital activities.

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American Political Science Association, "Toward a More Responsible Two-party System. A Report of the Committee on Political Parties" (supplement to American Political Science Review 44, 3 (September, 1950)), http://www.uvm.edu/~dguber/POLS125/articles/apsa.pdf.

1948

• The Rowe Memo and the Politics of 1948
• THIRD PARTY: 1948 Dixiecrats 
• FOURTH PARTY: Progressives (Henry Wallace had Soviet ties)
• Truman and the Fair Deal -- ironically, the next big champion of national health insurance would be ... Richard Milhous Nixon!

1952

"No development proved more galvanizing to the emergence of that activism than Adlai Stevenson's first campaign for president" (Rosenfeld 28).  Start around 11:00;

• Democrats nominate segregationist John Sparkman as VP Candidate in 1952
• Southern Manifesto of 1956
• We decry the Supreme Court's encroachment on the rights reserved to the States and to the people, contrary to established law, and to the Constitution. We commend the motives of those States which have declared the intention to resist forced integration by any lawful means
• Signers:  99 Democrats and 2 Republicans (Poff and Broyhill of Virginia)
• LBJ did NOT sign, but up to this point, he had been cool to civil rights.

Partisanship and Bipartisanship

• The bill establishing the Interstate Highway System passed 89-1 in the Senate, voice vote in the House.

First Writing Assignment, Spring 2020

Pick one:

• Compare and contrast a Democratic or Republican platform from 1948-1964 with the same party's 2016 platform.  What do the similarities and differences tell you about how the national party has changed?  (Platform texts here.)
• Pick any national party chair in the postwar era.  (GOP list, Democratic list).  What did this leader try to do?  How did she or he fare?  In your answer, keep in mind the resources and constraints facing this leader.  Also remember that out-party chairs have far more flexibility than in-party chairs.
• For people with an interest in foreign policy:  did the 1952 Taft-Eisenhower split on foreign policy foreshadow future Republican divisions?  How did Robert A. Taft both resemble and differ from supporters of the current administration?
• The conclusion of the Rosenfeld book is brief.  Drawing on what we have learned since 2016, write an addendum.  That is, have we witnessed a continuation of the trends that the book describes?  Or has polarization taken a new form?  Explain.

Essays should reflect an understanding of class readings and discussions. Many resources, including CQ Weekly and Politics in America, are at Honnold Library/Databases/CQ Library. You should check other sources as well. See:

• http://www1.cmc.edu/pages/faculty/JPitney/elect.htm 
• http://www1.cmc.edu/pages/faculty/JPitney/dempub.html  

PLEASE EMAIL ME IF ANY LINKS ARE BROKEN!

The specifications:

• Essays should be typed (12-point), double-spaced, and no more than four pages long. I will not read past the fourth page. Please submit essays as Word documents, not pdfs.
• Cite your sources. Please use endnotes in the format of Chicago Manual of Style. Endnotes do not count against the page limit. Please do not use footnotes, which take up too much page space. 
• Watch your spelling, grammar, diction, and punctuation. Errors will count against you. Return essays to the Sakai dropbox for this class by 11: 59 PM, Friday, February 14. Papers will drop one gradepoint for one day’s lateness, a full letter grade after that.

WRITING AND RESEARCH

How to Caucus

As explained by the Yang Gang:

Party Organization

Not a required reading, but if you want more detail on the responsible party school of government, the ur-text is

• American Political Science Association,  "Toward a More Responsible Two-party System. A Report of the Committee on Political Parties" (supplement to American Political Science Review 44, 3 (September, 1950)),http://www.uvm.edu/~dguber/POLS125/articles/apsa.pdf.

Volunteer for

• California GOP 
• California Democrats
• California Libertarians
• California Greens

"Honest Graft" (See Hershey 61-63)


State Party Organizations:

• GOP state parties
• Democratic state parties

State Election Law

• Partisan v. Nonpartisan local elections  and 2019 data
• Primaries
• Contribution limits

Supreme Court decisions curb patronage

Party Services and Party Money (Hershey p. 86)

Example of contemporary state party activity:

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National Committees

DNC and RNC

Hill Committees

DCCC and NRCC

DSCC and NRSC

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Political Participation Data

Presidential Primary Resources

A very useful list from Professor Brian Arbour (Pomona `95):

Presidential Primary Resources

Primary/Caucus/Convention Schedule

The Green Papers: https://www.thegreenpapers.com/P20/events.phtml?s=c

New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/us/elections/2020-presidential-election-calendar.html 

Frontloading: http://frontloading.blogspot.com/p/2020-presidential-primary-calendar.html

Who’s Running?

New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/us/politics/2020-presidential-candidates.html 

Seth Masket Winnowing Spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1oxJaPjBSISgZfg-Rexw8TjC78dwpn6HsDUYr6JW_nZE/edit#gid=1609617576 

Campaign Finance

Open Secrets: https://www.opensecrets.org/2020-presidential-race

Endorsements;

538: https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2020-endorsements/democratic-primary/

Politico:  https://www.politico.com/2020-election/democratic-presidential-candidates/endorsements/

Amount of Media Coverage

NY Times: [click the News Coverage link] https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/elections/democratic-polls.html

Polls and Projections

National

Five Thirty Eight:  https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/president-primary-d/national/

Real Clear Politics:  https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2020/president/us/2020_democratic_presidential_nomination-6730.html

Iowa

538: https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/president-primary-d/iowa/

Real Clear Politics: https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2020/president/ia/iowa_democratic_presidential_caucus-6731.html

New Hampshire

538: https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/president-primary-d/new-hampshire/

Real Clear Politics: https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2020/president/nh/new_hampshire_democratic_presidential_primary-6276.html 

Nevada

538: https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/president-primary-d/nevada/

Real Clear Politics: https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2020/president/nv/nevada_democratic_presidential_caucus-6866.html

South Carolina 

538: https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/president-primary-d/south-carolina/

Real Clear Politics: https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2020/president/sc/south_carolina_democratic_presidential_primary-6824.html 

Projections

Five Thirty Eight Projection: https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2020-primary-forecast/?ex_cid=rrpromo

Betting Averages:

Real Clear Politics: https://www.realclearpolitics.com/elections/betting_odds/democratic_2020_nomination/ 

Delegate Counts

The Green Papers:  https://www.thegreenpapers.com/P20/D

How Delegate Counts Work

Josh Putnam: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2016/02/16/everything-you-need-to-know-about-delegate-math-in-the-presidential-primary/

General Election

Trump Job Approval

Real Clear Politics: https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/other/president_trump_job_approval-6179.html?utm_campaign=ora_player&utm_medium=ora-video-widget&utm_source=polls

Primary/Caucus/Convention Glossary

The Green Papers: http://www.thegreenpapers.com/Definitions.html#Coun

Crystal Ball:  http://centerforpolitics.org/crystalball/articles/a-glossary-of-national-convention-delegate-allocation/

The Partisan Media Gap

From Pew Research:

Where's the Party?

From Reason:

Adam Kokesh, longtime anarcho-libertarian activist who first came to public prominence with Iraq Veterans Against the War in 2007 and was later a big Ron Paul supporter, today filed the paperwork necessary to officially seek the U.S. presidency. He is hoping for the Libertarian Party's presidential nomination.

He also had his RV pulled over twice by Texas police, and was arrested the second time.

  

BUT ARE THERE MODELS?

Countries and dependencies without legal political parties. 

•  Bahrain — Political "parties" are banned, but political "societies" are allowed. The media, however, usually refer to these formations as "parties".
•  Christmas Island
•  Cocos (Keeling) Islands
•  Falkland Islands
•  Guernsey
•  Kuwait — Political "parties" are not not legally recognized, but political blocs are allowed. The media, however, usually refer to these blocs as "parties".
•  Federated States of Micronesia
•  Norfolk Island
•  Oman — Political parties are banned.
•  Pakistan — Political parties are banned in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas.
•  Palau
•  Pitcairn Islands
•  Qatar — Political parties are banned.
•  Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha
•  Saudi Arabia — Political parties are banned.
•  Tokelau
•  Tuvalu
•  United Arab Emirates — Political parties are banned.
•  Vatican City Stat

Party competition and the power of incumbency

• Reelection rates
• Fewer and fewer split-ticket seats
• Fewer and fewer legislatures under split control

Most democratic systems do not have party primaries.

First Party System: 1792–1824 (Hershey 16-18)

Jefferson to Madison, 1793:

The line is now drawn so clearly as to show on one side, 1. The fashionable circles of Philadelphia, New York, Boston and Charleston, (natural aristocrats), 2. Merchants trading on British capital, 3. Paper men (all the old tories are found in some one of the three descriptions). On the other side are, 1. Merchants trading on their own capital. 2. Irish merchants. 3. Tradesmen, mechanics, farmers, and every other possible description of our citizens.

Federalists (die off by 1816) v. Democratic-Republican Party (also called "Democratic-Republican" or "Jeffersonian Republican").

Second Party System: 1828–1854 (18-19)

Democrats v. National Republicans, then Whigs

Third Party System: 1854–1890s

Democrats v. Republicans.  The Democratic coalition includes pro-business Southern Democrats, traditional Democrats in the North and Catholic immigrants, among others. The Republican coalition consists of businessmen, shop owners, skilled craftsmen, clerks, and professionals.

Fourth Party System: 1896–1932

Domestic issues changed to government regulation of business and banking, the tariff, the role of labor unions, child labor, political corruption and reform. racial segregation, women's suffrage, and immigration. The nation shifts from rural to urban, from mostly native-born to immigrant stock.




Fifth Party System 1932-1968 (?)
New Deal Coalition. African-Americans, union members, and ethnic and religious minorities, city dwellers, "the Solid South." Republicans have the leftovers.

Afterward?

Understanding POs: "Top progressives, DCCC reach ceasefire over 'blacklist'"

This article helped me understand how various groups within the Democratic party interact and negotiate:

Top progressives, DCCC reach ceasefire over 'blacklist'

2020 Kickoff

PIE -- party in the electorate
PO -- party organization
PIG -- party in government
POG -- partisan outside groups

Electoral change:  a cinematic map