Party History Through the Present

Before the 1970s, tax cuts were not central to the GOP message.  In fact, Republicans opposed JFK's tax but proposal!

Oil shocks (1973 OPEC and 1979 Iran) begat inflation, which begat rising nominal property values and bracket creep, which begat Prop 13 (1978) and Kemp-Roth



"Of a sudden, the GOP has become a party of ideas."  -- Daniel Patrick Moynihan 1981

By the end of the decade, liberal calls abounded for the explicit emulation of conservative organizational innovations from the 1960s and 1970s" (Rosenfeld 248)

Democratic Social Organizing Committee (Rosenfeld 230-233) begets Democratic Socialists of America

The 1980s and the Legacy of the Reverends

• Pat Robertson (very brief mention on 203) 1988 Campaign and the Christian Coalition, which succeeds Moral Majority
• Jesse Jackson, symbolic race in 1984, serious race in 1988/
• A familiar figure supports Jackson
• ...and remained in the Democratic Party

DLC (275) and Clintonism -- 



DLC fades with the disappearance of conservative Southern Democrats.
Democratic share of Southern (CQ def) House seats

87th Congress (1961-62).....93.4%
103d Congress (1993-94)....61.6%
104th Congress (1994-96)...48.8% -- Gingrich
115th Congress (2017-217)..28.0%

Weak parties and strong partisanship

Hollowness of parties (284)

Democratic establishment v. Bernie