Conservative coalition

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As a conservative coalition (English conservative Coaltion ) was in the Congress of the United States an unofficial alliance of a majority of Republicans and conservative Democrats from the South called, which consisted mainly between the mid-1930s until about the end of the 1960s. The conservative coalition opposed policies that were perceived as too left-liberal and progressive and that were mainly pursued by the governments of the Democratic presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt , Harry S. Truman , John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson . Their antagonists were liberal elements of the Democratic Party and a minority of Republicans , mostly from the northern states .

background

During the 19th century, the Democratic Party was the more conservative political force in the two-party system of the United States. Therefore, their power base was mainly in the southern states that belonged to the Confederation during the Civil War . Due to their rural structure, the southern states were traditionally always more conservative than the northern parts of the country, where a large part of the industry was located. Especially the east coast, New England, the regions around the Great Lakes and the west coast were more liberal, so the Republicans had their strongholds here. At the beginning of the 20th century, however, progressive reforms began to gain momentum in the Democratic Party, initially only in the north. At the same time, the influence of conservative currents among the Republicans grew. During the 1920s, the political profile of the Republican Party had changed, so that large parts of it were now massively deregulating the economy. The three Republican Presidents Warren G. Harding , Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover were known as advocates of laissez-faire politics; an almost complete withdrawal of the public sector from economic activity. Social security should be operated privately in order to be able to limit government expenditure to a minimum. Large parts of the population still supported this course.

This changed with the collapse of the stock exchange in October 1929 and the subsequent global economic crisis, the Great Depression . The 1932 presidential election was won by the Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt of New York by a wide margin, an avowed progressive. With his New Deal Roosevelt implemented far-reaching reforms. The economy and the financial system were regulated to a degree unprecedented in this time ; Social insurance was introduced in 1935 . In the early years of his tenure, Roosevelt's programs were not only supported by the Democratic majority in Congress , but a number of Republicans also approved these reforms.

In the 1930s, Roosevelt's Democrats began to gain a foothold in the liberal states of the north and west. In the big cities, too, the Democrats received massive numbers. This strengthened the progressive forces in the party, while the conservative elements still predominated in the south. Although there were isolated opposition to Roosevelt's liberal policies, the popular president continued to receive support. The Republicans were still a long way from electoral success in the southern states. Nonetheless, a decade-long development was initiated in which, above all, the geographical balance of power was to be reversed.

history

Opposition to Roosevelt's New Deal

Although President Roosevelt was re-elected in the 1936 election with a record result and the Democrats now had almost a three-quarters majority in Congress, criticism of the president began to grow among the conservative southern wing. Not only Roosevelt's progressive policies met with resentment, but also his attempt to increase the number of Supreme Court justices. The background to this was that the Supreme Court was predominantly made up of conservative judges (appointed for the life of Roosevelt's Republican predecessors) who, to the annoyance of the White House , had repealed a number of New Deal laws as unconstitutional . Congress rejected Roosevelt's reform that would have allowed him to appoint additional judges who shared his liberal views. Among the best-known critics of this venture was its own Vice President, John Nance Garner , a conservative Democrat from Texas . Garner was set up in 1932 and 1936 to pacify the conservative wing of the party from the south, after Roosevelt had been elected as a progressive party comrade from the north. Garner himself had ambitions for the presidency, but in 1932 he had to admit defeat to Roosevelt within the party. Nevertheless, from 1937/38 onwards the two broke up.

Roosevelt was very well aware of the resistance from the south, which is why he tried in the run-up to the 1938 congressional elections to carry out a kind of "purge" in the candidate list. According to the will of the president, more conservative democrats should no longer be put up for election and should be replaced by reform-minded and liberal partisans. However, the project met with strong resistance, especially in the south, and was a big hit. At the same time, the Republicans won a number of additional seats. Although the Democrats still had solid majorities, the conservative coalition, made up of conservative Democrats from the South and most of the Republicans, took an active role in 1939 and blocked further reforms from the White House. From 1939 the Roosevelt government did not announce any further reforms. Since the beginning of the Second World War increasingly focused on foreign policy, domestic policy played a less important role until the end of the war.

Truman and Eisenhower Governments

Under Roosevelt's successor Harry S. Truman (1945–1953), the conservative coalition emerged even more clearly than before. In 1946 the Democrats lost their majority to the Republicans, who blocked Truman's proposals to expand the welfare state and the New Deal. Many Southern Democrats also distrusted the president. When Truman in 1948 by adopting the apartheid abolished in the armed forces, had the considerable resistance of the conservative wing of the party from the South resulted were in favor of maintaining the racial segregation. As a result, the southern wing split up its own candidate, Strom Thurmond , for the 1948 presidential election . Although Truman not only won this election, but the Democrats also won back a majority in Congress, the number of reforms implemented remained modest. Truman was only able to implement a few of his Fair Deal initiatives (based on the New Deal), which were a public housing project. A number of Democrats from the South agreed to this. In many other projects, such as the introduction of government-sponsored health insurance , enough Democrats from the South voted with the Republicans that the votes of the other Liberal Democrats from the North were not enough. The main aim of the conservative coalition was to prevent too much state interference in economic life and the social system. This was also shown by the fact that the Taft-Hartley Act passed in 1947 was no longer withdrawn, as demanded by Truman, even after the 1948 elections. This law, which limited trade union influence, was passed in 1947 against Truman's veto because enough conservative Southern Democrats voted with Republicans to overrule the White House objection by a two-thirds majority. Although the Democrats again had a majority after Truman's re-election in 1948, the Conservative Coalition prevented the president's attempt to repeal the law.

The issue of civil rights for African Americans also remained an issue between the White House and the Conservatives in Congress. Truman's successor, the moderate Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower (President 1953–1961), also spoke out in favor of measures against racial discrimination . It was only under him that a first step was taken with the Civil Rights Act of 1957 . However, Southern Democrats managed to weaken the draft to the point where it was practically ineffective. In protest of Eisenhower's policies, almost all southern Democrats signed the Southern Manifesto , which criticized the government's policies in this area as encroaching on the rights of individual states. However, Eisenhower managed to raise the minimum wage against the resistance of the conservatives.

Developments from the 1960s and the end of the coalition

The Conservative coalition also blocked a number of progressive reform proposals by John F. Kennedy . As in previous years, this was often done with permanent speeches in the Senate ( filibuster ) in order to prevent a vote in the Senate. Since the speaking time in the Senate is not limited, a vote on unpleasant laws was prevented by permanent speeches (the permanent speech could only be ended by a vote of the plenary with two thirds). Overall, Kennedy was only able to get a third of his domestic policy program through Congress.

The resistance of the conservative coalition of Kennedy's successors were first broken Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964 during negotiations on the law on desegregation . Here Liberal Republicans and Democrats from the north voted for the law. In percentage terms, even more Republicans gave their approval than Democrats. One of the few Republican critics was Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona , Johnson's rival candidate for the 1964 election . Unlike Johnson in the election campaign portrayed, Goldwater had constitutional concerns (he saw the states have a duty); his no was not based on racism . Although from Texas himself, Johnson's Great Society program advocated extensive social reform in the tradition of Roosevelt's New Deal. Johnson had been the only southern politician besides his confidante Sam Rayburn who had n't signed the Southern Manifesto . The 1964 elections ended in great success for Democrats, who now had a two-thirds majority . This allowed Republicans and Southern Democrats to be outvoted and the re-elected president implemented a series of progressive reforms with his Great Society.

Johnson's action in racial politics led to the end of the conservative coalition. Gradually the geographic balance of power was reversed and the Republicans gained popularity in the south, while the Democrats in the liberal north were more successful. As early as 1964, some southern states voted for the Republicans for the first time, while the rest of the country unanimously voted for Johnson. In the period that followed, a number of South Democrats joined the Republicans, who followed more conservative policies.

More liberal states on the east coast , the Midwest and the west coast turned more to the Democrats, who raised their profile as a left-wing liberal party. Few of the party's presidential candidates have been successful in the south since 1964. At the state and local levels, however, the Democrats remained established longer, in some cases into the 21st century, although they are significantly more conservative here than in the rest of the country (see Blue Dog Coalition ). On the other hand, the Republicans from the more liberal states tend to be more moderate than the party as a whole. Since a lengthy process took place here, it is not possible to give an exact point in time when the conservative coalition dissolved. Even under Republican President Richard Nixon , who pursued a moderate, in some cases even liberal, agenda on the domestic front, more and more members of the Congress from the South were members of the Republican Party.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Franklin D. Roosevelt: Campaigns and elections ( October 10, 2014 memento on the Internet Archive ), Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia
  2. ↑ a b c Setbacks for the President , boundless.com (English)
  3. ^ Ronald Edsforth, The New Deal: America's Response to the Great Depression (Problems in American History), John Wiley & Sons, 2000, ISBN 978-1-57718-143-9 , p. 261
  4. ^ Herman-Josef Rupieper: Harry S. Truman (1945-1953). The unpopular designer of the post-war world. In: Christof Mauch (Ed.): The American Presidents. 5th, continued and updated edition. Munich 2009, pp. 323–334, here: p. 333
  5. ↑ AmericanPresident: Harry S. Truman: Domestic Affairs ( Memento from September 27, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  6. ↑ American President: Dwight D. Eisenhower: Domestic policy
  7. ↑ Herman-Josef Rupieper: Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953-1961). War hero and president. In: Christof Mauch (Ed.): The American Presidents. 5th, continued and updated edition. Munich 2009, pp. 335–345, here: pp. 340–341
  8. ↑ Horst Dippel : Geschichte der USA , CH Beck-Verlag, 8th edition, 2007, p. 114.
  9. ^ Robert Dallek: Lyndon B. Johnson: Portrait of a President . Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-515921-7 , pp. 245f.
  10. ^ Robert Dallek: Lyndon B. Johnson: Portrait of a President . Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-515921-7 , pp. 230-235.