Factions in the Democratic Party (United States)

The Democratic Party of the United States is composed of various factions, with some overlap and enough agreement between them to coexist with each other within the party.

Progressives tend to advocate a relatively centre-left economic and left-wing social agenda.^[1] Unifying issues among progressive Democrats include opposition to the War in Iraq, opposition to economic liberalism and social conservatism, opposition to all corporate influence in government, support for universal health care and Single payer health care, revitalization of the national infrastructure and steering the Democratic Party in the direction of being a more forceful party. Compared to other factions of the party, they've been most critical of the Republican Party, and most supportive of direct government action as a means to establish social and economic equality.

The Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) is a caucus of progressive Democrats, along with one independent, in the U.S. Congress. It is the single largest Democratic caucus in the House of Representatives. Its members have included Dennis Kucinich, Alan Grayson, John Conyers (Michigan), Jim McDermott (Washington), John Lewis (Georgia), the late Senator Paul Wellstone (Minnesota), Barbara Lee (California), Sherrod Brown (Ohio), and Bernie Sanders (I-VT).

Many progressive Democrats are descendants of the New Left of Democratic Presidential candidate/Senator George McGovern of South Dakota; others were involved in the presidential candidacies of Vermont Governor Howard Dean and U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio; and still others are disaffected former members of the Green Party. This groups consists mostly of college-educated professionals.^[1] A recent study by the Pew Research Center found that a plurality, 41%, resided in mass affluent households and 49% were college graduates.^[2] Progressive Democratic candidates for public office have had popular support as candidates in metropolitan areas outside the South, and among African-Americans nationwide. Other famous progressives include Bobby Kennedy and John F. Kennedy, Eugene McCarthy, Franklin Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton

Liberal Democrats are to the left of centrist Democrats. The liberal faction was dominant in the party for several decades, although they have been hurt by the rise of centrist forces such as President Bill Clinton. Compared to conservatives and moderates, liberal Democrats generally have advocated fair trade and other less conservative economic policies, and a less militaristic foreign policy, and have a reputation of being more forceful in pushing for civil liberties. Many consider the Progressive faction to be liberal, but while Progressives advocate for progressivism and social democracy, liberals tend to advocate social liberalism.

Prominent liberal Democrats include U.S. Senators Barbara Boxer (California), Russ Feingold (Wisconsin), the late Ted Kennedy (Massachusetts), Tom Harkin (Iowa), and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (California).

Since the 1930s, a critical component of the Democratic Party coalition has been organized labor. Labor unions supply a great deal of the money, grass roots political organization, and voting base of support for the party. In recent years union membership in the United States has been declining substantially. The overall percentage of employed wage and salary workers that are union members fell to 12 percent in 2006, a significant decline from U.S. unions' peak membership of 36 percent in the mid-1950s. This historic decline in union membership has also been accompanied by a growing disparity between public sector and private sector union membership, as currently about 36.5 percent of public sector workers are union members, whereas approximately 7.8 percent of private sector workers belong to unions. Despite declining membership numbers, union members and their families vote in disproportionately greater numbers than the population at large, with as many as one in four votes in the 2004 election coming from union households.^[3] Because union members vote in high numbers, as well as the organizational and financial resources unions can bring to bear, they continue to have significant influence on the Party.

The three most significant labor groupings in the Democratic coalition today are the AFL-CIO, a labor federation of 53 national unions representing 9 million public and private sector workers; the Change to Win Federation, which broke away from the AFL-CIO in 2005 and currently includes seven national unions representing approximately 6 million public and private sector workers; and the National Education Association, a 3.2 million member independent union unaffiliated with either the AFL-CIO or Change to Win, which primarily represents teachers and other education workers. Both the AFL-CIO and Change to Win have identified their top legislative priority for 2007 as passage of the Employee Free Choice Act, make it easier for employees to join a union and would increase penalties for employer violations of the National Labor Relations Act. Other important issues for labor unions include support for industrial policy (including fair trade) that sustains unionized manufacturing jobs, raising the minimum wage, and promoting broad social programs such as social security and universal health care.

Prominent politicians associated with the labor wing include Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown (also a member of the Progressive Caucus) and Byron Dorgan, the populist senator from North Dakota, as well as former Presidential candidate John Edwards. Most of the members in this faction identify with the progressive faction of the party.

The Christian left shares many policy goals with Democratic Party, although the movement is arguably smaller and less influential on the party when compared to the Christian right, which is generally more affiliated with the Republican Party.

Christian left includes Peace churches, elements of Protestant mainline churches, elements of Roman Catholicism and some parts of the evangelical community. Their concerns regarding social justice, welfare, universal health care, education and foreign aid are more in line with the Democratic economic agenda than the laissez-faire economic approach of the Republicans. Their social views of capital punishment, defense and militarism, civil rights and equality are also left-wing. On moral issues such as abortion, euthanasia and homosexuality, the Christian left are often, although not always, more in line with Democrats. They may either disagree with Biblical literalism on these issues or may hold opposition but choose to prioritize social justice and other issues over social issues.

Prominent Christian left Democrats include Jesse Jackson (a Democratic presidential candidate in 1984 and 1988) and Al Sharpton (a Democratic presidential candidate in 2004).

The Democratic Party receives a lot of support among secular organizations such as the Secular Coalition for America^[4] and many atheists. Exit polls from the 2008 election showed that although a religious affiliation of "none" accounted for 12% of the electorate, they overwhelmingly voted for Obama by a 75–25% margin.^[5] In his inaugural address, Obama acknowledged atheists by saying that the United States is not just "Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus but non-believers as well."^[6] In the 2012 election cycle, Obama has moderate to high rankings with the Secular Coalition for America, whereas the majority of the Republican candidates have ratings in the low-to-failing range.^[7]

Atheists and secular people, although a diverse group themselves, may include individuals who are fiscally conservative. In this case, fiscal atheists and secularists will come together due to their opposition to the religiously-bound social policies of the Christian right.^[8]

Currently, only one member of the House of Representatives is an open atheist and that is California Democrat Pete Stark.^[9] There is still a social stigma relating to atheism in the nation and polls show that a majority of the American people would be more comfortable voting for a Muslim or gay candidate than they would an atheist.^[10]

Though centrist and center-right Democrats differ on a variety of issues, they typically foster a mix of political views and ideas. Compared to other Democratic factions, they are mostly more supportive of the use of military force, including the war in Iraq, and are more willing to reduce government welfare, as indicated by their support for welfare reform and tax cuts.

One of the most influential factions was the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC), a non-profit organization that advocates centrist positions for the party. Members often self-identified under the title "New Democrat." Selected former party leaders of the 1980s founded the DLC in response to the landslide victory of Ronald Reagan over Walter Mondale in 1984, believing that the Democratic Party needed to reform its political philosophy if it were to ever retake the White House. The DLC hailed President Clinton as proof of the viability of third way politicians and a DLC success story. However, despite centrists' claims that their ideas are more in line with the majority of Americans, the Democratic Party was in the minority in both houses of Congress during the years of DLC dominance.

The DLC was dominant in the Democratic party from 1993 until 2005. Prominent politicians associated with the DLC included its former chairman President Bill Clinton, former chairman Connecticut Senator Joseph Lieberman (elected over the Democratic nominee for Senate in 2006), former New York Senator and current Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former Vice President Al Gore (up to 2000, but not since then) and Virginia Senator Mark Warner. The DLC was founded by Al From, who was its CEO until its dissolution in 2011. Former Representative Harold Ford, Jr. of Tennessee was its last chairman. The DLC had no official allegiance with or control over the Democratic National Committee, but it did wield considerable power over party policy for many years.

Conservative Democrats are Democratic Party members with conservative political views, or with views relatively conservative with respect to those of the national party. While such members of the Democratic Party can be found throughout the nation, actual elected officials are disproportionately found within the Southern states, and to a lesser extent within rural regions of the several states generally, more commonly in the West.

The Democratic Party had a conservative element, mostly from the South and Border regions, into the 1980s. Their numbers declined sharply as the Republican Party built up its Southern base. They were sometimes humorously called "Yellow dog Democrats," or "boll weevils," "Dixiecrats." Nowadays, they are often called a Democrat In Name Only. In the House, they form the Blue Dog Democrats, a caucus of fiscal and social conservatives and moderates, primarily southerners, willing to broker compromises with the Republican leadership. They have acted as a unified voting bloc in the past, giving its forty plus members some ability to change legislation. The Blue Dogs added nine new members as a result of the 2006 midterm elections.^[11] Occasionally, the term "conservative Democrat" is also made to describe politicians who are left-of-center on economic issues but conservative on social issues, rather as many "liberal Republicans" are fiscal conservatives.

Prominent conservative Democrats of recent time include Senators Ben Nelson (Nebraska), Zell Miller (Georgia) and John Breaux (Louisiana); as well as Congressmen Ike Skelton (Missouri), Gene Taylor (Mississippi), Henry Cuellar (Texas), Collin Peterson (Minnesota), and Jim Marshall (Georgia).

Many conservative Southern Democrats defected to the Republican Party, beginning with the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the general leftward shift of the party. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, Billy Tauzin of Louisiana, Kent Hance and Ralph Hall of Texas, and Richard Shelby of Alabama are examples of this. The influx of conservative Democrats into the Republican Party is often cited as a reason for the GOP's shift further to the right during the late 20th century, as well as the shift of its base from the Northeast and Midwest to the South.

A newly emerging trend is the return of active pro-life Democratic groups and candidates. Some of these candidates have won office or are backed by the party establishment in their state. The largest national pro-life group within the party is the Democrats for Life of America. Pro-life candidate Bob Casey, Jr. (Pennsylvania) was elected as a U.S. Senator in the 2006 midterm elections.

The 2006 Congressional elections also brought to Congress a significant bloc of conservative Democrats who are likely to support protectionist policies.^[12]

Civil liberties advocates, and people against large national debt, also often support the Democratic Party because its positions on such issues as civil rights and separation of church and state are more closely aligned to their own than the positions of the Republican Party, and because the Democrats' economic agenda may be more appealing to them than that of the Libertarian Party. They oppose gun control, the "War on Drugs," protectionism, corporate welfare, governmental borrowing, and an interventionist foreign policy. Some civil libertarians also support the party because of their support of haebeus corpus for unlawful combatants, opposition to torture of suspected terrorists, extraordinary rendtition, warrentless wiretapping, indefinite detention without trial or charge, the Patriot Act, the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base and what they see as the erosion of the protections of the Bill of Rights.

Mike Gravel was perhaps the most well known member of this faction, before leaving the party midway through the 2008 presidential election cycle to seek the Libertarian Party presidential nomination.

The Democratic Freedom Caucus (DFC) is an organized group of this faction, although it prefers to use terms such as "freedom Democrats" or "freedom-oriented Democrats". The DFC does not use the term "libertarian" on its website, because while it advocates individual liberty and limited government power, it considers its economic policies to be more progressive than, for example, the Libertarian Party. This is especially so because the DFC is in the tradition which holds that land and natural resources are subject to fundamentally different economic laws than human-made products (such as machinery, buildings, etc.), so its view of economic freedom advocates somewhat different economic policies. Specifically, the DFC advocates in its platform a tax shift away from things like labor, (and the products thereof), and sales and towards spatial-locations and natural resources.^[13]

Another group, The Libertarian Democratic Caucus (LDC) seeks to build libertarian coalitions on issues regardless of political party. The Democratic Freedom Caucus tends to focus on taxation while the LDC targets civil liberty issues such as legalizing victimless crimes. The LDC is a Democratic organization, but it advocates working with the Libertarian Party and libertarian Republicans, such as the Libertarian Republican Caucus, on issues they have in common. Website: http://libertariandemocraticcaucus.org

A large portion of the Democratic voting base are ethnic minorities. The Democrats' positions on affirmative action and civil rights, the economy, and immigration have attracted many minorities to the party.

Originally, the Republican Party was favored by African Americans after the end of the civil war and emancipation of black slaves. This trend started to gradually change in the 1930s with Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal programs that gave economic relief to all minorities including African Americans and Hispanics. Support for the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s by Democratic presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson helped give the Democrats even larger support among the African American community, although their position also alienated the Southern white population. Today African Americans have as strong support for the Democratic Party as any group has for either party, voting 90% Democratic in the 2000 presidential election,^[14] 88% Democratic in the 2004 presidential election^[15] and 95% Democratic in the 2008 presidential election.^[16]

The Hispanic population, particularly the large Mexican American population in the Southwest and large Puerto Rican, Dominican, and South American populations in the Northeast have been strongholds for the Democratic Party. Hispanic Democrats commonly favor liberal views on immigration. In 1996 presidential election, Democratic President Bill Clinton received 72% of the Hispanic vote.

After a period of incremental gains under George W. Bush, the Republican Party's support among Hispanics seriously eroded after a heated and acrimonious debate within the party during the 109th Congress over immigration reform. Nationwide protests helped galvanize Hispanic political participation, and in the 2006 mid-term elections, Democrats increased their share the Hispanic vote from 2004 by 14 points to 69%.^[17] The trend continued in 2008, as Barack Obama carried the Latino vote with 67%.^[16]

The Democratic Party also has strong support in the small but growing Asian American population. The Asian American population had been a stronghold of the Republican Party until the United States presidential election of 1992 in which George H. W. Bush won 55% of the Asian American vote, compared to Bill Clinton winning 31%, and Ross Perot winning 15% of the Asian vote. Originally, the vast majority of Asian Americans consisted of anti-communist Vietnamese refugees, Chinese Americans, Korean Americans, and socially conservative Filipinos who fled Ferdinand Marcos in the 1960s through the 1980s. The Democratic party made gains among the Asian American population starting with 1996 and in 2006, won 62% of the Asian American vote. This is due to demographic shifts in the Asian American community, with growing numbers of well educated Chinese and Asian Indian immigrants that are typically economic centrist and social progressives. The Asian American community's increasing number of young voters has also helped to erode traditionally reliably Republican voting blocs such as Vietnamese and Filipino Americans, leading to an increase in support for Democrats. Prominent Asian-American Democrats include Daniel Inouye, Daniel Akaka, Gary Locke, Mike Honda, David Wu, Doris Matsui, and Norman Mineta.

Muslims make up about 0.6% of Americans and in the 2008 election, 89% of Muslim Americans voted for Barack Obama.^[18] Muslim Americans tend to be financially well off, as many in the community are small businessmen and educated professionals. They also tend to be socially conservative. Prior to 2002, most tended to vote for Republicans for these reasons.^{[citation needed]} However, after 9/11 many experienced hostility and discrimination,^[19] and many right-wing religious and political leaders attacked Islam as both a violent religion and a threat to American values.^[20][21] Furthermore, most Muslim Americans opposed the Iraq War, solidifying their shift to the Democratic Party.^[22]

Keith Ellison was elected as first Muslim Congressman in 2006. He was elected as Democrats' Representative for Minnesota's 5th congressional district.

Jewish communities tend to be a stronghold for the Democratic Party, with more than 70% of Jewish voters having cast their ballots for the Democrats in the 2004 and 2006 elections. And of the 43 Jewish Congressmen and Senators currently serving in Congress, 38 are Democrats (40 if independent Senators Joe Lieberman of Connecticut and Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who caucus with Senate Democrats, are counted.)

The Democratic Party also has strong support among the Native American population, forming sizeable political blocs in Oklahoma, Arizona, New Mexico, Montana, Alaska, North Dakota, and South Dakota.

There is some overlap between the factions. Liberals, progressives and organized labor are all closely linked, for example. Also, the lines between social and economic progressivism, centrism and conservatism can be unclear, so it can be hard to define the difference between moderates and conservatives. Also they are regional factors, many factions are more likely to vote for the Democratic Party in blue states than in red states.

• Democratic organizations
• Factions in the Republican Party (United States)
• Unofficial organizations for Democrats

• 21st Century Democrats
• AFL-CIO
• Blue Dog Coalition
• Change to Win Federation
• National Education Association
• Democracy For America
• Democratic Freedom Caucus
• Democratic Leadership Council
• Democrats For Life of America
• Populist Caucus
• Progressive Democrats of America
• (http://libertariandemocraticcaucus.org) Libertarian Democratic Caucus