Consider the following election year quiz of just two questions: (1) Which political party's program has included balancing the federal budget, protecting states' rights against an overbearing national government, and asserting traditional morality against secular values?
(2) Which party has stood for vigorously enforcing civil rights laws on behalf of blacks, protecting American industry against foreign trade competition, and adding the Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution?
Most readers think they know the obvious answers: (1) Republicans and (2) Democrats. But the answers, historically, are actually the opposite. This demonstrates the parties' readiness to change their ideology to fit new social and electoral demands. Such changes are evident in current politics, right up to the presidential election on November 8.
From the time of Andrew Jackson, the Democratic Party opposed increases in the power of the national government, as in the creation of a national bank. At the turn of the century, as the nation became a world industrial power, William Jennings Bryan spoke for traditionalist America in his denunciation of the "cross of gold." As late as Franklin D. Roosevelt's first election in 1932, the Democratic platform called for "an immediate and drastic reduction of governmental expenditures." Today's Democrats are certainly different from their political ancestors.
Republicans are also historically inconsistent. The party was born in opposition to slavery, led the Civil War, and devised Reconstruction on behalf of blacks. For most of its existence, it fought for protective tariffs against foreign imports. After women won the vote, Republicans initiated proposals on their behalf, from a 1920 endorsement of equal pay for equal work to the support, as early as 1944, of "an amendment to the Constitution providing for equal rights for men and women." Some would say the Reagan administration is not traditionally Republican.
Are politicians just inconstant, or plain dishonest? There are better explanations. The election of 1988, giving us a new picture to add to our national political album, provides a look at how the parties are growing. On some issues, especially race, they have changed their positions as their voting coalitions have shifted. In other cases, changes have been more in appearances than in fundamentals. Basic economic orientations have held: Republicans toward producers, Democrats toward consumers. Basic party values have remained: freedom for Republicans, equality for Democrats. Basic moral philosophies have continued: Republicans as conservative, Democrats as liberals.
Ideology and Race
In our recent history, the period after World War II, the most dramatic changes in party ideology have come in regard to race. From the time of Lincoln, Republicans and the descendants of former slaves had been closely allied. Though few in number after Reconstruction, black voters overwhelmingly supported the GOP while Republican administrations provided token appointments and southern patronage. But if the actual gains for blacks were limited, they were still better than those promised by the Democrats, who implemented segregation and opposed even such basic federal civil rights actions as anti-lynching laws.
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