chAPTeR seven • InTeResT GRouPs AnD PolITIcAl PARTIes 159
GOP
A nickname for the
Republican Party, which
stands for “grand old
party.”
Realignment
A large-scale, lasting
change in the types of
voters who support each
of the major political
parties.The Post–civil war Period
After the Civil War, the Democratic Party was able to heal its divi-
sions. Southern resentment of the Republicans’ role in defeating
the South and fears that the federal government would intervene
on behalf of African Americans ensured that the Democrats would
dominate the white South for the next century. It was in this period
that the Republicans adopted the nickname gOP, which stands for
“grand old party.”cultural Politics. Northern Democrats feared a strong govern-
ment for other reasons. The Republicans thought that the gov-
ernment should promote business and economic growth, but many
Republicans also wanted to use the power of government to impose
evangelical Protestant moral values on society. Democrats opposed
what they saw as culturally coercive measures. Many Republicans
wanted to limit or even prohibit the sale of alcohol. They favored the
establishment of public schools—with a Protestant curriculum. As a
result, Catholics were strongly Democratic. In this period, the parties
were very evenly matched in strength.The Triumph of the Republicans. In the 1890s, however, the
Republicans gained a decisive edge. In that decade, the populist
movement emerged in the West and South to champion the inter-
ests of small farmers, who were often greatly in debt. Populists
supported inflation, which benefited debtors by reducing the real
value of outstanding debts. In 1896, when William Jennings Bryan
became the Democratic candidate for president, the Democrats
embraced populism.
As it turned out, the few western farmers who were drawn
to the Democrats by this step were greatly outnumbered by urban
working class voters who believed that inflation would reduce the
purchasing power of their paychecks and who therefore became Republicans. Political sci-
entists use the term realignment to refer to this kind of large-scale change in support for
the two major parties. From 1896 until 1932, the GOP was successful in presenting itself
as the party that knew how to manage the economy.The Progressive Interlude
In the early 1900s, a spirit of political reform arose in both major parties. Called
progressivism, this spirit was compounded of a fear of the growing power of large cor-
porations and a belief that honest, impartial government could regulate the economy
effectively. In 1912, the Republican Party temporarily split as former Republican president
Theodore Roosevelt campaigned for the presidency on a third-party Progressive ticket. The
Republican split permitted the election of Woodrow Wilson, the Democratic candidate,
along with a Democratic Congress.
Like Roosevelt, Wilson considered himself a progressive, although he and Roosevelt
did not agree on how progressivism ought to be implemented. Wilson’s progressivism
marked the beginning of a radical change in Democratic policies. Dating back to its very
foundation, the Democratic Party had been the party of limited government. Under
Wilson, the Democrats became for the first time at least as receptive as the RepublicansAndrew Jackson earned the name
“Old Hickory” for exploits during the War of- In 1828, Jackson was elected president
as the candidate of the new Democratic Party.
(Corbis/Bettmann)
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