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Barack Obama, the Democratic Party, and the Evolution of the American Party System
Abstract
This paper analyzes Obama’s relationship to the Democratic Party in historical perspective. It shows that Obama has established a complex and ambivalent relationship with the Democratic Party, in some ways strengthening, and in others enervating, his party. Nonetheless, nationalized, disciplined, and programmatic political parties appear to be a fixture of the contemporary political scene.
Extant research has given little consideration to the conditions under which presidential partisan behavior might vary. This has undermined comparative analyses and obscured important partisan behaviors in earlier periods simply because they took unfamiliar forms. This article develops theoretical expectations to aid in the detection of different varieties of presidential partisanship. Illustrative case studies then examine one type—sub-rosa partisanship—observed in the Eisenhower, Nixon, and Ford presidencies. Though not overt partisan displays like those that are common today, their efforts to build southern party organizations made important contributions to American political development and to evolving modes of presidential partisanship.
American political science has long struggled to deal adequately with issues of race. Many studies inaccurately treat their topics as unrelated to race. Many studies of racial issues lack clear theoretical accounts of the relationships of race and politics. Drawing on arguments in the American political development literature, this essay argues for analyzing race, and American politics more broadly, in terms of two evolving, competing “racial institutional orders”: a “white supremacist” order and an “egalitarian transformative” order. This conceptual framework can synthesize and unify many arguments about race and politics that political scientists have advanced, and it can also serve to highlight the role of race in political developments that leading scholars have analyzed without attention to race. The argument here suggests that no analysis of American politics is likely to be adequate unless the impact of these racial orders is explicitly considered or their disregard explained.
Barack Obama's election as the first Black president of the United States has stimulated much discussion about progress toward racial equality in the United States. Opinion surveys document that White Americans reliably perceive the rate of progress toward racial equality as greater than do Black Americans. We focus on two psychological factors that contribute to these diverging perceptions: (1) the tendency of White Americans and Black Americans to adopt different reference points to assess racial progress, and (2) the general tendency to frame social change as a zero-sum game in which Black Americans' gains entail losses for White Americans. We review research examining how these two factors contribute to racial polarization on the topic of progress toward equality. We also draw on excerpts from Barack Obama's speeches and writings to demonstrate that he often frames issues in ways that, our research suggests, has the potential to substantially bridge these racial divisions.
Scholars have long expressed concern that the ascendance of the modern
presidency since the New Deal and World War II, by hastening the decline
of political parties and fostering the expansion of the administrative
state, portended an era of chronically low public engagement and voter
turnout and an increasingly fractious and impotent national politics.
Presidents' inattentiveness to the demands of party-building and
grassroots mobilization, coupled with their willingness to govern through
administration, were seen as key obstacles to the revitalization of a
politics based in widespread political interest and collective
responsibility for public policy. This article argues that George W.
Bush's potent combination of party leadership and executive
administration, foreshadowed by Ronald Reagan's earlier efforts,
suggests the emergence of a new presidential leadership synthesis and a
“new” party system. This new synthesis does not promise a
return to pre-modern party politics; rather, it indicates a rearticulation
of the relationship between the presidency and the party system. The
erosion of old old-style partisan politics allowed for a more national and
issue-based party system to develop, forging new links between presidents
and parties. As the 2006 elections reveal, however, it remains to be seen
whether such parties, which are inextricably linked to executive-centered
politics and governance, can perform the critical function of moderating
presidential ambition and mobilizing public support for party principles
and policies. a
The Oxford Handbook of American Political Parties and Interest Groups is a major new volume that aims to help with the assessment of the current state of scholarship on parties and interest groups and the directions in which it needs to move. Never before has the academic literature on political parties received such an extended treatment. Thirty articles critically assess both the major contributions to the literature and the ways in which it has developed. With contributions from most of the leading scholars in the field, the Handbook provides a definitive point of reference for all those working in and around the area. Equally important, the articles also identify areas of new and interesting research. The articles offer a distinctive point of view, an argument about the successes and failures of past scholarship, and a set of recommendations about how future work ought to develop. This Handbook is one of The Oxford Handbooks of American Politics a set of reference books offering authoritative and engaging critical overviews of the state of scholarship on American politics.
This book is about governmental change in America. It examines the reconstruction of institutional power relationships that had to be negotiated among the courts, the parties, the president, the Congress and the states in order to accommodate the expansion of national administrative capacities around the turn of the twentieth century. Stephen Skowronek argues that new institutional forms and procedures do not arise reflexively or automatically in response to environmental demands on government, but must be extorted through political and institutional struggles that are rooted in and mediated by pre-established governing arrangements. As the first full-scale historical treatment of the development of American national administration, this book will provide a useful textbook for public administration courses.
WASHINGTON — The federal Minerals Management Service gave permission to BP and dozens of other oil companies to drill in the Gulf of Mexico without first getting required permits from another agency that assesses threats to endangered species — and despite strong warnings from that agency about the impact the drilling was likely to have on the gulf. Those approvals, federal records show, include one for the well drilled by the Deepwater Horizon rig, which exploded on April 20, killing 11 workers and resulting in thousands of barrels of oil spilling into the gulf each day. The Minerals Management Service, or M.M.S., also routinely overruled its staff biologists and engineers who raised concerns about the safety and the environmental impact of certain drilling proposals in the gulf and in Alaska, according to a half-dozen current and former agency scientists. Those scientists said they were also regularly pressured by agency officials to change the findings of their internal studies if they predicted that an accident was likely to occur or if wildlife might be harmed. Under the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act, the Minerals Management Service is required to get permits to allow drilling where it might harm endangered species or marine mammals. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, is partly responsible for protecting endangered species and marine mammals. It has said on repeated occasions that drilling in the gulf affects these animals, but the minerals agency since January 2009 has approved at least three huge lease sales, 103 seismic blasting projects and 346 drilling plans.
NEW ORLEANS — Over six days in May, far from the familiar choreography of Washington hearings, federal investigators grilled workers involved in the Deepwater Horizon disaster in a chilly, sterile conference room at a hotel near the airport here. The six-member panel of Coast Guard and Minerals Management Service officials pressed for answers about what occurred on the rig on April 20 before it exploded. They wanted to know who was in charge, and heard conflicting answers. They pushed for more insight into an argument on the rig that day between a manager for BP, the well's owner, and one for Transocean, the rig's owner, and asked Curt R. Kuchta, the rig's captain, how the crew knew who was in charge. "It's pretty well understood amongst the crew who's in charge," he said. "How do they know that?" a Coast Guard investigator asked. "I guess, I don't know," Captain Kuchta said. "But it's pretty well — everyone knows." Looking annoyed, Capt. Hung Nguyen of the Coast Guard, one of the chief federal investigators, shook his head. The exchange confirmed an observation he had made earlier in the day at the hearing. "A lot of activities seem not very tightly coordinated in the way that would make me comfortable," he said. "Maybe that's just the way of business out there." Investigators have focused on the minute-to-minute decisions and breakdowns to understand what led to the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon, killing 11 people and setting off the largest oil spill in United States history and an environmental disaster. But the lack of coordination was not limited to the day of the explosion. New government and BP documents, interviews with experts and testimony by witnesses provide the clearest indication to date that a hodgepodge of oversight agencies granted exceptions to rules, allowed risks to accumulate and made a disaster more likely on the rig, particularly with a mix of different companies operating on the Deepwater whose interests were not always in sync. And in the aftermath, arguments about who is in charge of the cleanup — often a signal that no one is in charge — have led to delays, distractions and disagreements over how to cap the well and defend the coastline. As a result, with oil continuing to gush a mile below the surface in the Gulf of Mexico, the laws of physics are largely in control, creating the daunting challenge of trying to plug a hole at depths where equipment is straining under more than a ton of pressure per square inch.
NEAR TULUL AL-BAQ, Iraq — President Obama has set an August deadline for the end of the combat mission in Iraq. Here at this makeshift desert camp in the insurgent badlands of northern Iraq, a mission is under way that is not going to stop then: American soldiers hunting terrorists and covertly watching an Iraqi checkpoint staffed by police officers whom the soldiers say they do not trust. "They're not checking anybody, and they're wondering why I.E.D.'s are getting in to town," said Staff Sgt. Kelly E. Young, 39, from Albertville, Ala., as he watched the major roadway that connects Baghdad with Mosul, regarded as the country's most dangerous city. He referred to improvised explosive devices, the military term for homemade bombs. The August deadline might be seen back home as a milestone in the fulfillment of President Obama's promise to end the war in Iraq, but here it is more complex. American soldiers still find and kill enemy fighters, on their own and in partnership with Iraqi security forces, and will continue to do so after the official end of combat operations. More Americans are certain to die, if significantly fewer than in the height of fighting here. The withdrawal, which will reduce the number of American troops to 50,000 — from 112,000 earlier this year and close to 165,000 at the height of the surge — is a feat of logistics that has been called the biggest movement of matériel since World War II. It is also an exercise in semantics. What soldiers today would call combat operations — hunting insurgents, joint raids between Reprints This copy is for your personal, noncommercial use only. You can order presentation-ready copies for distribution to your colleagues, clients or customers here or use the "Reprints" tool that appears next to any article. Visit www.nytreprints.com for samples and additional information. Order a reprint of this article now.
From Foreign Affairs , July/August 2007 Summary: After Iraq, we may be tempted to turn inward. That would be a mistake. The American moment is not over, but it must be seized anew. We must bring the war to a responsible end and then renew our leadership --military, diplomatic, moral --to confront new threats and capitalize on new opportunities. America cannot meet this century's challenges alone; the world cannot meet them without America. Barack Obama is a Democratic Senator from Illinois and a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination.
GRAND ISLE, La. — Deano Bonano, the emergency preparedness director for Jefferson Parish, marched from a motor home being used as a command center to an office across the street filled with BP officials. It was late May. Oil had been creeping into the passes around Grand Isle. Two fleets of fishing boats were supposed to be laying out boom, the long floating barriers to corral oil and protect the fragile marshes of Barataria Bay. But the boats were gathered on the inland side of the bay — the wrong side — anchored idly as the oil oozed in from the Gulf of Mexico. BP officials said they had no way of contacting the workers on the boats, Mr. Bonano recalled. "You're watching the oil come in," Mr. Bonano said, "and they can't even move." For much of the last two months, the focus of the response to the Deepwater Horizon explosion has been a mile underwater, 50 miles from shore, where successive efforts involving containment domes, "top kills" and "junk shots" have failed, and a "spillcam" shows tens of thousands of barrels of oil hemorrhaging into the gulf each day. Closer to shore, the efforts to keep the oil away from land have not fared much better, despite a response effort involving thousands of boats, tens of thousands of workers and millions of feet of containment boom.
WASHINGTON — As President Obama and his top aides were convening a series of meetings that led to the announcement in March of a major expansion of offshore oil drilling, the troubled history of the agency that regulates such drilling operations was well known. Mr. Obama, shortly after taking office, had assigned Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to clean up the agency, the Minerals Management Service. The office's history of corruption and coziness with the industry it was supposed to regulate had been the subject of years of scathing reports by government auditors, lurid headlines and a score of Congressional hearings. But the promised reforms of the agency were slow to arrive, and the subject of the minerals service never came up at the meetings leading to the new drilling policy, according to a senior administration official involved in the discussions. "I don't recall a conversation on how the offshore drilling and M.M.S. issues overlapped," said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss confidential deliberations involving the president.
As the Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate from Illinois, Barack Obama electrified the country with his keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in 2004. After having served only 2 years in his first term as a U.S. senator from Illinois, Senator Obama in 2007 announced his candidacy for president of the United States of America. He is the rising star in the Democratic Party and regularly draws huge crowds at his campaign events. He is only the third African American of a major political party to run for the office of the president. Obama is extremely charismatic and appeals to voters across racial lines and party lines. The heart of his campaign is a message of hope that transcends race and attempts to bring a divided country together.
In early work, I argued that Barack Obama, the 44th president of the United States, often represented, in his political speeches and writings, a form of philosophical pragmatism with special relations to the University of Chicago and its reform tradition. That form of pragmatism, especially evident in the work of such early figures as John Dewey and Jane Addams, and such later figures as Saul Alinsky, Abner Mikva, David Greenstone, Richard Rorty, Danielle Allen, and Cass Sunstein, contributed greatly to the intellectual atmosphere that Obama breathed during his many years in Chicago as a community organizer, senior lecturer in the University of Chicago Law School, and emerging figure in Illinois politics. And that form of pragmatism has, from Dewey to Obama, been keenly concerned to appropriate for its purposes the legacy of Abraham Lincoln. My purpose in this essay is to set out these filiations in ways more accessible to a global audience, and to carry the story forward through the opening moves of the Obama presidency.
Barack Obama campaigned on a platform of “Change We Can Believe In.” One of the biggest changes many anticipated with his election was a dramatic break with the previous administration's counterterror policy. There were good reasons for thinking that this would be the case. George W. Bush was a Republican who took his cues from the most conservative elements of his party, including neoconservatives, the religious right, and other proponents of an assertive stance of U.S. global primacy and a forward-leaning posture in the war on terror. Conversely, Barack Obama is a liberal Democrat who opposed the Iraq War and seeks to “reset” America's relations with other countries around the world by recommitting the United States to a more moderate approach to waging the war against al-Qaeda, including measures such as adopting a more multilateral foreign policy, closing the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, ending the practices of extraordinary rendition and enhanced interrogation, and showing a greater respect for civil liberties domestically.
The high-stakes debate over health care reform captured the public's attention for nearly a year. Options ranging from fully nationalized insurance to maintaining the status quo were considered, though little consensus as to the appropriate solution emerged. Most surveys indicated an agreement that a problem existed with the current health care system and a clear and consistent majority favored taking some action on health care reform. However, clear public support for any specific reform proposal was difficult to muster since most individuals also indicated satisfaction with their own health care. This paper explores this disconnect in public opinion within the context of loss aversion. We note that even as elites actively attempted to frame the issue to counteract the public's loss averse tendencies, these strategies met with little success in generating support for Obama's reform plan. However, we also argue that these loss averse tendencies will now work against any Republican efforts to repeal the health reform legislation.
A key theme for Obama's presidential campaign was the transcendence of all national difference, be it political, cultural, or racial. By drawing heavily on biography and by mapping his "genetic heritage" onto the body politic as he did in many speeches, Obama used racial pluralism writ small to blur the boundaries between his own identity and the national self he seeks to re-interpret. Supporters responded in kind to this merged corporeal identity - symbolically adopting his middle name and digitally merging their own visages with the Shepard Fairey "Hope" poster are but two examples. Since his election, Obama has confronted political counter-uses of his bodily identity, from charges that he lacks birthright citizenship to menacing visual renderings of his face that are meant to portray a socialist agenda. In this paper I analyze the relationship of race, corporeality, and the presidency using the medieval notion of the king's two bodies - the literal corpus of the king and its link to the figurative corpus of the nation as articulated in opposing narratives and images of the Obama presidency.
Barack Obama came into the White House with the largest, most wired supporter network in American history. No President has ever managed the federal government while simultaneously attempting to lead a wired supporter network that can talk to itself, and organize itself, on a local and potentially national scale. While many Presidents do try to speak directly to the public by routing around Congress and the media, no President has possessed such a massive, interactive list of supporters. Furthermore, no President has ever converted a winning campaign’s volunteer network into an organization devoted to enacting a national agenda.On January 17, 2009, the Obama for America Campaign was converted into Organizing for America (OFA), and incorporated as an arm of the DNC. This article focuses on OFA’s work during the first year of the Obama administration, assessing an unprecedented attempt by a President to build a “governance organizing” model, drawing on qualitative surveys with over 70 volunteers and activists, a range of Congressional staff, and former members of the Obama presidential campaign.The first section reviews OFA’s activities in 2009, which have been covered and discussed only sporadically by most media and political observers. The second section features original reporting drawing on interviews with three salient stakeholder groups: Congressional staff, former staff for Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, and members and volunteers of OFA. The third section provides a broader analysis of this new reporting on OFA, and explores areas for potential further debate and inquiry into OFA and its new organizing model.
The presidency was designed to have limited power, suspended in a series of checks and balances. But executive authority expanded dramatically over time. It took the presidential excesses of Vietnam and Watergate to prompt a legislative resurgence, a sequence bookended by Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.'s The Imperial Presidency and James Sundquist's The Decline and Resurgence of Congress. Yet even before September 11, assertive presidents and fragmented Congresses had allowed the presidency to regain much of the initiative lost in the 1970s; and in the global war on terror, a “new” imperial presidency has been cemented, grounded in broad claims to a “unitary” executive branch. Will there be another legislative resurgence in response? The question goes to the legitimacy of representative government's responses to the crises that already define the twenty-first century.
Four decades ago, at the height of Lyndon Johnson's Great Society, Congress passed and the president signed landmark legislation to ensure voting rights, liberalize and expand immigration, and make higher education more accessible. In 2008, a coalition of minorities and upscale whites formed a coalition to elect Barack Obama to the White House. Although many of the Great Society goals remain elusive, the new Democratic majority assembled by Obama represents the emergence of a Great Society electoral coalition.
Missed Chances to Act on Oil Spill In Standoff with Environmental Officials, BP Stays with an Oil Spill Dispersant
- Campbell Robertson
- Eric Lipton
Campbell Robertson and Eric Lipton, " U.S. Missed Chances to Act on Oil Spill, " ew York Times, May 1, 2010.
171 Elisabeth Rosenthal, " In Standoff with Environmental Officials, BP Stays with an Oil Spill Dispersant, " ew
York Times, May 24, 2010.
Afghan Deadline is Cutting Two Ways
- David Sanger
David Sanger, "Afghan Deadline is Cutting Two Ways," ew York Times, July 21, 2010.
Transcript: OFA's Mitch Stewart and Jeremy Bird Speak to TPMDC Talking Points Memo Obama Troops Break Ranks on Health Obama Political Arm Under Fire
- Christina Quoted In
- Kenneth Bellantoni
- Vogel
123 Quoted in Christina Bellantoni, " Transcript: OFA's Mitch Stewart and Jeremy Bird Speak to TPMDC, " Talking
Points Memo, November 11, 2009.
124 See for example, Kenneth Vogel, " Obama Troops Break Ranks on Health, " Politico, December 17, 2009; Ben
Smith and Alex Isenstadt, " Obama Political Arm Under Fire, " Politico, January 13, 2010.
Democrats Far Outspend Republicans on Field Operations, Staff Expenditures
- T W Farnam
T.W. Farnam and Brad Haynes, "Democrats Far Outspend Republicans on Field Operations, Staff Expenditures,"
Wall Street Journal, November 3, 2008.
Year One of Organizing for America 128 Personal interview with OFA volunteer
- Ari Melber
Ari Melber, " Year One of Organizing for America. "
128 Personal interview with OFA volunteer, June 9, 2010.
Great Limits Come with Great Power, Ex-Candidate Finds 153 David Stout Obama Moves to Reverse Bush's Labor Policies Abortion Foes Find New Climate: Obama Repeats Commitment to Right to Choose
- Gay Stolberg
Gay Stolberg, " Great Limits Come with Great Power, Ex-Candidate Finds, " ew York Times, January 25,
2009.
153 David Stout, " Obama Moves to Reverse Bush's Labor Policies, " ew York Times, January 31, 2009; Andrea
Stone, " Abortion Foes Find New Climate: Obama Repeats Commitment to Right to Choose, " USA Today, January
23, 2009.
Faith-Based Office to Expand its Reach Obama Cautious on Faith-Based Initiatives
- Michelle Boorstein
- Kimberly Kindy
Michelle Boorstein and Kimberly Kindy, " Faith-Based Office to Expand its Reach, " Washington Post, February
6, 2009; Carrie Johnson, " Obama Cautious on Faith-Based Initiatives, " Washington Post, September 15, 2009.
156
View is Bleaker than Official Portrayal of War in Afghanistan
- C J Chivers
- Carlotta Gall
- Andrew Lehren
- Mark Mazzetti
- Jane Perlez
- Eric Schmitt
C.J. Chivers, Carlotta Gall, Andrew Lehren, Mark Mazzetti, Jane Perlez, and Eric Schmitt, "View is Bleaker than
Official Portrayal of War in Afghanistan," ew York Times, July 25, 2010.
Congress Passes Financial Reform
- Brady Dennis
Brady Dennis, "Congress Passes Financial Reform," The Washington Post, July 16, 2010.
The Quiet Revolution The ew Republic February 1, 2001.www.tnr.com. 162 Daniel Carpenter, The Forging of Bureaucratic Autonomy: Regulations, etworks, and Policy Innovations in Executive Agenices
- John B Judis
John B. Judis, " The Quiet Revolution, " The ew Republic February 1, 2001.www.tnr.com.
162 Daniel Carpenter, The Forging of Bureaucratic Autonomy: Regulations, etworks, and Policy Innovations in
Executive Agenices, 1862-1928 (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2001).
From Promise to Power The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama
- Obama Mendell
Mendell, Obama : From Promise to Power (New York: Amistad, 2007), 64-80; David Remnick, The
Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama (New York: Knopf, 2010), 125-181.
Obama Camp Relying Heavily on Ground Effort Obama's Secret Weapons: Internet, Databases, and Psychology The Man Who Made Obama
- Alec Macgillis
Alec MacGillis, " Obama Camp Relying Heavily on Ground Effort, " Washington Post, October 12, 2008; Sarah
Lai Stirland, " Obama's Secret Weapons: Internet, Databases, and Psychology, " Wired, October 29, 2008; Lisa
Taddeo, " The Man Who Made Obama, " Esquire, March 2009.
Full Text of Senator Barack Obama's Announcement for President
- Senator Barack Obama
Senator Barack Obama, "Full Text of Senator Barack Obama's Announcement for President," February 10, 2007,
Organizing for America (Barack Obama.com), http://www.barackobama.com.
The New Politics: Barack Obama, Party of One
- John Heilemann
John Heilemann, "The New Politics: Barack Obama, Party of One," ew York Magazine, January 11, 2009.
Obama, on Own, to Set Up Panel on Nation's Debt, " ew York Times 158 Charlie Savage Obama's Embrace of Bush Tactic Criticized by Lawmakers from Both Parties
- Jackie Calmes
Jackie Calmes, " Obama, on Own, to Set Up Panel on Nation's Debt, " ew York Times, January 27, 2010.
158 Charlie Savage, " Obama's Embrace of Bush Tactic Criticized by Lawmakers from Both Parties, " ew York
Times, August 9, 2009.
Obama Says He Can Ignore Some Parts of Spending Bill
- Charlie Savage
Charlie Savage, "Obama Says He Can Ignore Some Parts of Spending Bill," ew York Times, March 12, 2009.
It's Obama's White House, but it's Still Bush's World
- Julian Zelizer
Julian Zelizer, "It's Obama's White House, but it's Still Bush's World," The Washington Post, August 15, 2010.