Michael1942's Blog

The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party’s socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthier record of continuous operation in the United States, and is one of the oldest political parties in the world. Barack Obama is the 15th Democrat to hold the office of President of the United States. With the advent of the 112th Congress following the 2010 elections, the Democratic Party currently holds a minority of seats in the House of Representatives, but holds a majority of seats in the Senate. It currently holds a minority of state governorships, as well as a minority of state legislatures.
The Democratic Party evolved from Anti-Federalist factions that opposed the fiscal policies of Alexander Hamilton in the early 1790s. Thomas Jefferson and James Madison organized these factions into the Democratic-Republican Party. The party favored states’ rights and strict adherence to the Constitution; it opposed a national bank and wealthy, moneyed interests. The Democratic-Republican Party ascended to power in the election of 1800. Andrew Jackson is typically considered the first Democratic President of the United States.
Initially calling itself the “Republican Party,” Jeffersonians were labeled “Democratic” by the opposition Federalists, with the hope of stigmatizing them as purveyors of democracy or mob rule. By the Jacksonian era, the term “The Democracy” was in use by the party; the name “Democratic Party” was eventually settled upon. Since 1995 , Republicans have often referred to the Democratic Party using the phrase “Democrat Party” as a political epithet.

A Live Jackass Kicking a Dead Lion” by Thomas Nast. Harper’s Weekly, January 19, 1870, made the kicking donkey synonymous with the party.
The “Kicking Donkey” party logo is still a well-known symbol for the Democratic Party, despite no longer being the official logo of the party.
After the War of 1812, the party’s chief rival, the Federalist Party disbanded. Democratic-Republicans split over the choice of a successor to President James Monroe, and the party faction that supported many of the old Jeffersonian principles, led by Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren, became the Democratic Party. Along with the Whig Party, the Democratic Party was the chief party in the United States until the Civil War. The Whigs were a commercial party, and usually less popular, if better financed. The Whigs divided over the slavery issue after the Mexican–American War and faded away. In the 1850s, under the stress of the Fugitive Slave Law and the Kansas–Nebraska Act, anti-slavery Democrats left the party. Joining with former members of existing or dwindling parties, the Republican Party emerged.
The Democrats split over the choice of a successor to President James Buchanan along Northern and Southern lines, while the Republican Party gained ascendancy in the election of 1860. As the American Civil War broke out, Northern Democrats were divided into War Democrats and Peace Democrats. The Confederate States of America, seeing parties as evils, did not have any. Most War Democrats rallied to Republican President Abraham Lincoln and the Republicans’ National Union Party in 1864, which put Andrew Jackson in the Whitehouse.

The most common mascot symbol for the party is the donkey, although the party never officially adopted this symbol.[113] Andrew Jackson’s opponents had labeled him a jackass during the intense mudslinging in 1828. A political cartoon titled “A Modern Balaam and his Ass” depicting Jackson riding and directing a donkey (representing the Republican party).

Brief history lesson  is over and we now have the same two majors parties who I like to call “Scamocrats and Dupublicans”. Infer what you will from that.