January 14- we discussed polarization of America and why it arose, and how the two major parties have divided into the liberal and conservative ideologies. We also talked about the required textbook, and how to do the book report.
January 16- We discussed the three major functions of parties, and the first three other important functions of parties. See Week 1 notes.
January 21- We covered the 5 other important functions of parties. These 3 major functions of parties, and 8 other important functions of parties will likely be one of the questions on the midterm exam.
January 23- in anticipation of the ice storm affecting our class procedures, we actually covered two days of material in this Friday class. We covered all of the single spaced material for Weeks 2-3, History of the American Party System.We covered the First, Second, and Third party systems. We also talked about Jacksonian democracy, when democracy was broadened by abolishing property holding requirements for voting, all states moving to popular votes for presidential elections, and both parties moving from a caucus nominating system to national conventions. See the Chart at the end of Weeks 2-3 class notes.
January 26- We now move into remote instruction, which is taking me as much time to type in as it would take me to talk in an in-person class. Since we covered so much material on Friday, I wanted to review some key points. The "founders" distrusted parties as factions that divided our country, and President Washington included both major factions in his cabinet. The First Party System was from 1796-1828, when the Federalists opposed the Jeffersonian Republicans, and they had philosophical, economic, geographic, and foreign policy differences. This resulted in a "dualist" explanation for why America started having only two major political parties, as there always seemed to be one major interest that divided the country into opposing positions. The Federalists died out, and the Republicans divided into two factions, which became the Democrats and the Whigs in the Second Party System from 1828-1860. Once again, you had two different points of view that resulted in two political parties, but this time it was the "ins" versus the "outs", President Andrew Jackson's Democrats versus the anti-Jackson Whigs (named after the anti-monarchy British party). Jackson angered his opponents by being a strong President, vetoing the Bank of the U.S., threatening military force against South Carolina's effort to "nullify" the federal tariff, and refusing to enforce Chief Justice Marshall's decision protecting native American rights. The Democrats were the more pro-agriculture party based in the South, while the Whigs were more pro-business based in the Northeast. Democrats were the majority party in America, as most people were farmers, and Democrats attracted new groups such as Catholic immigrants to their party in the north, and pursued territorial expansion by acquiring the southwest territory in the Mexican-American War. This Second Party System came apart because of the issue of slavery in the western territories. Up until the 1850s, both parties supported compromises, outlawing slavery in the northern part of the western territories but permitting it in the southern portion. The 1850s saw two Democratic party Presidents who were termed "Northern men of Southern principles," and they appointed southern Democrats to the Supreme Court. The Court in the Dred Scott decision upheld the white southern point of view by holding that slaves were not citizens, they were property, the constitution protected people's property, and therefore Congress could not outlaw slavery anywhere in the western territories. This human rights issue split the country as well as the Whig Party, and the Whigs died out and a new party arose in the North, the Republican Party, dedicated to opposing slavery in the western territory. The Democrats split into northern and southern factions, but in the Third Party System from 1860-1896, southern agricultural interests and a sympathy for white southerners dominated the Democratic Party. The Republican Party during this 1860-1896 era was not only anti-slavery (even for existing southern states), but also a pro-business party that led the growing industrialization in America by protecting business from federal and state government regulations. Interestingly enough, there was no real majority party in the last three decades of the 1800s. Once the South rejoined the Union, the solidly Democratic South (as southern whites used fraud and violence to prevent black voting) often resulted in a Democratic-controlled House of Representatives, while Republican narrow victories in many northern states resulted in Republicans winning every presidential election (except for conservative Democrat Grover Cleveland's two non-consecutive terms). As such, the stage was set for the Fourth Party System and what caused it, which we will talk about on Wednesday.
Well, this review has already taken up over half of the class, so I'll spend the remaining time commenting on your textbook, which I myself am currently reading. One interesting and important theme is dividing southern states into two groups: growth versus stagnant states (chapter 2). Growth states have a higher educated population, a higher percent of residents born in other states, and fewer white Evangelicals, while stagnant states are less educated, more native born, and more Evangelical. The greater diversity of the growth state residents results in more competitive parties. The authors then rank the state chapters based on how competitive they are. The growth state of Virginia even has a Democratic-controlled state legislature, Georgia has two Republican U.S. Senators, and North Carolina often has Democratic governors. That's as far as I have read, so far. This dichotomous classification is different from V.O. Key's Rim South versus Deep South division. The Deep South was more agricultural with a higher percentage of African Americans, and included Mississippi, Alabama, South Carolina, Georgia, and Louisiana. The Rim South states were the remaining states. Chapter 1 of our textbook talked about how Republican presidential gains in the South started in the less tradition bound Rim South. Chapter 3 is an excellent, well written discussion of African Americans in Southern parties. Note the last paragraph of page 41, and the paragraph split between that page and the next one, which mentions specific African American politicians and states. Page 45 details how African American Democrats joined with Republicans in backing redistricting plans that resulted in more legislative seats for themselves, resulting in fewer white Democrats. Table 3.3 on page 49 lists African American candidates running for statewide races and their states and vote margins. Page 56 is fascinating, as it analyzes the effect of Photo Ids in Georgia, and why they did not hurt African American turnout. The Virginia chapter is interesting, as it discusses how state Democratic officials moved to the ideological center to be elected in the 1980s. Table 4-1 shows how competitive the state legislature is, switching party control back and forth since 1999. They also talk about Youngkin's victory in 2021, and how three Democratic statewide officers faced scandals in the previous administration. Georgia's chapter, Table 5.2 shows how close elections have become, with the two Democratic Senators barely elected. Pages 91-92, and 94-97 provide informative discussions of how they got elected. The North Carolina chapter discusses the entire post-Civil War history, splitting it into 6 different eras. Page 130 talks about two wave elections for Republicans, 2010 and 2014, the two Obama midterms. Page 132 talks about the Covid election, and how Democrats won the mail-in ballots. Table 6.3 on page 136 documents Democratic strength in gubernatorial races, as from 1992 thru 2024 Republicans lost all except for a one-termer (see third column, Republican percent of vote, only one time above 50%). On Table 6-4, notice the last three columns (for Democratic governors Cooper and now Stein); Democrats received at least 61% support among moderates, 36% among whites, and usually a majority of Independents. Cooper is now running to fill a vacant Senate seat held by Republicans. Well, we' re out of time, so see you all Wednesday.
January 28. We briefly reviewed the Third Party System, and then dealt with two important topics that will be on the test. They are: the Fourth Party System from 1896-1932, and the 7 reforms implemented during the Progressive movement. That movement was in the first two decades of the 1900s, and was supported by both major political parties. As such, it did not change the majority party status of the Republicans. We discussed party differences in the Fourth Party system. Friday's class will cover the 5th and 6th party systems. See the class notes for weeks 2-3.
January 30. We covered the Fifth and Sixth Party systems. For the sixth party system, we primarily talked about why Democrats lost their majority status.
February 2. We reviewed key aspects of the 5th and 6th party systems. We also speculated on maybe the 6th party system being two separate eras. We talked about problems that Republicans have had in attracting voter support.
February 4. We started Week 4 of the notes, and covered African Americans and Latinos/Hispanics.
February 6. We talked about various current events, and how they are shaped by and affect political parties.
February 9. We continued with Week 4 of the notes, and covered the college and high school educated, and the young versus the old. We mentioned gender differences in partisanship.
February 11. We talked at length about the differences between men and women in terms of attitudes on political issues, and why those differences exist. We had a great class discussion of people's experiences with the two sexes, and how that may help explain some of those differences. A student pointed out that the gender gap emerged around 1980 with Reagan's election. Another student pointed out that the two sexes are not homogeneous, as some women can be conservative, especially in rural, small town areas, and in the South. Some men can also break their stereotype, and be liberal.
February 13. We had a great class discussion on current political issues, and how they affect the two major parties in the U.S. I also talked about voter registration, turnout, urban-rural differences between the parties, and religious differences between the parties. This was an attendance credit day, so those in attendance got an absence removed from their records.
February 16. We started Week 5 of the notes, on Party Organization. We talked about how political parties are organized at the state level, and started the History of the Mississippi Democratic Party. We covered the first 4 time points in the lecture- the pre-1964 era of the white regulars; the 1964 Freedom Democrats era; the 1968 Loyalists unseating the regulars at the national convention; the 1972 repeat victory by the Loyalists. See the on-line notes for details.
February 18. We covered the next 6 time points for Week 5 of the notes, on the History of Mississippi's Democratic Party. See the notes.
February 20. We covered the last time point for Week 5 of the notes. We also talked about the Shaffer Mississippi chapter in the textbook.
February 23. We had a review for the in-class test on this Wednesday.
February 25. In-Class Midterm Exam.