The Coup D'etat of the Democratic Party

"You leave public opinion to me. Now, Joe, I think you better go back into the Senate and keep those senators lined up."
--James Taylor (Mr Smith Goes to Washington)

One of the notable ironies in United States political history is the transformation of the Democratic Party. Founded as the Democratic Republican Party by Jefferson and Madison from Antifederalist roots, the party was grounded in a natural distrust of big government. 'That government is best that governs least,' said Jefferson. Democrats preferred politics at the local level were people could remain more engaged and politicians could be monitored.

By the mid 1800s, the primary opposing party was the Republican Party. Combining Whig political philosophies with pietist belief that government was a valid instrument in saving mankind, Republicans pushed for ever larger government to enact the party platform. Democrats were thus engaged in a near continuous struggle to keep Republican initiatives within the confines of the Constitution.

Republicans liked to label themselves 'the party of great moral ideas' while Democrats declared themselves 'the party of personal liberty.'

As Rothbard observes, the libertarian heart of the Democratic party was extracted in the late 1800s. The factors that drove the transformation included the following:

Recognition by high level Republicans in the 1890s that current trends were likely to reduce Republican Party membership to a durable minority.

Movement toward pietism in Southern and Mountain state Democratic circles.

Many blamed the Grover Cleveland administration for the Panic of 1893, which subsequently led to a 2010esque rout in the 1894 elections.

Many sectors with strong Democratic Party ties, such as farmers, were drowning in debt inside in the midst of the economic slump that followed the 1893 panic. Replacing the gold standard w/ silver (the late 1800s equivalent of the monetary printing press), a proposal that was getting loud among some Democratic factions such as 1896 presidential hopeful William Jennings Bryan, was music to the ears of debtors.

Although Rothbard does not mention it, we should also note the influence of Lincoln, the first notable Republican president, in shifting the balance of power from the states to the federal government during his administration in a durable manner.

Sensing opportunity, Republican leadership approached influential Democrats who remained firmly committed to a gold standard with this proposal: If you support the Republican presidential nominee in 1896 (McKinley), then we will guarantee you that the gold standard will be preserved.

A goodly number of hard money Democrats took the bait and switched sides. This left a power vacuum in in the Democratic Party that was filled by Big Government populists led by Bryant at the Democratic National Convention in 1896.

Presto, the hard money, small government core of the Democratic Party was no more. Divide and conquer. An American coup d'etat.

Thus, for over one hundred years, the political ideals of the Party of Jefferson have been relegated to the backwaters of American politicals.

Efforts of the Tea Party are perhaps changing that.