Party On!

245 Pages·2017·3.136 MB·English

by  John Kenneth White, Matthew R. Kerbel

Party On!
Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson laid the foundations for today’s politi-
cal debates between Democrats and Republicans. Hamilton believed that freedom
must be married with a strong central government and especially an energetic
president, while Jefferson believed freedom derived from local civic virtues.
Throughout history, Democrats and Republicans have chosen sides in this eternal
debate—and sometimes even changed sides. Today, those debates have become
sharper and more polarized, as the two parties square off on major issues such as
healthcare, taxes, regulation, the role of the federal government, and what discre-
tion should be given to local authorities. The debate can be loud and shrill, even as
the public yearns for some accommodation between these two schools of thought.
People may generally desire an active government to deal with acute problems,
but localism still has widespread appeal, and political dysfunction often results
when these outcomes are presented as polar opposites and elections are reduced to
zero-sum contests. Social media adds to the polarization, as Americans gravitate
to websites that often ratify their preexisting points of view. The parties struggle
to function in this environment as they try to adapt to the political realities of the
social media age and the Trump era.
John Kenneth White is Professor of Politics at the Catholic University of Amer-
ica. His most recent book is What Happened to the Republican Party?: And What It
Means for American Presidential Politics.
Matthew R. Kerbel is Professor and Chair of Political Science at Villanova Uni-
versity. His most recent book is Next Generation Netroots: Realignment and the Rise
of the Internet Left.
Praise for the Second Edition
Super PACs, mega-donors, grassroots activists fueled by social media, a
Twitter-crazed president, and alternative facts. Where are the political parties in
this unstable and occasionally toxic mixture? John Kenneth White and Matthew
R. Kerbel give us an excellent analysis and keen insight into today’s national
political parties. This new edition of their important book is highly recommended.
Dennis W. Johnson, George Washington University
In this excellent new edition of their book, John White and Matthew Kerbel once
again demonstrate that change can only be appreciated and understood in the
context of what has come before. In the era of Donald Trump and social media,
Democrats and Republicans both face a myriad of new challenges. The authors
present historical context to establish convincingly that, in many ways, we’ve been
here before and the parties have managed to adapt. In spite of all the new chal-
lenges, they remain optimistic that the parties—and the democracy they serve—
can and will weather the current storms.
Robert Harmel, Texas A&M University
This new edition by White and Kerbel is an expert effort to explain the bewil-
dering changes in party politics in the age of Trump. As—or if—we recover our
bearings, we will gain much from their historical and empirical pathways through
America’s new and unexplored terrain.
Gerald Pomper, Rutgers University
Party On!
Political Parties from Hamilton and
Jefferson to Trump
Second Edition
John Kenneth White
Matthew R. Kerbel
Second edition published 2018
by Routledge
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and by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2018 Taylor & Francis
The right of John Kenneth White and Matthew R. Kerbel to be identified as author
of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in
any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered
trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to
infringe.
First edition published by Paradigm Publishers 2012
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: White, John Kenneth, 1952– author. | Kerbel, Matthew Robert, 1958– author.
Title: Party on! : political parties from hamilton and jefferson to trump / John Kenneth
White, Catholic University of America, Matthew R. Kerbel, Villanova University.
Description: Second edition. | New York, NY : Routledge, 2018. | Includes index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017015600 | ISBN 9781138103047 (hardback) |
ISBN 9781138103054 (pbk.) | ISBN 9781315103051 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Political parties—United States—History.
Classification: LCC JK2261 .W55 2018 | DDC 324.273009—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017015600
ISBN: 978-1-138-10304-7 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-138-10305-4 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-10305-1 (ebk)
Typeset in Bembo
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
For our daughters, Jeannette White and Gabrielle Kerbel

Contents
Preface Political Parties in a Time of Transition ix
Introduction Of Elephants and Donkeys, Candidates and
Institutions, Patriots and Progressives 1
Chapter One Political Parties in an American Setting 11
Chapter Two The Rise, Fall, and Rebirth of Party Politics 29
Chapter Three Party Organizations in the
Twenty-First Century 45
Chapter Four Nominating Presidents in a
Time of Trump 65
Chapter Five Party Brand Loyalty and the
American Voter 93
Chapter Six Parties and Social Media 113
Chapter Seven Campaign Finance and Transitional
Political Parties 133
Chapter Eight Elected Officials and the New Partisanship 159
Chapter Nine Third Parties in the Trump Era 179
Conclusion Hamilton’s Moment of Zen 205
Index 217
vii

Preface
Political Parties in a
Time of Transition
With the election of Donald Trump, the Republican and Democratic parties
face an existential crisis.
For Democrats, the quandary is clear: they control neither the presidency nor
Congress, and will have difficulty preventing Republicans from maintaining their
hold on the Supreme Court. Their situation at the state level is even worse. Barack
Obama departed the White House with Democrats in control of both the gov-
ernorship and legislature in a mere six states.1 In 2017, you can travel the 2,500
miles between Hartford, Connecticut, and Sacramento, California, without pass-
ing through a single state with a dominant Democratic majority. As president,
Obama did little to invest in the Democratic Party—preferring to maintain his
own campaign organization called “Obama for America,” later renamed “Organiz-
ing for America.” But Organizing for America could not duplicate the functions
of a political party, and Democrats paid a steep price. They lost 958 state legislative
seats during Obama’s presidency, depleting the talent pool that parties rely on
for future national candidates. One need only recall that Obama himself was an
obscure Illinois state senator just four years before ascending to the presidency.
As Democrats shift to a defensive position after relinquishing the White House,
they find themselves with limited resources for blocking or derailing the Trump
agenda. Trump’s 2016 victory gave the Republican Party an opportunity to enact
legislation that had been previously subject to Obama’s veto pen. Trump also won
the chance to fulfill GOP wishes by signing executive orders contrary to those
put in place by Obama on matters ranging from immigration to energy policy, as
he did in the first days of his presidency. Democrats will have some parliamentary
ix