From the Publisher: Encounter Books

Has the 2006 election ushered in a new era of Democratic dominance? According to Mark Stricherz, the party’s own history should make us pause. The Democratic Party has lost seven of the last ten presidential elections. In the last 30 years, no Democratic presidential nominee has received even half of the popular vote. And the party’s base of support is limited to the “blue” states on the coasts and in the Great Lakes region.

In this exceptional book, Stricherz shows why — even today — the Democrats are blue. He reveals how a group of secular professionals seized control of the Democratic Party, driving away Catholics and blue-collar workers. He shows how these secular liberals did nothing less than hijack a commission created at the 1968 Democratic convention, toppled the party bosses, created an activist-dominated nomination system, and built an affluent, secular base of support.

Clinton & McGovern at McGovern Library dedication.
Photo copyright Keith R. Wessel How did the party of the people lose the allegiance of the working-class and Catholic voters it once championed? Stricherz tells the stories of the postwar Catholic leaders who helped the party win presidential elections regularly and delivered for their cross-racial, blue-collar constituents. He then reveals how New Politics activists hijacked the McGovern Commission, changed the party platform to reflect their secular and elite values and systematically excluded socially conservative Democratic leaders.

Former Pennsylvania Gov. Bob Casey dressed as the Pope. Feminists distributed the pin at the 1992 convention to humiliate Casey. Pin courtesy of Mike DonohueThrough the voices of working-class, religious people, Stricherz demonstrates how the Democratic Party has alienated its most reliable voters, reducing the base of a once-great national party to the coastal enclaves that support its secular values.

Why the Democrats are Blue: How Secular Liberals Hijacked the People’s Party draws on interviews with four Democratic presidential nominees, nearly all of the active participants on the McGovern Commission, scores of party leaders and activists, and more than a hundred ordinary voters in Western Pennsylvania. It is based also on material from ten archives, including the National Archives and the libraries of Lyndon Johnson, George McGovern, and Jimmy Carter. Newspapers and magazines that have published articles on this topic include the Boston Globe, Weekly Standard, and Commonweal.

Filled with revelations and insight, Why the Democrats are Blue is likely to become a classic of contemporary political history.