Most of the story in Why the Democrats are Blue takes place behind closed doors. But some of it can be told via television. This page charts the transformation of the Democratic Party's presidential wing.

From 1932 to 1968, the national party was a coalition of New Deal constituencies, the vast majority of whose members were Northern Catholics and Southern white Protestants. The party advanced a cross-racial, working-class agenda aimed at reducing economic inequality.

See this clip from 1948 of President Harry Truman attacking the anti-labor Taft-Harley law

 

Watch this commercial from 1960 of nominee John F. Kennedy supporting medical care for the  vulnerable and working classes

See this ad from 1968 of nominee Hubert Humphrey's campaign attacking Richard Nixon's economic record.

In 1968, the national party was in transition. As a result of President Johnson's civil rights legislation and Great Society programs, Southern whites defected to the Republicans or former Alabama George Wallace. Although Humphrey sought to preserve the New Deal coalition, his two main rivals for the presidential nomination did not.

Bobby Kennedy ran on a have-not or black-blue coalition. Although Kennedy's alliance had more racial minorities and fewer Southern whites in it, he sought to advance a fully cross-racial, working-class agenda.

See this clip about Bobby Kennedy's outreach to "people with problems," especially blacks and Hispanics.

By contrast, Gene McCarthy ran on a coalition that prefigured the current Democratic alliance. He appealed more to white-collar workers and university students concerned ending the Vietnam War.

Watch this interview of writer Gore Vidal explaining why he backed McCarthy rather than Kennedy.

In 1972, the national party had been transformed. Gone were not only Southern whites but also Northern Catholics. In their place were white-collar workers, seculars, and racial minorities. The agenda of this Social Change coalition was very different from its New Deal and black-blue alliances.

See this ad for George McGovern's presidential campaign. 

Watch and listen to this interview from leading feminist Gloria Steinem 

In 1976, the national party was in transition again. Working-class Democratic leaders, indignant that secular liberals had hijacked the party machinery, reduced the influence of secular liberal activists over the presidential nominating process. In consequence, they built a Broad coalition that brought back many Southern whites and Northern Catholics without losing secular liberals.

This commercial for nominee Jimmy Carter shows his outreach to blue-collar workers and fellow Southerners.

In 1980, the national party was in the grip of secular liberals. Liberation feminists had pushed through a rules change that required that half of all presidential delegates must be female. As a result, the party was a coalition of Social Change constituencies and sought to advance a liberation-minded agenda.

This ad for Carter's re-election assailed GOP nominee Ronald Reagan's policies on the environment, student unrest at Berkeley, and dealing with foreign nations. 

 In 1992, liberation feminists' control over the party platform on cultural issues was complete. They forced nominee Bill Clinton, who would be recognized as "the greatest politician of his generation," to prevent pro-life Governor Robert Casey of Pennsylvania from speaking at the convention about changing the party's position on the issue of abortion.

Casey gave this speech in 1994 about the political and legal weaknesses of the Supreme Court's decision in Roe v. Wade -- and the Democratic Party's opposition to any legal protections for a whole class of human beings

Today, the grip of secular liberals over the national party machinery continues. Despite the fact that the party's last two nominees lost the election partly because of their liberal stands on cultural issues, all Democratic presidential candidates must declare their opposition to any legal protection for unborn infants.

See this clip in which every Democratic candidate opposed the Supreme Court's recent decision banning partial-birth abortion.