Democratic Party

The Democratic Party has been in existence since the late 18th century and has been one of the two main political parties in the United States in the post–Civil War period. As of the inauguration of Barack Obama in 2009, the Democratic Party has had 16 presidents come from its ranks. The Democrats hold a majority of seats in both the Senate and the House of Representatives and control a majority of governorships in states across the country. Democrats have traditionally taken an active protectionist stance toward the environment and environmental issues, favoring governmental policies and programs as a means of ensuring environmental quality.

In 1792, the Democratic-Republican Party was founded by Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and other opponents of the Federalist Party. The modern Democratic Party generally traces its roots to the election of Andrew Jackson in 1828 and has since occupied a relatively central place as one of two major political parties in the United States, opposite the Republican Party for most of that time period. The Democratic Party has generally positioned itself as more liberal on social and economic issues than the Republican Party, most notably evidenced in the New Deal of Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Great Society of Lyndon B. Johnson. The Democrats were divided until the 1960s, though, largely along regional lines, with Southern Democrats generally being more conservative compared with Democrats from the northeast and the rest of the country. Many of the Democrats from southern states left the Democratic Party following passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964, culminating with the emergence of the so-called Reagan Democrats in 1980. Since this time, the Democratic Party has increasingly courted and received high levels of support from African Americans, Hispanics, the young, the working class, and highly educated professionals, especially those in academia. In the 21st century, Democrats have increasingly garnered support at the local, state, and national levels, culminating in the November 2008 election of Barack Obama, the first African American president in the history of the United States.

The Democratic Party has generally been seen as a stronger supporter of the environment than the Republican Party, even though many pieces of major environmental legislation have been signed into law by Republican presidents. However, Democrats have championed significant policies and legislation designed to protect the environment, particularly when issues of social justice were involved. The most notable of these efforts was the issuance of Executive Order 12898 by President Bill Clinton in 1994. This executive order called on federal agencies to work toward the achievement of environmental justice whenever possible, particularly in situations that would affect persons of color or low-income populations.

[Page 104]The current agenda of the Democratic Party focuses prominent attention on issues of environmental degradation, particularly in regard to the issue of climate change. Following the lead of former Democratic Vice President Al Gore, a champion in the fight against global warming, the Democratic Party promotes strong initiatives to reverse the rising level of greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere. This is in contrast to the 1990s, when members of the Democratic Party in the U.S. Senate joined Republicans to unanimously reject the Kyoto Protocol. Vice President Gore symbolically signed the protocol a year after this vote, but the United States remains one of a few countries worldwide that has not ratified the Kyoto Protocol. As noted, Democrats today are generally strong supporters of fighting climate change, typically linking global warming issues to issues of energy supply and to the development of alternatives to oil and coal. However, this is not a unanimously supported platform within the party, as many Democrats support oil and coal extraction for a variety of reasons. Regardless, the majority agenda of the Democratic Party calls for strong action to counter global warming now and to develop alternative energies that will be less harmful to the climate in the future.

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