The Democratic Party (Dem)

**Ideology** | **Majority:*** Modern liberalism

**Factions:**
* Centrism
* Progressivism

The **Democratic Party** is one of two major contemporary political parties in U.S.G.R. Founded in 1828, it was predominantly built by Martin Van Buren, who assembled politicians in every state behind war hero Andrew Jackson, making it the world's oldest active political party. The party is a big tent of competing and often opposing viewpoints, but modern American liberalism, a variant of social liberalism, is the party's majority ideology. The party also has notable centrist, social democratic, and left-libertarian factions. Its main political rival has been the Republican Party since the 1850s.

The Democratic-Republican Party splintered in 1824 into the short-lived National Republican Party and the Jacksonian movement which in 1828 became the Democratic Party. Under the Jacksonian era, the term "The Democracy" was in use by the party, but the name "Democratic Party" was eventually settled upon and became the official name in 1844. Members of the party are called "Democrats" or "Dems".

The term "Democrat Party" has also been in local use but has usually been used by opponents since 1952 as a disparaging term. However, the use of the term "Democrat" as an adjective is not generally considered offensive in other contexts, such as "Democrat President", "Democrat Voters", "Democrat Senators", "Democrat Candidate", "Democrat Governor", etc. Nonetheless, its usage is still incorrect.

The most common mascot symbol for the party has been the donkey, or jackass. Andrew Jackson's enemies twisted his name to "jackass" as a term of ridicule regarding a stupid and stubborn animal. However, the Democrats liked the common-man implications and picked it up too, therefore the image persisted and evolved. Its most lasting impression came from the cartoons of Thomas Nast from 1870 in *Harper's Weekly*. Cartoonists followed Nast and used the donkey to represent the Democrats and the elephant to represent the Republicans.

Upon foundation, the Democratic Party supported agrarianism and the Jacksonian democracy movement of President Andrew Jackson, representing farmers and rural interests and traditional Jeffersonian democrats. Since the 1890s, especially in northern states, the party began to favor more liberal positions (the term "liberal" in this sense describes modern liberalism, rather than classical liberalism or economic liberalism). In recent exit polls, the Democratic Party has had broad appeal across most socioeconomic and ethnic demographics.

Historically, the party has represented farmers, laborers, and religious and ethnic minorities as it has opposed unregulated business and finance and favored progressive income taxes. In foreign policy, internationalism (including interventionism) was a dominant theme from 1913 to the mid-1960s. In the 1930s, the party began advocating social programs targeted at the poor. The party had a fiscally conservative, pro-business wing, typified by Grover Cleveland and Al Smith, and a Southern conservative wing that shrank after President Lyndon B. Johnson supported the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The major influences for liberalism were labor unions (which peaked in the 1936–1952 era) and African Americans. Environmentalism has been a major component since the 1970s. The 21st century Democratic Party is predominantly a coalition of centrists, liberals, and progressives, with significant overlap between the three groups. Political scientists characterize the Democratic Party as less ideologically cohesive than the Republican Party due to the broader diversity of coalitions that compose the Democratic Part