New Democrats: Encyclopedia II - New Democrats - Overview

New Democrats - Overview

Ronald Reagan attracted many previously-Democratic voters in his 1980 and 1984 campaigns against Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale. New Democrats saw the defeats of Carter and Mondale as proof not that the majority of the electorate in the United States had been truly converted to conservatism, but rather just that it had rejected the excesses that it had come to associate with the traditional Democratic version of liberalism. The New Republic has been associated with the movement as it generally takes moderate-to-liberal views on social issues, but was associated since the 1970s with a vigorously anti-Communist, and now anti-radical Islamist, foreign policy.

Bill Clinton was the single Democratic politician of the 1990s most identified with the New Democrats; his promise of welfare reform in the 1992 presidential campaign, and its subsequent enactment, was a classic New Democrat position, as were his 1992 promise of a middle-class tax cut and his 1993 expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit for the working poor. New Democrats were also noteworthy for being less connected with organized labor and was more open to deregulation than previous Democratic leadership had been. This was especially evident in the large scale deregulation of agriculture and the telecommunications industries^{[citation needed]}, as well as the ratification of NAFTA, all of which were opposed, in principle, by more liberal Democrats.

The New Democrats claimed many successes in the 90's. The budget was balanced for the first time in over 30 years, and the more moderated approach to economic affairs had allowed for more stable growth^{[citation needed]}. This perception largely helped give Clinton a considerable victory in 1996, and advanced Democrats at the state and local levels in the late 90s. At this time, it is also worth noting that the ideologies of the more liberal and moderate wings of the Democratic party drew closer together^{[citation needed]}. Although liberal Democrats had been alienated by the welfare reform of the mid 90s, most would eventually admit that the previous system had been largely inefficient^{[citation needed]}, and that social programs should be more effective, even as they sought to expand them. As NAFTA's effects began to hit the rust belt and other manufacturing areas, many New Democrats also began to implement practices of fair trade^{[citation needed]}, and international commercial treaties began to have more strict preconditions on labor and envirornmental practices in the late 90s^{[citation needed]}.

New Democrat successes under Clinton are largely regarded to be the inspiration for Tony Blair in the United Kingdom and his moderate policies, which he explicitly refers to as "New Labour."

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Overview", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki