What Does it Take for Democrats to Win?
In today’s fast-paced news cycle, it can be hard to remember what happened last week, let alone decades ago. Michael Kazin’s "What It Took to Win: A History of the Democratic Party" describes the party’s development as a force for advancing the interests of working people. “Democrats,” he writes, “won national elections and were competitive in most states when they articulated an egalitarian economic vision and advocated laws intended to fulfill it – first only for white Americans but eventually for every citizen.” Kazin captures the spirit of this ideal in the term “moral capitalism,” which he explores through nine periods in American history, from Andrew Jackson’s war against the Second Bank of the United States to Franklin Roosevelt’s attack on “economic royalists,” and beyond.
Trained at Stanford and now a professor at Georgetown University, Kazin openly admits that his policy preferences align with those of the modern Democratic Party. And yet, favoritism does not prevent Kazin from scrutinizing his party and acknowledging its missteps. He explains that Democrats have been on the wrong side of history on many civil rights issues, beginning with the slaveholding Thomas Jefferson and continuing with Southern Democrats who preserved Jim Crow in the twentieth century. Kazin believes, though, that despite this history, Democrats remain the only political party promoting ideas that can solve big problems facing America and the world.
At more than 400 pages, "What It Took to Win" is not a quick read. But Kazin keeps the reader engaged by tracing the Democratic Party’s development from one presidential election through the next, starting in 1820 and continuing through our most recent election, 200 years later. With 49 presidential elections in the chronology, it would seem easy for readers to get lost. Many people mix up the 1996 and 1992 elections, for example, and who knows much about the election of 1872? But Kazin’s book is well organized, with each of his nine sections spanning about 25 years and five or six elections
The election of 1828 marked the rise of Jackson, a “self-made, blunt-speaking fighter from the hinterland,” whose victory represented a sea change in politics and set the tone for the Democratic Party’s future. Jackson and his “untutored instincts” gave rise to a movement that refashioned Democrats as the party campaigning “for the working man” and “against aristocracy.” These priorities coalesced around Jackson’s decision to oppose a recharter of the powerful Second Bank of the United States, which Jackson turned “into a grand populist drama.” The example of a political leader fighting back against powerful economic interests inspired later campaigns by William Jennings Bryan, Woodrow Wilson, and Franklin Roosevelt.
Kazin seems dismayed by the Democratic Party’s current direction. The book’s final chapter, “Cosmopolitans in Search of a New Majority, 1994–2020,” laments the absence of a common purpose to unite working people. The party is missing some of that “moral capitalism” Kazin described at the book’s outset. But he leaves readers wanting more from him on the potential pitfalls of Democrats’ current direction, their leftward drift away from the big-tent platform that once attracted a broad middle-class constituency. The political signs are ominous. In 2020, months after Joe Biden said, “If you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t black,” Politico detailed how African-American voters felt indifferent toward the political process as a result of their frustration with Democrats. Also in 2020, wealthy suburban voters became a key constituency in Biden’s narrow victory, while Trump continued to gain among working-class people – the kinds of voters who had showed up for Democrats across eras, from Jackson to Roosevelt to Obama.
Republicans are continuing to hone their appeal among voters disenchanted with Democrats. Recent polls show support for Republicans growing among Hispanics and Biden’s approval rating sinking among blacks. Kazin might have assessed the possibility that Democrats will lose more support among minority voters and whether the party has taken these constituencies for granted. Still, "What It Took to Win" is an insightful look at the history of the Democratic Party and an informative resource for Democrats plotting a strategy for 2024 and beyond.
Todd Carney is a lawyer and frequent contributor to RealClear Policy. He earned a juris doctorate from Harvard Law School and a bachelor’s degree from American University. The views in this piece are his alone and do not reflect the views of his employer.
John Waters is a writer in Nebraska.
