Does your vote matter? Aren’t the parties the same? Does Democracy work?
Let’s investigate this.
I’m going to start the clock in 1933. There are a few reasons for this. The biggest reason is that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt pushed the Democratic Party towards its modern platform significantly. It would take another 62 years for the party factions to really be finalized for reasons we will get to.
First Democratic Trifecta under Roosevelt, 1933-1947 (1-14)
- New Deal
- Social Security
- Justices who would decide Brown v. Board of Education were nominated in this time period.
Second Democratic Trifecta under Truman, 1949-1953 (15-18)
- Marshall Plan
- Korean War
- Racial integration of military and federal agencies
- 2 Justices who would late decide Brown v. Board
First Republican Trifecta under Eisenhower, 1953-1955 (1-2)
- Nuclear proliferation
- Interstate Highways
- McCarthyism
- Earl Warren who presided over Brown v. Board of Education
Third Democratic Trifecta under Kennedy and Johnson, 1961-1969 (19-26)
- Civil Rights Act of 1964
- Voting Rights Act
- Civil Rights Act of 1968
Fourth Democratic Trifecta under Carter, 1977-1981 (27-31)
- Camp David Accords
- Panama Canal Treaties
- Continued Stagflation
Fifth Democratic Trifecta under Clinton, 1993-1995 (32-33)
- Motor Voter
- Don’t Ask Don’t Tell (improvement over what came before)
- Brady Handgun Violence
- NAFTA
- Violence Against Women Act
- Federal Assault Weapons Ban
Second Republican Trifecta under Bush, 2003-2007 (3-6)
- Iraq War
- Partial birth abortion ban
- Laci and Conner’s Law
- Central American Free Trade Agreement
- PATRIOT ACT Improvement and Reauthorization Act
- Tax cuts
Sixth Democratic Trifecta under Obama, 2009-2011 (34-35)
- Affordable Care Act
- Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act
- Dodd-Frank
- Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell repeal
- Increase Pell Grant
- Students borrow directly from the government
- Easier access to student loans
Third Republican Trifecta, 2017-2019 (7-8)
- Tax reform
When we look at the history of the 9 trifectas we can see that when Democrats tend to pass laws which target access to health care, reducing inequality, and fighting racism when they have trifectas. Republicans have only had a couple, where they tend to increase militarization, start wars, and cut taxes for the wealthy.
I believe these are all major issues.
History teaches us there is a very big difference between the parties.
Remember to vote in November.