Asian American

Following the Civil Rights Movement and the subsequent ethnic nationalist organizing of the late 1960s and 1970s, people of Asian descent or heritage in the United States began adopting the individual and collective identity of “Asian American.” U.S.- and foreign-born Asians, particularly activists and community leaders, sought an alternative to “Oriental” and other problematic, imposed terminology. They also wanted to independently develop a term and identity that was comprehensive and inclusive in the spirit of pan-ethnic solidarity, especially since the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act resulted in a much more diverse Asian America. By the 1970s, greater numbers of Asian immigrants and refugees settled in the U.S., many of whom represented other parts of the Chinese and Japanese diasporas as well as increased immigration from India, the Philippines, South Korea, and beyond. Rather than individuals solely identifying themselves along ethnic lines, “Asian American” encouraged unity (i.e., “Asian American” instead of just “Chinese” or “Chinese American”). Moreover, many supporters of the “Asian American” umbrella term believed in the “power in numbers,” which would – in theory – translate into stronger cultural and political influence in American society.

Democrat

The Democratic Party came of age with the election of Andrew Jackson to the White House in 1828. Throughout the 19th century, Southern Democrats – a strong faction within the party – defended the institution of enslaving Black families. Following the Civil War and Reconstruction, Southern Democrats continued to uphold white supremacy through Jim Crow laws and by advocating for states’ rights as a mechanism for maintaining racial segregation and curbing Black freedom. Outside of the South, the Democratic Party was building a strong base of working-class and European immigrant voters, especially in the industrial centers of the Midwest and Northeast. By the 1930s, the Democratic Party made a swift move to the left, particularly with President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal. These social programs sought to put Americans back on their feet during the Depression. Working-class whites in rural and urban areas remained in the party. Meanwhile, Black voters increasingly moved to the Democratic Party, especially since the 1960s as presidents like Lyndon B. Johnson and Jimmy Carter, congressional leaders, and Black civil rights activists credited the party for expanding opportunities for immigrants and people of color. Throughout the latter third of the 20th century, artists, well-educated professionals in the city, and working-class rural or urban dwellers (where there were larger concentrations of agricultural, factory, and union jobs) remained loyal to the Democratic Party. By the 1990s, newer immigrants had moved into the Democratic column as the party solidified their reputation as “friendlier” to Latinos and Asian Americans. Women and LGBTQIA+ peoples also emerged as an increasingly reliable voting bloc thanks to the party’s positions on reproductive rights, same-sex marriage, and the Republican Party’s views on abortion and their handling of the AIDS/HIV crisis – much of this fueled by the rise of evangelicalism since the 1970s. By the 2000s, the “big tent” Democratic coalition expanded while also starting to fracture. Affluent white voters (often with advanced educations and salaried careers), urban and well-to-do suburban voters, women, and younger people grew increasingly attracted to the party, while its historic coalition of working-class voters – particularly its white working-class base – looked elsewhere, especially in the 2010s as the perils of globalization and automation frustrated voters in the metropolitan Rust Belt and in rural zones. Democratic-backed neoliberal policies on trade and commerce as well as center-left versions of welfare reform in the 1990s contributed to these economic challenges. Though white union voters have jumped ship before (e.g., “Reagan Democrats” in the 1980s), this voting bloc nevertheless backed the Democratic Party until recent years. In the 2020s, Democrats have stayed demographically diverse, though the rise of Donald Trump’s Republican Party has resulted in what appears to be a political realignment. While mainstream Democrats have stood as a center-left party, its generally liberal and progressive positions on matters of race, gender, and sexuality since the 2010s have not landed well with working-class voters across racial lines – many of whom hold more conservative views on culture and identity politics. Moreover, neoliberal if not conservative attempts to address economic issues have marred the Democrats’ reputation as a party of working people. 

Republican

Largely comprised of Northerners opposed to the expansion of slavery, the Republican Party (a.k.a. the “Grand Old Party” [GOP]) was founded in 1854. While Republicans advocated for abolition, party leaders did not necessarily hold anti-racist views, with many Republicans wanting enslaved Blacks to be free but not fully equal to white citizens. Nevertheless, the GOP attracted Black voters into the party during Reconstruction, many of whom cited President Abraham Lincoln as an advocate for Black citizenship. From its genesis, the GOP held more favorable views towards business, particularly since much of the Republican establishment well into the 1920s were industrialists, entrepreneurs, bankers, and businesspeople who reaped the rewards of mass productivity during the First and Second Industrial Revolutions. The party’s strength was regional; pockets of the Midwest and Northeast featured Republican strongholds, including abolitionist-evangelical communities in New England and in America’s growing urban centers. By the early 20th century, the Republican Party had garnered a reputation as explicitly pro-business. The party, particularly under the leadership of Herbert Hoover, was blamed for the Great Depression and thus suffered major electoral losses. For decades, the GOP struggled to gain voters’ confidence across the country. This was especially true during the New Deal era and well into the years following World War II. In the early Cold War period, the party grew increasingly hawkish in the fight against communism. Less business-focused Republicans like President and five-star general Dwight D. Eisenhower helped “revive” the party after decades of Democratic control in the White House and Congress. McCarthyism; strong condemnations against China, Cuba, Russia, and other communist or socialist nations; and vast support for the wars in Vietnam and Cambodia among Republicans (including Sen. Hiram Fong) reflected their commitment to capitalism and democracy. Domestically, the GOP’s center-right and moderate – even sometimes liberal – views on civil rights and immigration policy in the 1960s and 1970s grew increasingly conservative. The rise of evangelicalism, anti-feminist and “pro-life” organizing, and white backlash to class-based matters related to race (e.g., school busing, public housing, welfare) fully alienated libertarian and moderate Republicans (including so-called “New England Republicans” of “Rockefeller Republicans” à la Nelson Rockefeller) by the 1980s and 1990s. By the late 2000s, the “left” side of the GOP had all but disappeared. As conservative talk radio and a growing sector of right-wing news outlets dominated the media ecosystem, liberal Republicans fell under attack – that is, they were forced out or voted out in favor of a louder and more organized hard right. Since the 1960s, the GOP’s suburban and exurban base of voters continued to grow. Richard Nixon’s “Southern strategy” tapped into the anxieties of rural and suburban white voters frustrated over civil rights, the “counterculture,” and the specter of global communism. In turn, the GOP gained support from once-Democratic bastions in the South and West, and made gains in working-class rural areas whose voters held more traditional views on culture and nationalism. In 2016, the Republican Party started a new chapter with the nomination of Donald Trump for president – a move towards a more “America first” policy; critical of the cultural “elites” and so-called “establishment” controlling both major parties; and less interested in political correctness, institutions, or conventional understandings of the rule of law. Since 2016, the Republican Party has chipped away at the Democrats’ strength in capturing the votes from historically loyal Democratic constituencies like Latinos, Asian Americans, union members, and working-class whites.

Great Society

President Lyndon B. Johnson’s “Great Society” programs focused on a range of domestic issues including civil rights, immigration, education, and tackling poverty in cities and rural areas. Between 1964 and 1968 alone, Johnson – with the help of Democratic majorities across two Congresses – enacted landmark laws like the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965. Many Republicans did not support these policies or programs, criticizing them as examples of government overreach (a.k.a. “big government”) or akin to socialism. However, some moderate Republicans like Sen. Hiram Fong favored these programs because they directly impacted communities of color and working-class folks – constituencies in the Democratic stronghold of Hawaiʻi who supported Fong despite his Republican affiliation. 

Cold War

With the Truman Doctrine in 1947, the United States committed itself to fighting the spread of communism and supporting democratic nations. After World War II, the rise of communism in the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China prompted concern from the U.S. and other capitalist democracies like France and the U.K. While the U.S. had its eyes on communist forces and activism around the world between the 1950s and 1970s, Cuba, North Korea, and Southeast Asia generated strong attention from government and military leaders across four presidential administrations (Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon) – with the U.S.-led wars in Vietnam and Cambodia being among the most unpopular. Well into the 1980s, as the Soviet Union continued to agitate the U.S. and their Western allies with an arms race and threats of nuclear war, leaders such as President Ronald Reagan and U.K. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher escalated their threats and positioned themselves as the “good side” against forces of “evil” (i.e., Soviet Union and their allies). By the late 1980s and early 1990s, communism’s grip on the Soviet Union had crippled. Mikhail Gorbachev’s unsuccessful reforms, a weakened Communist Party, and rising pro-democracy sentiments and movements across Europe resulted in the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, ultimately bringing the Cold War to an end.