American presidential election 2024: history, symbol… 5 facts about the Democratic Party

The Democratic Party, the oldest American party, is the result of a long history that produced 17 presidents in the United States. Kamala Harris will attempt to write a new chapter on Tuesday, November 5, by becoming the first woman to have access to the highest level of American power.

► The oldest party in the United States

The Democratic Party was formed during the split of the Republican-Democratic Party. During the 1828 election, Andrew Jackson campaigned with Southern farmers, slaves. His party would be called, in later years, the Democratic Party. John Quincy Adams, his anti-slavery opponent, created the National Republican Party. Andrew Jackson will lose this election but win the next one.

The party was divided for many years on the issue of slavery. Northern Democrats are against it and Southern Democrats are against it. They also agree with the question about it Ku Klux Klanwas created in 1865.

► The longest command

Franklin D. Roosevelt is the president who led the United States the longest, from 1933 to 1945. The Democrat had three consecutive terms and is still the only one in the history of this country to do so . His last term ended with his death in 1945.

It was from this series that the American Congress decided to adopt the famous 22nd Amendment providing ” no one can be elected president more than twice “. Goal: to prevent a popular president from multiplying orders in an unlimited way.

However, if the longest-serving president is a Democrat, it is the Republicans who have sent the most presidents to the White House since both parties were formed. : 19 heads of state against 17 on the Democratic side.

► The donkey as a mascot

From the time of Andrew Jackson, the party found its symbol: the donkey. During the presidential election of 1828, the play on words “jackass” (which means an idiot but also an ass) is used to condemn him. The future president will use the symbol of the donkey in his campaign. He then claims the same qualities as the animal: stable, faithful and capable of carrying heavy loads.

Years later, cartoonist Thomas Nast depicted the Democratic Party as a donkey in an 1870 newspaper drawing Harper’s Weekly. This picture marks the beginning of the regular use of the donkey as a symbol of the Democratic Party.

► More advanced party

It was with the election of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932 that the direction of the party changed. The country is then in the middle of an economic crisis. The president implements the New Deal to fight the Great Depression. His goal is to help the most vulnerable and revitalize the American economy. This policy gave the party the social image it maintains today.

The more progressive ideas of the party as a whole civil rights movement African American and youth rally promotion. Southern states then moved away from the party and began voting Republican.

► The first woman vice president

In 1984, Geraldine Ferraro made history by becoming the first woman to apply to the position of vice president on the Democratic ticket in the United States. She was then chosen as the running mate of Democratic presidential candidate Walter Mondale.

Both eventually lost the election to President Ronald Reagan and Vice President George HW Bush. Despite everything, the application of Geraldine Ferraro represents an important step for the role of women in American politics.

In 2021, it is finally Kamala HarrisAnother Democrat, who became the country’s first female vice president.

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