Conservative Democrat
In American politics, a conservative Demo-
crat is a Democratic Party member with con-
servative political views, or with views relat-
ively conservative with respect to those of
the national party. While such members of
the Democratic
Party
can
be
found
throughout the nation, actual elected officials
are disproportionately
found within
the
Southern states, and to a lesser extent within
rural regions of the several states generally,
more commonly in the West.
21st century conservative Democrats are
similar to liberal Republican counterparts, in
that both became political minorities after
their respective political parties underwent a
major political realignment which began to
gain speed in 1964. Prior to 1964, both
parties had their liberal, moderate, and con-
servative wings, each of them influential in
both parties; President Franklin D. Roosevelt
had proposed a realignment of the parties in
the 1940s, though the trends which brought
it about did not accelerate until two decades
later. During this period, conservative Demo-
crats formed the Democratic half of the con-
servative coalition. After 1964, the conservat-
ive wing assumed a greater presence in the
Republican Party, although it did not become
the mainstay of the party until the nomina-
tion of Ronald Reagan in 1980. The Demo-
cratic Party retained its conservative wing
through the 1970s with the help of urban ma-
chine politics. This political realignment was
mostly complete by 1980. After 1980, the Re-
publicans became a mostly right-wing party,
with conservative leaders such as Newt Gin-
grich and Tom DeLay, while the Democrats
grew a substantial moderate wing in the
1990’s in place of their old conservative
wing, with leaders such as Bill Clinton. In
2008,
the Democrats nominated Barack
Obama for President, he was the first nomin-
ee since 1988 that was not a member of the
moderate Democratic Leadership Council.
The transformation of the Deep South into
a Republican stronghold was effectively com-
pleted after the Republican Re