Conservative coalition
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The Conservative coalition was a coalition in American politics bringing together Republicans (most of whom were conservatives) and the minority of conservative Democrats, most of them from the South. The coalition largely controlled Congress from 1937 to 1964 and continued as a potent force until the mid-1980s, when reforms designed at strengthening the Democratic party leadership in the United States House of Representatives came to fruition.
In its heyday, its most important Republican leader was Senator Robert A. Taft of Ohio, and the chief Democrats were Senator Richard Russell, Jr. of Georgia and Congressmen Howard W. Smith of Virginia and Carl Vinson of Georgia.
The coalition had its roots in the nature of the New Deal electoral majority built by Democratic President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, which combined conservative Democratic lawmakers from the South with urban Democrats, often liberals, in the North. The de facto conservative majority is one possible explanation of why the Democrats remained the majority party in Congress for almost all the years between 1931 and 1995. The election of Republican Congressional majorities, after the 1994 Republican Revolution, finally invalidated the usefulness of such a coalition, as conservative and liberal lawmakers increasingly became overwhelmingly dominant in the Republican and Democratic Parties, respectively.
References
- Caro, Robert A. The Years of Lyndon Johnson: vol 3: Master of the Senate (2002).
- Fite, Gilbert. Richard B. Russell, Jr, Senator from Georgia (2002)
- Goldsmith, John A. Colleagues: Richard B. Russell and His Apprentice, Lyndon B. Johnson. (1993)
- MacNeil, Neil. Forge of Democracy: The House of Representatives (1963)
- Malsberger, John W. From Obstruction to Moderation: The Transformation of Senate Conservatism, 1938-1952 2000
- Patterson, James. Congressional Conservatism and the New Deal: The Growth of the Conservative Coalition in Congress, 1933-39 (1967)
- Patterson, James T. Mr. Republican: A Biography of Robert A. Taft (1972)
- Schickler, Eric. Disjointed Pluralism: Institutional Innovation and the Development of the U.S. Congress (2001)
- Shelley II, Mack C. The Permanent Majority: The Conservative Coalition in the United States Congress (1983)
- Rohde, David W. Parties and Leaders in the Postreform House (1991)
See also
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