• Republican Party – Party that was founded to oppose slavery– Tends to be?

• Democratic Party – Party that is a descendent of Jefferson’s

Democratic Republican Party– Solid South– Tends to be?

Republican vs. Democrat

Republican Presidents

(Good Old Party)

Eisenhower

Ford

Nixon

Reagan

Bush, Sr.

Bush, Jr

Democratic Presidents

Roosevelt

Truman

Kennedy

Johnson

Carter

Clinton

Politics

• Electoral College

• Primary election

• Democratic Nomination

• Republican Nomination

• Lobbying

• Special Interest Groups

• Campaign

• Third Party Candidate – Nader/Perot

• The Press

President Kennedy

• First Catholic President

• New Frontier Program – Space program and Peace Corps

• Assassinated on November 1963

President Johnson

• Great Society – “War on Poverty” – Programs aimed at reducing poverty – VISTA, Medicare, Dept. of Housing and Urban

Development, Office of Economic Opportunity

• Troop build up in Vietnam caused protests at home – Kent State

President Nixon

• Reducing the size of the governmental bureaucracy – New Federalism

• Rapid inflation – Wage-price freeze

• Environmental legislation, Workforce Legislation

President Ford

• Rebuild the image of the President – Pardon Nixon?

• Amnesty to draft dodgers?

• Increasing Inflation – Oil Embargo: OPEC placed on the U.S. for

supporting Israel.

Carter

• Stagflation – inflation of prices and the stagnation/stalled – Unemployment high– Inflation/prices high

• Trade deficit growing

• Energy problems – pollution and 3 Mile Island

President Reagan

• “Trickle Down Economics”/Supply Side Economics (Reaganomics) – Give breaks to the rich and big business and in return

they will create more jobs and better paying jobs for the lower classes.

• Increased money spent on defense, decreased money spent on social welfare programs, limited immigration

• Large trade deficit that only increased throughout administration

President Bush, Sr.

• VP of Reagan

• Due to increasing deficit increased taxes

• Economic recession – Unemployment rose and layoffs increased – Savings and loans Scandal

• Appointed 2 Supreme Court Justices

• LA Riots

President Clinton

• Health-care Reform – rejected by Congress

• Republican Controlled Congress – ie very hard to get legislation passed

• Social Security begins to become shaky

• Appointed 2 Supreme Court Justices

• Economic Prosperity

• Scandal and Impeachment

President Bush, Jr.

• 2000 election – went to the Supreme Court

• Tax Cut

• Educational Reform – No Child Left Behind

• Economy strong and growing

• Defict Spending?