Conservative coalition: Difference between revisions

{{Infobox political party

| name = Conservative Coalition

| headquarters =

| ideology = {{nowrap|[[Conservatism in the United States|Conservatism]]<br>'''Early phase:'''<br>[[Liberal conservatism]]{{cref|A}}<br>[[Economic liberalism]]<br>[[Anti-communism]]<br>Anti-[[New Deal]]<br>Anti-[[Labour movement|labor]]<br>[[States' rights]]<br>'''Later phase:'''<br>[[Fiscal conservatism]]<br>[[Social conservatism in the United States|Social conservatism]]<br>[[Reaganomics|Reaganism]]<br>[[Anti-communism]]}}

| country = United States

| footnotes = {{cnote|A|Prior to the 1960s, American right-wing referred to themselves as liberals, who opposed Franklin D. Roosevelt's "[[New Deal liberalism|New Liberalism]]" and called themselves "[[Liberalism in the United States#Classical liberalism|True Liberalism]]".{{Citation needed|date=July 2023}}}}

The '''conservative coalition''', founded in 1937, was an unofficial alliance of members of the [[United States Congress]] which brought together the [[Conservatism in the United States|conservative]] wings of the [[History of the Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] and [[History of the Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]] parties to oppose President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt|Franklin Delano Roosevelt]]'s [[New Deal]]. In addition to Roosevelt, the conservative coalition dominated Congress for four presidencies, blocking legislation proposed by Roosevelt and his successors. By 1937, the conservatives were the largest faction in the Republican Party which had opposed the New Deal in some form since 1933. Despite Roosevelt being a Democrat himself, his party did not universally support the New Deal agenda in Congress. Democrats who opposed Roosevelt's policies tended to hold [[Conservative Democrat|conservative views]], and allied with conservative Republicans. These Democrats were mostly located in the [[Southern Democrats|South]]. According to [[James T. Patterson (historian)|James T. Patterson]]: "By and large the congressional conservatives agreed in opposing the spread of federal power and bureaucracy, in denouncing deficit spending, in criticizing industrial [[Trade union|labor unions]], and in excoriating most welfare programs. They sought to 'conserve' an America which they believed to have existed before 1933."<ref>{{cite book|first=James T.|last=Patterson|title=Congressional Conservatism and the New Deal|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y8MfBgAAQBAJ&pg=PR7|year=1967|publisher=University Press of Kentucky|pages=vii–viii|isbn=9780813164045}}</ref>

 

 

Never a formalized alliance, the conservative coalition, most often appeared on votes affecting labor unions based on Congressional roll call votes. Congressional opponents of civil rights reform, consisting white Southern Democrats and Republicans, despite being an overall minority in both chambers, prevented major congressional action on civil rights during the relevant time period through control of influential committees and by exploiting the Senate filibuster rule. The conservative coalition did not cooperate against [[civil rights]] bills however, ultimately enabling President Johnson and [[Everett Dirksen]] to convince sufficient numbers of congressional Republicans to ally with Liberal Democrats to invoke [[cloture]] and push through the [[Civil Rights Act of 1964]].<ref>Katznelson, 1993</ref> However, the coalition did have the power to prevent unwanted bills from even coming to a vote. The coalition included many committee chairmen from the South who blocked bills by simply not reporting them from their committees. Furthermore, [[Howard W. Smith]], chairman of the [[House Rules Committee]], often could kill a bill simply by not reporting it out with a favorable rule; he lost some of that power in 1961.<ref>Bruce J. Dierenfield, ''Keeper of the Rules: Congressman Howard W. Smith of Virginia'' (1987)</ref> The conservative coalition was not unified with regards to foreign policy, as most Southern Democrats were internationalists. Most Republicans supported isolationism until President [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]] took office in 1953.

====Attacking liberal policies====

{{see also|1938 United States elections}}

 

In the hard-fought 1938 congressional elections, the Republicans scored major gains in both houses, picking up six Senate seats and 80 House seats. Thereafter the conservative Democrats and Republicans in both Houses of Congress would often vote together on major economic issues, thus defeating many proposals by liberal Democrats.<ref>for example, ''Time'' magazine reported, " "Five Southern Democrats and four Republicans sat smiling at a lady one day last week in the cramped, dim-lit House Rules committee-room.... The nine smug gentlemen, key bloc of the '''conservative coalition now dominating the House''', could afford to be gracious to hard-plugging Mary Norton, Labor committee chairlady, because they had just finished trampling roughshod over her." TIME Aug 7, 1939 [https://web.archive.org/web/20120301115348/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,848047-1,00.html#ixzz0qlj7xSPp online]</ref> The [[Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938]] was the last major New Deal legislation that Roosevelt succeeded in enacting into law.<ref name="lubell1955">{{cite book | title=The Future of American Politics | publisher=Anchor Press | author=Lubell, Samuel | year=1955 | page=13}}</ref> A confidential British [[Foreign Office]] analysis of the [[Senate Foreign Relations Committee]] in April 1943 stated that although the committee had 15 Democrats, seven Republicans, and one independent, because of the Republican-conservative Democratic alliance only 12 of the 23 members supported Roosevelt's policies.<ref>{{cite journal|url=http://berlin.wolf.ox.ac.uk/published_works/singles/bib139a/bib139a.pdf |title=American Profiles on Capitol Hill: A Confidential Study for the British Foreign Office in 1943 |author=Hachey, Thomas E. |journal=Wisconsin Magazine of History |date=Winter 1973–1974 |volume=57 |issue=2 |pages=141–53 |jstor=4634869 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131021185357/http://berlin.wolf.ox.ac.uk/published_works/singles/bib139a/bib139a.pdf |archive-date=October 21, 2013 }}</ref> Conservatives also had strong representation in Congress in the post-war years.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=u93Mj3A-tH8C&dq=Ideological+Divisions+in+Congress,+1945-1959&pg=PA125 Ideologies and Institutions American Conservative and Liberal Governance Prescriptions Since 1933 By J. Richard Piper, 1997, P.126]</ref> A handful of liberal measures, notably the [[minimum wage]] laws, did pass when the conservative coalition split.

 

===After the New Deal (1940-1960)===

 

 

In its heyday in the 1940s and 1950s, the coalition's most important Republican leader was Senator [[Robert A. Taft]] of [[Ohio]]; the leading Democrats in the coalition were Senator [[Richard Russell, Jr.]] of [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]] and Congressmen [[Howard W. Smith]] of [[Virginia]] and [[Carl Vinson]] of Georgia. Although the coalition usually voted together on urban and labor issues, they were divided on other economic issues, such as farm and Western issues (such as water). Conservative Southern Democrats generally favored high government spending on rural issues, and in this urban and liberal Democrats supported them while Republicans were opposed. For this reason, Democratic caucuses of 230 to 260 seats were enough to pass Democratic farm programs, whereas on labor issues even Houses with in excess of 280 Democratic Members could not pass labor priorities.<ref>Mayhew, David, ''Party Loyalty among Congressmen: The Difference between Democrats and Republicans 1947–1962'' Harvard University Press (1966), pp. 165–68</ref> Foreign policy goals also presented a contrast. Prior to World War II most, though not all, conservative Republicans were [[non-interventionism|non-interventionists]] who wanted to stay out of the war at all costs, while most, though not all, Southern conservatives were [[Interventionism (politics)|interventionists]] who favored helping the British defeat [[Nazi Germany]].<ref>John W. Malsberger, ''From Obstruction to Moderation: The Transformation of Senate Conservatism, 1938–1952'' (2000) ch 2</ref> After the war, a minority of conservative Republicans (led by Taft) opposed military alliances with other nations, especially [[NATO]], while most Southern Democrats favored such alliances.

====Civil Rights Era (1960-1972)====

{{main|Civil Rights Act of 1964|Lyndon Baines Johnson}}

 

In defining the size of the Conservative Coalition in 1964, one study noted that

With Nixon's reelection and sweep of the South—as well as nearly every state in the country—in [[1972 United States presidential election|1972]], the Democratic stronghold of the [[Solid South]] had fallen to the GOP at the presidential level, save for 1976, 1992, and 1996, when a Southern Democrat was the Democratic nominee. However most of the state and local elections were still dominated by Democrats until the 1990s; at first these long-serving Southern Democrats still wielded great power due to the seniority system through chairing powerful committees; however, the strong Democratic victory in [[1974 United States elections|1974]] following the Watergate scandal led to a tremendous number of Northern and liberal Democratic freshmen in House, tilting the balance of the Democratic Caucus away from the Southerners. These [[Watergate Babies]] joined forces with more senior liberals and stripped committee chairmanship from three senior Southern Democrats: [[Wright Patman]], [[William R. Poage]], and [[F. Edward Hébert]], and otherwise reformed the House, making it more responsive to the overall Democratic Caucus and leadership, and with less power for committee chairs (and the minority party.)

 

 

==Main members==

* Katznelson, Ira, Kim Geiger and Daniel Kryder. "Limiting Liberalism: The Southern Veto in Congress, 1933–1950," ''Political Science Quarterly'' Vol. 108, No. 2 (Summer, 1993), pp.&nbsp;283–306 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/2152013 in JSTOR]

* MacNeil, Neil. ''Forge of Democracy: The House of Representatives'' (1963)

* Manley, John F. "The Conservative Coalition in Congress." ''American Behavioral Scientist'' 17 (1973): 223–47.

* Mayhew, David R. ''Party Loyalty among Congressmen: The Difference between Democrats and Republicans, 1947–1962,'' Harvard University Press (1966)

* Schickler, Eric. ''Disjointed Pluralism: Institutional Innovation and the Development of the U.S. Congress'' (2001)

* Schickler, Eric; Pearson, Kathryn. "Agenda Control, Majority Party Power, and the House Committee on Rules, 1937–52," ''Legislative Studies Quarterly'' (2009) 34#4 pp.&nbsp;455–91

* Shelley, Mack C. "Presidents and the Conservative Coalition in the U.S. Congress." ''Legislative Studies Quarterly'' (1983): 79-96 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/439472 online]

* Rohde, David W. ''Parties and Leaders in the Postreform House'' (1991)