The Democratic Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United

States, along with its main rival, the Republican Party. Tracing its heritage back to Thomas
Jeffersonand James Madison's Democratic-Republican Party, the modern-day Democratic Party
was founded around 1828 by supporters of Andrew Jackson, making it the world's oldest active
political party.[14]
In its early years, the Party supported limited government, state sovereignty, and slavery, while
opposing banks. Since Franklin D. Roosevelt and his New Deal coalition in the 1930s, the
Democratic Party has promoted a social liberal platform.[3][15] Well into the 20th century, the party
had conservative pro-business and Southern conservative-populist wings; following the New
Deal, however, the conservative wing of the party largely withered outside the South. The New
Deal coalition of 1932–1964 attracted strong support from voters of recent European extraction—
many of whom were Catholics based in the cities.[16][17][18] After the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and
the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the core bases of the two parties shifted, with the Southern
states becoming more reliably Republican in presidential politics and the Northeastern states
becoming more reliably Democratic. The once-powerful labor unionelement became smaller after
the 1970s, although the working class remains an important component of the Democratic base.
People living in urban areas, women, college graduates, and