Possible Political Parties in the Confederate States of America

What would be possible political parties in a victorious Confederacy? Would the Democratic Party remain a major player? Where would the liberal wing of Confederate politics come from, Louisiana? If anyone has any ideas, please list name and platform. Thanks.
 
What would be possible political parties in a victorious Confederacy? Would the Democratic Party remain a major player? Where would the liberal wing of Confederate politics come from, Louisiana? If anyone has any ideas, please list name and platform. Thanks.

Probably Louisiana and Florida mostly..............

Also, why not introduce a Liberal Party? The Democrats were mostly conservatives, and a leftist party would be a nice contrast to that.{And besides, Canada has one. :D}
 
Left wing sentiment would probably come from the same place it does in the OTL modern South: the African American community. I suppose it all depends on how quickly (and how violently) slavery ends. In OTL, blacks are generally socially conservative, but extreme left economically. So if that is the same, you could see a sort of Christian communist party which mainly gets votes from minorities and poor whites.
 
Maybe a Communist and Nazi-esque party will originate when the economy starts to go down the toilet or possibly when the slaves revolt en masse.
 
Probably Louisiana and Florida mostly..............

Also, why not introduce a Liberal Party? The Democrats were mostly conservatives, and a leftist party would be a nice contrast to that.{And besides, Canada has one. :D}

No they weren't. Honestly the eternal attempt to paint 18th-early 19th century American politics as being almost exactly like modern American politics is completely wrong-headed. The Democrats weren't conservative. The Whigs weren't conservative. The Democratic Republicans weren't conservative. The Federalists weren't conservative. American politics of this period can't be defined on a 'liberal-conservative' axis.
 
I would consider that a national party will emerge that will promote industrialization and economic reform. It will probaby be centered in the major cities but will slowly emerge by the 1890s.
 
Here is something I quickly threw together this afternoon. Make use of it as you will.

Democrats: The party of the Revolution, the Democrats are a relatively generic conservative political party. Based in Virginia, it’s the party of the status quo. While it wishes to preserve the structural integrity of the confederacy, the institution of slavery, and the memory of the revolution it stands for little else. Its membership is composed of the rich and middleclass, with upstart textile manufacturers beginning to depose the planter old guard from the ranks of its leadership. With the collapse of the cotton boom its traditional political dominance is being threatened.

Whigs: A more conservative counterpart of the Democrats, the Whigs take the Confederacy literally. They are a party of state’s rights and entrenched money. They advocate the expansion slavery, possibly through foreign adventurism, non-existent tariffs, mandatory service in the state militia, and the promotion of “traditional southern values”. The Whigs are most popular in South Carolina, and the Deep South.

Sons of the South: The Sons of the South are a minor confederate political party. The Sons of the South are disgusted with the old guard political parties, who they see as corrupt and ineffective. It seeks to both modernize and centralize confederate government, noting how far the confederacy has fallen behind the north in recent years. Inorder to go about this, they seek massive state subsidies towards industrialization, the replacement of slavery with a harsh apartheid like system, and military expansion and modernization. For all of its revolutionary talk, the Sons of the South are rather anti-democratic wanting further restrictions on sufferage, and the abolishment of lower level state houses. The Sons of the South’s membership is concentrated in the affluent youth, the military, and most importantly the officer corps.

Jeffersonian: The Jeffersonian Party is an extremely minor party within southern politics. Its largely urban in nature and it’s a coalition of liberal and progressives. The Jeffersonians seek rapprochement with the north, prohibition, government subsidies for education, infrastructure, and industrialization, and compensated emancipation. Despite this, they still view blacks as second class citizens and advocate strigenent restrictions on black movement and communication.

Corn and Coal: The Corn and Coal party is a relatively minor confederate political party. Its politics are populist, with its membership being made up of the rural working poor. It seeks to enact dramatic political reforms in order to affirm universal white male suffrage, remove the entrenched political dynasties from both state and national government, and to establish social programs to alleviate white poverty. Economically, Corn and Coal is for the nationalization of rail and infrastructure, the establishment of an income tax, restrictions on immigration (what little the confederacy receives) and sweeping bans on the use slave labor for industrial activities. The Corn and Coal party is strongest in North Carolina and Appalachia. While not outright banned, both the Whigs and Democrats work to intimidate its leadership and keep Corn and Coal candidates off the ballet.

CCC: The Coalition of Confederated Communists is a political party which has officially been banned by the Confederate government. Its aims are the abolishment of slavery, full rights for all confederate blacks, the nationalization of land, infrastructure, and industry, as well as the overthrow of the Confederate government in order to facilitate the advance of global socialism. The CCC is based out of Chicago, where its largely black central committee seeks to radicalize southern blacks and establish networks of cells, spies, and safe houses throughout the confederacy. The American government turns a blind eye towards the CCC’s activities, as it both undermines their enemy and focus the fervor of domestic communists elsewhere.
 
Pre-war, Southern politics were dominated by the Democratic party in most places, with a semi-organized "Oppositionist" party made up mostly of former Whigs. The Constitutional Union Party (Bell's ticket in 1860) was an attept to unite Oppositionists and Know-Nothings into a viable national party; they didn't do particulary well in that election, but they did carry 2-3 Confederate states (Tennessee, Virginia, and Kentucky). In the last Congress before the Civil War, there were 19 Oppositionists in the House and none in the Senate.

Oppositionists did not continue as an organized party during the Civil War, probably because most of them were Unionists, which would hamper their viability in a post-war Confederacy. But in recent poking around Wikipedia, I came across a tidbit that North Carolina governor Zebulon Vance (A Democrat before and after the war) tried with some beginnings of success to organize a new political party in opposition to some of Davis's policies, with the support of many former Oppositionists, which he called the "Conservative Party".

Both Vance's proto-party and the pre-war Oppositionists were loosely-organized grab-bags of people who opposed the dominant Democratic party's agenda from various directions. I'm not sure what the primary issues of contention between the Oppositionists and the Democrats were, but Vance's main issues seem to have been championing local automony and individual rights against Davis's attempts to centralize authority in Richmond.
 
The Fire Eaters had been pushing for secession for decades. When it came, they found themselves pushed to the side and more moderate men were in charge of the Confederate government.

Post-independence, I'd expect them to strongly disagree with much of what the CSA does. (South Carolina almost didn't join the CSA in OTL because the CSA Constitution forbade the international slave trade.) They were reactionary and rather strident in their beliefs. I'd expect threats to pull states out of the Confederacy and perhaps the challenging of more moderate politicians to duels.
 
There was an old TL here which had the Democrats (about how you imagine them) and then a party called, IIRC, the Redeemers, which built on old Whiggish and scalawag tendencies.
 
I would consider that a national party will emerge that will promote industrialization and economic reform. It will probaby be centered in the major cities but will slowly emerge by the 1890s.

It will probably also be seen as the party of centralization to at least some degree--or at least the party of opposing extreme centripetalism.
 

Anaxagoras

Banned
There seemed to be latent political parties within the wartime Confederacy IOTL, with pro-Davis and anti-Davis factions clearly emerging in the Confederate Congress and among the state governors. If the Confederacy had succeeded in establishing its independence, I think it very likely that these two factions would have evolved into genuine political parties.
 
Chances are given the immense amount of states' rights, you'd see very localized parties. I can see Communism and/or Facism (with the Klan leading it) gaining popularity among the poor white people, a black liberation party, and approximately ten thousand seccessionist parties: Free Texas, Black Lousiana, Free Florida, Black Florida, Free Nantucket, Free Allegheny, Free Arizona, Hispanic Arizona, etc.
 
Chances are given the immense amount of states' rights, you'd see very localized parties. I can see Communism and/or Facism (with the Klan leading it) gaining popularity among the poor white people, a black liberation party, and approximately ten thousand seccessionist parties: Free Texas, Black Lousiana, Free Florida, Black Florida, Free Nantucket, Free Allegheny, Free Arizona, Hispanic Arizona, etc.

Since when is Nantucket part of the CSA? :confused:
 
There seemed to be latent political parties within the wartime Confederacy IOTL, with pro-Davis and anti-Davis factions clearly emerging in the Confederate Congress and among the state governors. If the Confederacy had succeeded in establishing its independence, I think it very likely that these two factions would have evolved into genuine political parties.

I agree. I think there would be a conservative party which advocated a small government (pro-Davis) and an extremely conservative party which advocated an EXTREMELY small government (anti-Davis). There might be a slightly liberal party, but it wouldn't be extremely liberal. And I don't see why so many people think the Confederacy would become fascist; that would be nearly impossible.
 

Glen

Moderator
The Confederacy will likely start as a fairly uniform Democratic party, but that won't last long.

I can see two main themes in Southern Politics diverging after a period of nationhood - slavery and states' rights - they were fellow travelers with the fear of the northern abolitionists, but will not necesarily be so afterward. States' rights party will want to have a very decentralized state (including the right to determine whether a state has slavery or not, maybe a generation after the Southern War of Independence). The Slavery party (though they won't call themselves this) will be driven by maintaining the status quo and the power of the planters. They will be more centralist in attitude.
 
Here is something I quickly threw together this afternoon. Make use of it as you will.

Democrats: The party of the Revolution, the Democrats are a relatively generic conservative political party. Based in Virginia, it’s the party of the status quo. While it wishes to preserve the structural integrity of the confederacy, the institution of slavery, and the memory of the revolution it stands for little else. Its membership is composed of the rich and middleclass, with upstart textile manufacturers beginning to depose the planter old guard from the ranks of its leadership. With the collapse of the cotton boom its traditional political dominance is being threatened.

Whigs: A more conservative counterpart of the Democrats, the Whigs take the Confederacy literally. They are a party of state’s rights and entrenched money. They advocate the expansion slavery, possibly through foreign adventurism, non-existent tariffs, mandatory service in the state militia, and the promotion of “traditional southern values”. The Whigs are most popular in South Carolina, and the Deep South.

Sons of the South: The Sons of the South are a minor confederate political party. The Sons of the South are disgusted with the old guard political parties, who they see as corrupt and ineffective. It seeks to both modernize and centralize confederate government, noting how far the confederacy has fallen behind the north in recent years. Inorder to go about this, they seek massive state subsidies towards industrialization, the replacement of slavery with a harsh apartheid like system, and military expansion and modernization. For all of its revolutionary talk, the Sons of the South are rather anti-democratic wanting further restrictions on sufferage, and the abolishment of lower level state houses. The Sons of the South’s membership is concentrated in the affluent youth, the military, and most importantly the officer corps.

Jeffersonian: The Jeffersonian Party is an extremely minor party within southern politics. Its largely urban in nature and it’s a coalition of liberal and progressives. The Jeffersonians seek rapprochement with the north, prohibition, government subsidies for education, infrastructure, and industrialization, and compensated emancipation. Despite this, they still view blacks as second class citizens and advocate strigenent restrictions on black movement and communication.

Corn and Coal: The Corn and Coal party is a relatively minor confederate political party. Its politics are populist, with its membership being made up of the rural working poor. It seeks to enact dramatic political reforms in order to affirm universal white male suffrage, remove the entrenched political dynasties from both state and national government, and to establish social programs to alleviate white poverty. Economically, Corn and Coal is for the nationalization of rail and infrastructure, the establishment of an income tax, restrictions on immigration (what little the confederacy receives) and sweeping bans on the use slave labor for industrial activities. The Corn and Coal party is strongest in North Carolina and Appalachia. While not outright banned, both the Whigs and Democrats work to intimidate its leadership and keep Corn and Coal candidates off the ballet.

CCC: The Coalition of Confederated Communists is a political party which has officially been banned by the Confederate government. Its aims are the abolishment of slavery, full rights for all confederate blacks, the nationalization of land, infrastructure, and industry, as well as the overthrow of the Confederate government in order to facilitate the advance of global socialism. The CCC is based out of Chicago, where its largely black central committee seeks to radicalize southern blacks and establish networks of cells, spies, and safe houses throughout the confederacy. The American government turns a blind eye towards the CCC’s activities, as it both undermines their enemy and focus the fervor of domestic communists elsewhere.


You are VERY wrong with the Whigs. They would be relatively (for the South) liberal industrialists. The Reupublican Party came out of the Northern Whigs in large part. They probably wouldn't be anti-slavery, at first, but they might go in that direction later. They would be pro-railroads, pro-tarrif and for a stronger central government. Industry does better under a more centralized government than having to answer to a bunch of smaller ones.

The Jefforsonians would be rural as Thomas Jefferson was very pro-agriculture. Reapproachment with the North is likely one of their goals but they wouldn't get it. If nothing else the North is going to carry a grudge for a long, long time. Support for education is likely but not industrialisation. Compensated emancipation is a likely goal. Your description of Jeffersonian more accurately describes Whigs.

The Sons of the South, Corn and Coal and the CCC sound about right.
 
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Here is something I quickly threw together this afternoon. Make use of it as you will.

Whigs: A more conservative counterpart of the Democrats, the Whigs take the Confederacy literally. They are a party of state’s rights and entrenched money. They advocate the expansion slavery, possibly through foreign adventurism, non-existent tariffs, mandatory service in the state militia, and the promotion of “traditional southern values”. The Whigs are most popular in South Carolina, and the Deep South.
Such a party would be the Conservative Party, since it's what Zebulon Baird Vance founded late in the war. The anti-Davis party is mostly forgotten today.

So you would have the pro-Davis Democrats and the anti-Davis Conservatives.
 
I agree. I think there would be a conservative party which advocated a small government (pro-Davis) and an extremely conservative party which advocated an EXTREMELY small government (anti-Davis). There might be a slightly liberal party, but it wouldn't be extremely liberal. And I don't see why so many people think the Confederacy would become fascist; that would be nearly impossible.


I think that a near fascist aristocratic republic would have a decent chance of evolving out of the Confederacy. It had a lot of the elements there already. It had a aristocratic planter class that was totally indifferent to the middle and lower class whites. You had extreme racial prejudice, even for the time. Its political class was almost entirely subsumed by the upper class.
 
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