This is where we began to lose our way, IMHO.
Since 1992, when the first Bill Clinton-era platform broke sharply with two decades of Democratic promises to use government to redistribute wealth, direct social change, and empower minorities and women, the party has sharply altered its rhetoric. Democrats have adopted words and phrases such as “opportunity,” “choice” and “smaller government” that their opponents began using during the Ronald Reagan years to win support from middle-class voters. The words “faith” and “God,” which appear only in passing or not at all in platforms from the 1960s through the ’80s, can be found 18 times in the 2004 document, as in “We honor the central place of faith in the lives of our people.”
Democratic platforms still spell out positions distinctly different from Republican stances on social and environmental issues, supporting abortion rights, affirmative action, and tighter regulations on polluters and financial institutions. Democrats consistently back a more expansive view of government’s role in science, the arts, and aid to the poor and the elderly.
But the party has struggled in recent decades to find the sweet spot between principle and political reality on issues such as guns, health care, the death penalty, school choice, nuclear power, relations with Cuba, and taxes.
In 1960, Democrats state plainly that they are open to “higher taxes [and] we will not allow political disadvantage to deter us from doing what is required.” Four years later, they call for tax cuts. Then, in 1968, they explain that in some years, reductions are necessary “to stimulate the economy” while at other times, the nation needs “tax increases to restrain inflation.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/democratic-party-platform-an-uneven-progression-over-the-years/2012/09/04/b793213e-f144-11e1-a612-3cfc842a6d89_story.html
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