Although the development of the modern presidency fostered a serious decline in the
traditional, local and state patronage-based parties, the frequent eulogies to parties espoused
during the 1970s and 1980s were premature (Aldrich 1995). Beginning with the New Deal
realignment, and culminating with the presidency of Ronald Reagan, the erosion of old-style
partisan politics permitted the development of a new party system, forging new links between the
parties and constitutional officers (Milkis 1993, 1999; Herrnson 1988; Bibby 2002). It remained
uncertain, however, whether the “new” party system could moderate presidential power and
build popular support for political principles and programs. Traditional parties were formed to
constrain executive power; the “new” American party system, characterized by nationalized
organization and programmatic objectives, seemed better suited to serving the political and
policy ambitions of the modern presidency. Equally troubling was evidence that the nationalized
party organizations, while valuable to office-seekers as “vendors” of campaign services, made at
best only a small impression on the American public.
George W. Bush benefited from the “new” Republican Party that arose with the
resurgence and transformation of conservatism during the Reagan presidency; just as surely, he
used the powers of the modern presidency, revitalized in the aftermath of September 11, 2001, to
further advance and strengthen it. Indeed, no president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt has
tended to the health of his party with such care and enthusiasm. Bush’s active cultivation of
Republican candidates and diligent fundraising has considerably strengthened the party
organization, while his public displays of religiosity and steadfast use of moral language have
served to consolidate a Republican identity of moral and religious conservatism that has
energized Republican partisans. The president’s dramatic intervention in the 2002 midterm
elections helped Republicans regain majority status in the Senate and increased their majority in
the House of Representatives, thus marking the first time in more than a century that the
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Convention