information:classification
Before 1964, the Democratic Party and Republican Party each had influential liberal, moderate, and conservative wings. During this period, conservative Democrats formed the Democratic half of the conservative coalition. After 1964, the Democratic Party retained its conservative wing through the 1970s with the help of urban machine politics. In the 21st century, the number of conservative Democrats decreased as the party moved leftward, with significant declines of conservative identification among Democrats occurring during the first term of George W. Bush between 2002 and 2005 (declining from 26% to 21%) and during the second term of Barack Obama between 2014 and 2017 (declining from 19% to 13%).