About: Reform Democrat

Reform Democrats in the United States are members of the Democratic Party who are opposed to the Democratic political machines of their respective cities, counties, or states or to analogous machine politics at a national level. Reform Democrats are generally associated with the good government traditions that arose out of the progressive movement of the early 20th century, and are usually, but not always, on the left wing of the Democratic Party.The lines between anti-machine Reform Democrats and pro-machine Regular Democrats are not always clear: often, once reformers achieve office they take advantage of patronage to establish a machine in their own right. An example of this is the rise of the "Reform machine" of in the wake of his triumph over the more traditional machine of Meade Esp