Description of the American Electorate and Changes in Its Behavior Since 1952

Democrats express that the values America supports must evolve over time, and therefore tend to support controversial issues such same-sex marriage and abortion. Republicans values tend to be religious in nature which means Republicans will most likely disapprove of abortions for any reason and disagree with same-sex marriage.

Because culture conflicts sells, journalism in our country has taken to publicizing exaggerated culture differences. Extreme voices have come to dominate American political discourse which has only fed into the concept of a divided country, even making it look like one half of our country hates the other half. The culture divide is based on party differences between republicans and democrats. In reality the cultural differences between democrats and republicans are far less dramatic than I would have guessed. Party affiliation is based on factors like age, Youth are generally more likely to vote liberal and the older generation more likely to vote conservative. Religion, protestants usually vote republican and catholics usually vote democrat. Economic status, historically this has meant wealthy individuals vote republican.The fact that about 2/3rd of voters vote for the party of their parent seems to be the most definite determiner of party affiliation . (Hewson, Jacqueline) Real differences in political opinion is very subtle accross party lines. For example in many ways red and blue states have similar opinions. In blue states 36% of voters identify as democrat while in red states 26% are self proclaimed democrats. In blue states 32% of voters believe government is always wasteful and inefficient while in red states 44% hold this opinion. Solid majorities in both red and blue states support protecting the environment whatever it may

The United States has maintained its two party system for some time, but the major parties have not always been so clearly separated. In the early and mid-twentieth century, polarization was actually declining, as there was much ideological overlap between the members of the two parties (Kuo). Many people, such as conservative Democrats and liberal Republicans, rested in the ideological middle. Additionally, each party represented a coalition of diverse interests. At

Every time there is an election in the United States, the debate of Electoral College always heats up, and suddenly everybody seems to know about or at least they are interested in learning about it. The Electoral College is firmly established under the United States Constitution to elect the president and the vice president of the United States indirectly. A slate of “electors” are chosen from each state, and they are the ones responsible for voting for president in the general elections depending on which party the candidate is vying with. From this statement, what it means is that one does not choose his or her preferred leader directly and this has made many suggestions that the Electoral College is not a true representation of democracy. This paper will look at the strongest arguments for and against the Electoral College, analyze whether the current Electoral College should be re-engineered or scrapped in favor of direct vote and finally determine if the Electoral College is consistent or contrary to democratic principle.

The political system of America is very different from other developed and developing democracies. Most notable is the increased power bestowed on the upper house of the parliament, the extensive power held by the Supreme Court and the dominance demonstrated by only two major parties. In the United States, third parties have the least influence on the world’s most developed democracy’s political structure. In this democracy, people are under the US Constitution of the governmental system as well as state government and other units of local government. Local government entails counties, districts and municipalities. The evolution of the American political party system has come a long way; with Hamilton and Jefferson being regarded as the founder fathers of the modern party system. These were heads of the Federalist and Anti-Federalist groups in the 18th century of American politics. Ever since, the country has maintained a party system that has two main parties that are relatively stable. These are Democrats and Republicans and have remained in contest for election every time since the 1860 presidential elections. Initially, the Republican Party was the dominant party but the Democrats later gained dominance. However, the two parties became closely competitive and neither of them has been notably dominant since the 1970s (O'Connor & Sabato, n.d).

In today's society, we think that the two main political parties of America, the Democratic Party and the Republican Party are complete inverse. When we look closer, the several gatherings are as a matter of fact exceptionally comparative. Their strategies may be unexpected, but the roots that they are determined from are the same. . These two parties dominate America’s politics but differ significantly in their beliefs. Some instances, many beliefs overlap. So what are the differences between Democrats and Republicans?

There are basic facts that sets apart a Democrat from a Republican. For example, Democrats are known to be liberal, but Republicans are known to be highly conservative. Democrats have been known to appeal to the middle class and lower class, Republicans

In 1792, the world’s oldest political party, the Democratic Party, was founded. During the presidency of President Andrew Jackson in 1830, the party adopted its name as the Democratic Party as it is known now. Prior to the renaming of the party, it was known as the Democratic-Republican Party founded by James Madison, and Thomas Jefferson in opposition of the Federalist Party. The Democratic Party’s purposed served to supported states’ rights and the strict interpretation of the Constitution (Mayne, 1). Correspondingly, providing financial support to family based agriculture was one of their main priorities (Mayne, 1). The Federalist Party, their opposition, consisted of wealthy elites that strived, and fought for one strong all ruling national government, rather than state governments. As the United States had just recently become independent, the Democratic-Republican Party was determined to prevent the United States from becoming a monarchy. Over the next century, the Democratic-Republican party began to split due to the lack of agreement on major ideas which led to the current two-party system. However, some ideologies remain the same such as moral stance, and socioeconomic status. Other ideologies like economic view and stance on government power have caused this split between the Democratic and Republican parties (Mayne, 22). It is imperative to remember that even though these two parties are completely different, they originated from the same party with one main goal; “To create a government that is run for and by its people” (Mayne, 23). I have still not developed a political identity, but over the past three years of my residence in the United States, I am more in favor of the Democratic Party and what they stand for.

In the past, the Democratic party was known as the conservative, traditional party that fully supported state government while the Republican party was a supporter of the federal government control. The Republican party began as “Lincoln’s party” which caught the attention and support of the colored voters. In contrast, the Democratic party was predominantly white during this time with ideas to keep the rights of the state and the traditions of the South. Though these two parties have opposing views, they began to clash and redirect their beliefs. Over time the two main political parties have changed their platforms based on the issues of desegregation, racism in the South and placement of federal government.

The changes between the parties have become more distinctive throughout the years. Some of these changes include preferences, behavior, increasing homogeneous districts, and increasing alignment between ideology and partisanship among voters.

This extreme belief system has created a separation of people within America. Where most of people become divided and joint political parties according to Marlantes is on the topic of big government, global affairs, taxes, Americans safety nets and many other issues. When people’s values conflict with what is happening around them, they quick try to find the group or political parity that will support or come close to what they believe in. In Liz’s work she tell of how the current split in America is due to the verifying cultures. According to her this unusual split is caused by people’s values and morals. Because Republicans tend to be white Americans that go to church and Democrats tend to be whites that don’t go to church it is easy to lean toward the party that reflects your values and morals. Because the partisan is so deep between the two parties there is no middle ground for those who are usually unbiased or don’t associate with a political parity. They are instead forced to side with one side or the other. These parties have become a culture on their own. It is easy to see how a person who lives in exurban place, with a collage education are usually Republican and a person how lives in a unban city and has a Graduate degree supports Democrats. These factors of place, money, view, morals, and values have slowly created a deep divide with in our society and our political

It was found that national party divisions are typically ran by elites that worked together to unite divided parties to participate together in the hopes of the party winning the presidency. Having a diverse set of candidates does not imply that the party is divided although it could worsen existing disunions. Measuring national party division was crucial in the research; in the 1970s delegate votes at the national convection gave an approximate measure of divisiveness. One way that national party division can be measured is by the proportion of convention votes through the Democratic nominee without the corresponding proportion for the Republican nominee. This delegate-based measure is for the most part based on party activist, in which are picked by the presidential campaign by the partisan voters. On the other hand, another manner to measure is by aggregate primary vote that is comparing the proportion of the national primary won by the two nominees. Moreover, to measure the impact national party division has they used convection votes and aggregate primary vote to portray that the substantive conclusion does not rely on how the variable is measured (12). Although there is no precise or best way to put to use state level primary divisiveness it is clear that in presidential campaigns, a divisive state primary the electorate rather have a candidate than the eventual nominee. Thus, this type of divisiveness can be measured by the proportion of the vote for the candidate other than the final nominee. Another approach would rely on the competitiveness of the primary, which is measure by a vote margin of the two leading candidates in the

David E. Campbell in his article “The Young and the Realigning: A Test of the Socialization Theory of Realignment”, Campbell decides that he wants to know what exactly is the reason for why more and more people are identifying with the Republican Party instead of the Democratic Party. Campbell spends a lot of time writing about if one of the key factors for people identifying with the Republican Party is religion; primarily between Catholics and Protestants. Along with religion, Campbell goes through a series of variables that he believes to be the cause for the Republican Party getting more and more identifiers.

Within both parties there are sharp differences on a great many issues, for example the Blue Dog democrats are from the Southern States and hold conservative views on all issues economic, social and foreign and are never reliable Democrat voters in Congress. Economically they are ‘deficit hawks’. However the North Eastern Liberals allowed the Republicans to paint the party as a ‘Tax and spend’ party supporting Liberal and minority causes. This would suggest that within the Democratic Party alone there is a huge range of views on their political spectrum. However the Republican Party is traditionally less factionalised than the Democrats; however, for years it has been involved in an ideological debate within the party. Moderate Conservatives’ are the ‘compassionate conservatives’ of the party. Socially they are split against their party as they support welfare and believe in some gay rights, gun control and oppose the death penalty. Whereas conservative Republicans are the ‘new right’ of the party and support programmes such as low taxation. They are committed to small government, free markets and deregulation and run on slogans such as ‘Government is not the solution to our problems- it is the problem. This is evidence to suggest that there is more difference within than

We conjoin on many topics, while we separate on topics that need two sides. The most popular two sides in America-and in the political world: are the republicans and democrats. What are the differences between the two? The Founders knew full well the differences between a Republic and a Democracy. They constantly and sternly said a Republic was found by effect of them. Article IV Section 4 of the Constitution "guarantees to every state in this union a Republican form of government”, yet never said anything about a democracy. Later on, America created a democracy and now have the two largest political standings. Republicans tend to be more conservative and left-winged. For example, more extreme conservatives do not believe in pro-choice or homosexuality. Democrats are right-winged and more liberal. Liberal comes from liberty-which is defined as freedom. democrats tend to be more accepting of one’s own and will usually be more open to