Introduction
One of the earliest institutions of democracy in the United States is political parties. In simple definition, a political party refers to an association of individuals who come together on a single and common platform with an objective to contest elections. Every political party has three crucial components that include the leaders, the active members and finally the followers. The role of political parties is not just to take part in election contests. Political parties also forward programs and policies, make laws, establish or form governments, acts as the opposition, shares public opinion and finally take part in welfare activities. One of the most distinct characteristic of a country with different political parties is that most of them tend to different when it comes to ideologies. In America, there are two major parties, the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. These parties have been in existence for a couple of centuries, and the leadership of the country has been exchanged between the two parties since the country freed itself from British colonialists and conducted its first independent election.
One conspicuous ideological difference between the Republicans and the Democrats is the opinion on personal security. The Democrats hold the belief that the government not only has an obligation to secure the nation’s borders, but should also advance the personal security of its citizens (Speel, 2000). This belief of the democrats translates into the enactment of policies that extend the access of health care to as many people as possible, expanding the national unemployment insurance and raising the nation’s overall minimum wage (Hoffman and Graham, 2013). On the other hand, the Republicans are against this ideology. According to the citizens should not in any way be compelled to be their brother’s keepers. In regards to the Democrat’s proposal that every single person be health insured, the Republicans argue that this is an act of tyranny. In addition, they argue that health exchanges that are government created interfere with insurance company’s rights to manage their self-affairs (Heinrich and Johnson, 2008).
Another very distinctive ideological difference between the two major parties in the United States relates to gun control. This issue has particularly created a huge rift between the two parties in recent years mainly because of increased cases of gun related violence. The Republicans believe that the gun ownership is an essential component of freedom (Hoffman and Graham, 2013). To them, unlimited ability to own guns by America citizens and the ability to carry them wherever whenever one desires with minimal government interference or oversight is not only an essential component of constitutional freedom, but also provides Americans with an opportunity protect themselves from any sought of physical harm (Hoffman and Graham, 2013). On the other hand, Democrats advocate for the stricter gun control measures. To them, widespread and unlimited gun ownership by normal Americans makes a significant contribution to increased physical violence. These include massive shootings such as the ones recently witnessed in American Schools such as Sandy Hook, as well as cases of armed robbery (Hoffman and Graham, 2013).
The other ideological difference between the Republicans and the Democrats is when it comes to taxes. The two parties have different tax philosophies. In regards to the Democrats, they propose a more aggressive approach when it comes to taxing individuals with high income (more than 250,000 dollars a year). This, they argue is to help pay for various programs as well as balance the budget (INTELECOM Intelligent Telecommunications, 2002). The Republicans hold a different opinion. They support tax cuts for all people whether rich or poor. In supporting this “across-the-board” tax policy, they argue that enacting higher rates of taxation on wealthier individuals is in actual sense a form or a sign of class welfare (INTELECOM Intelligent Telecommunications, 2002).
As it was mentioned earlier, the American presidency has over the years been exchanged between the two major political parties, that is the Democrats and the Republicans. Third parties have not been successful at the presidential level. In fact, there have been only three American Presidents without major political affiliations. These include the nation’s founding President, George Washington, Andrew Taylor and John Tyler (Maisel and Brewer, 2010). Third parties have never been successful at the Presidential level because of a variety of reasons. The first reason is the Electoral College. The presidential election being the most important election is usually structured around this element called the Electoral College. Here, many of the states in the nation award all the electoral votes to the candidate who wins the most votes in the states. This disadvantages third parties because even if they receive a significant number of the popular vote, this may not translate to much in terms of electoral votes (Streb, 2008).
Ballot access restrictions also play a key role in ensuring the lack of success of third parties at the presidential level. Whereas candidates of major parties often appear on the ballot automatically, the path for a third party candidate to appear in the ballot is a long one plagued by legal impediments that have enacted over the years to encourage thee two party system. Such ballot access barriers include the need to collect over 700, 000 signatures in order to get on the ballot in nation’s 50 states (Streb, 2008). The other reason that third parties have not been successful at the presidential level is because even after gaining a position in the ballot for a national election, many still do not reach the required minimum percentage for classification as a party. In addition, public opinion plays a role in the lack of success of third parties in presidential level. Many people dismiss off third party candidates arguing that they cannot win and, therefore, end up giving their votes to a candidate from a major party such as the Democratic or the Republican Party.
The campaign process in America also plays a key role in maintaining a two party system in the United States. Each major party has a department charged with running campaigns and other political related activities. These two are the Republican National Committee and the Democratic National Committee (Maisel and Brewer, 2010). The campaign process presents an opportunity for the two major parties to display their political prowess. On the other hand, the campaign process proves to be a frustrating process for independents and third party members thus further reinforcing the two party system. For example, the two major parties have the power to source funds from their members to run their campaigns. They can be able to hold extravagant political rallies as well as publish things like newsletters, brochures and online statements to campaign for their candidate (Maisel and Brewer, 2010). This was clearly exhibited in both the 2008 and the 2012 elections where the Democratic Presidential candidate Barrack Obama was able to get campaign money even from renowned celebrities such as George Clooney simply because of his star power and affiliation with major political party. On the other hand, candidates from third parties have a difficult time commanding resources and funds to run their campaigns. Sometimes, they cannot even get their content aired in the media. Their campaign is hugely limited by lack of funds and lack of general awareness in among the public who are only aware of the two major parties (Maisel and Brewer, 2010).
As observed, the American political system is dominated two major parties, the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. These parties often differ when it comes to various ideologies including taxes, personal security, and gun control among other issues. It has also been seen that the current election laws in the nation as well as the general campaign processes to the most part seem to undermine third parties or independents while favoring the two major parties.
References
Maisel, L. S., & Brewer, M. D. (2010).Parties and elections in America the electoral process (5th ed.). Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield.
INTELECOM Intelligent Telecommunications (Firm) (2002). Ideological differences between Republicans and Democrats. Pasadena, Calif: INTELECOM.
Heinrich, J., & Johnson, C. M. (2008). Democrats, Republicans, and Health Care Reform. AJN, American Journal of Nursing, 108(10), 33-34.
Speel, R. W. (2000). The Evolution of Republican and Democratic Ideologies. Journal of Policy History, 34(21), 45-59.
Hoffman, J., & Graham, P. (2013).Introduction to political ideologies. Harlow, England: New York.
Streb, M. J. (2008). Rethinking American electoral democracy. New York: Routledge.
