Political Parties US Flashcards

Question

Third party difficulties US - lack of resources and media

Answer 1

Lacks of resources – people are reluctant to give money to parties they know are going to lose. Less money means third parties are unable to compete with the two main parties in terms of expenditure, on organisation, staff and media. Lacks of media coverage – news programmes do not think they are sufficiently news worthy. The parties rarely afford the cost of adverts on TV and the candidates are usually barred from appearing in the TV debates. In 2016, only Trump and Clinton appeared in the three presidential debates, both Gary Johnson and Jill Stein were excluded.

Answer 2

Co-optation – a third party may do well in pre-election opinion polls and win a significant amount of votes on Election Day, like Ross Perot in 1992. The co-optation of its key policies to deal with Perot’s flagship policy the federal budget deficit. By 2000, the budget was in surplus and Perot’s vote had fallen from 19% in 1992 to 0.4% in 2000.

Answer 3

Broder published ‘The Party’s over: the failure of politics in America and he popularised the idea that the parties were in major decline. It is believed party decline is in the following three categories candidate selection, communication with voters and the emergence of movements.

Answer 4

The parties have lost control over presidential candidate selection. Until the late 60s candidates were largely selected in smoke filled rooms, but now they are selected by ordinary voters in primaries, this means parties have lost a huge amount of control. In 2016 both parties had difficulty in controlling their presidential candidate in the selection process. The democrats struggled to appoint their preferred candidate, Clinton due to support for Sanders and the republican hierarchy lost control with the hostile takeover by Trump.

Answer 5

Parties have lost their traditional function as the communicator between politicians and the voters. Politicians who wished to communicate with the voters would do so through a party rally. The same party organised function gave voters a chance to communicate with politicians, either through formal questions and answers or by heckling. Today, politicians communicate their message through television, while voters speak back to politicians through opinion polls. The role of the party is cut out.

Answer 6

The emergence of the Tea Party and occupy movements during the 21st century showed the extent to which Americans are more prone to join a movement than a political party. Each of these movements has sought to influence on the republican and democrat parties respectively. Americans seek to influence the parties more from without than within. The extent to which the Tea Party movement managed to get its preferred candidates chosen in certain congressional races over the wishes of republican leadership shows the decline of political parties. In 2016, Trump talked of his campaign as a movement rather than the activity of the Republican Party, his success in the primaries was described as a hostile takeover. Sanders made the same claim of a movement.

Answer 7

It is argued that parties are no longer in decline and are in renewal for the following reasons, theories of decline were exaggerated, nationalisation of campaigns and increased partisanship of congress.

Answer 8

The death of the Republican Party was reported following the Watergate affair and Nixon’s resignation, but its candidate was back in the White House in just over six years. The death of the Democratic Party was reported following the leftward shift of the party from the 1960s-80s but the party was resurrected by the new democrat model of the Clinton-Gore ticket in 1992.

Answer 9

In 1994, the republicans campaigned around a 10 point policy programme called the contract with America, this was the brainchild of Congressman Newt Gingrich, and this policy document was supported by nearly all republican house candidates in that election. It promised that, under a republican controlled congress on 10 policy issues of interest to conservative voters, such as a constitutional amendment providing for a balanced budget and congressional term limits. Then in 2002, the republicans launched another successful nationalised midterm election, resulting in the republicans gaining seats in both houses of congress in a midterm election for the first time since 1934. The democrats followed suit in 2006 midterm elections with their ‘six for 06’ agenda, which accompanied their retaking control of both houses of congress after 12 years in the minority. Four years later, the republicans published their ‘pledge to America’ in advance of the 2010 midterm elections, which listed the policies they would bring to the floor in the 112th congress (2011-12) if they won control of both houses

Answer 10

Party renewal came with increased levels of partisanship in congress. If parties were declining in importance, a decline in partisanship could be anticipated. Partisanship can be argued to have increased significantly in congress over the past decade.

Answer 11

After the 2016 election cycle, the democrats were in poor shape. Obama arguably left the democrats in a weaker state. Obama’s democrats lost the White House, despite that their candidate won the popular vote by nearly 3 million votes. In 2009, the democrats effectively controlled 58 seats in the senate and 255 seats in the house. 8 years later, they had 48 voters in the senate and 194 in the house and were the minority party in both houses. In these 8 years, they lost 10 seats in the senate and 61 in the house. As president Obama enter office, the democrats controlled 29 out of the 50 state governorships. 8 years later they held just 16, which were 13 governments lost in just 8 years. In 2009 the democrats controlled 61 of the 98 partisan state legislative houses but by 2017 they controlled just 31 and in terms of seats they lost nearly a thousand seats in 8 years. In 2009 the democrats had control of 18 states (control of over both legislative houses and the governorship), the republicans controlled just 10. By 2017 the democrats controlled 7 and the republicans controlled 24. This was the lowest level of democrat control since 1925. Some on the left of the party argue for a more left of centre, radical approach. They stress issues like income equality, the benefits of benevolent immigration and civil rights and liberties for racial and gender groups. Others appeal to what they hope will be a growing number of disenchanted Trump voters. These disagreements played out in a contest in 2017 to decide who would chair the democratic national committee. The result of the election of Perez was in Sanders phrase ‘a victory for the failed status quo approach’.

Answer 12

After the election of Obama the Tea Party movement grew out of dissatisfaction with his response to the banking collapse and the economic meltdown on Wall Street. They stood for limited federal government, reduction in tax and reducing the national debt, they also opposed Obama’s health care reforms. Working through the Republican Party was instrumental in getting congressional candidates selected for the 2010 midterm elections who reflected their views. Once they formed the freedom caucus, which became the de facto controller of the agenda of the house. The Tea Party arguably gave birth to Trump in 2016. Examples of conflicts are the government shutdown 2018/19, the republicans that broke from the president to vote for democrat money bills (Susan Collins of Maine) and the forced resignations in Senate (Jeff Flake of Arizona resigned). Evidence of lack of divisions Party votes have reached 75% in 2013 and in the seven presidential elections 1992-2016, the democrats and republicans accounted for more than 85% of the popular vote on every occasion and in four exceeded 95%. Party divergence, there are now no democrats that are more conservative than any republican, having no overlap between the parties ideologically has led to more party cohesion. Partisanship, the lack of cooperation between the parties in congress suggests that divisions within the parties have become less significant.

Answer 13

Since 2007 there has been an increased climate of partisanship in congress. The two parties are more disciplined and more ideologically coherent. Ronald Brownstein spoke about ‘hyper partisanship’ and the ‘distance between the two parties widened’. Bipartisanship used to be more common, both parties were broad ideological churches that could encompass a range of conservative to moderate view points. These centrists’ congress members have become increasingly rare. Partisanship is a factor for the lack of productivity. In 2013 congress passed 57 laws which was an all time low. Despite this congress held hundreds of roll call votes in both houses in 2013, 291 in the Senate and 641 in the House. A further problem is that members of congress who stay away from the party line open themselves up to a primary challenge from the more ideologically correct wing of the party.

Political Parties US Flashcards

(37 cards)