The 2 Parties today

In the United States today our political system consists of 2 main parties: the Republican Party, and the Democratic Party. As it is today, the Republican party is more conservative, while the Democratic party is more liberal.

Republicans believe in things such as gun rights, increased military spending, decreasing taxes to stimulate the economy, and preserving traditions. They are opposed to affirmative action, illegal immigration, and drug legalization. For the most part the Republican party is very traditional in it’s values and beliefs.

Democrats believe in taking action against climate change, a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants, supporting abortion rights, preventing tyranny, and protecting minorities. They are oppossed to overspending on military, abortion laws, cutting social services, climate harm. It’s safe to say the Democratic party is pretty liberal in it’s beliefs.

The U.S.’s political system is based upon these parties today, which is called a 2 party system because 2 political parties dominate all 3 levels of our government. This type of system can be seen as good or bad; since, sometimes 2 party systems have been seen as preferable to multi party systems because they’re simpler to govern and they discourage radical minor parties. It’s also seen as bad since it creates much polarization in our country, which we’ve watched increase year after year. Whichever way you see it, the 2 party system in the US is most likely here to stay.

The switch

At the outbreak of the civil war, Republicans controlled a majority of the northern states, sought to expand the US, and helped fund the transcontinental railroad and fund state colleges. Additionally because of the rising tension over slavery many republicans became abolitionists, who were completely against it.

Democrats represented a range of views, but shared a commitment to Thomas Jefferson’s idea of a farming society. They viewed the central government as an enemy to individual liberty. Since most democrats were in southern states, they fought to keep slavery legal.

As the war ended the Republican party controlled the government and used it’s power to protect formerly enslaved, and guarantee them civil rights. This included the three Reconstruction Amendments, which won Republicans the loyalty (and vote) of America’s Black population. Unsurprisingly, most Democrats disapproved of these measures.

However a change began in the Republican party. Northern industrialists had become rich from the war, and many then entered politics. These new wealthy politicians didn’t see any point in supporting the rights of Black Americans as the country was mostly white. By the 1870s the Republicans felt they had done enough for Black citizens and stopped their efforts to reform the southern states. The south was left to White democrats and their oppressive policies towards Black citizens. With the end of reconstruction, the south consistently voted blue for the next 40 years.

60 years later the great depression was about, and the Republican party continued to be dominated by wealthy politicians that favored laws that supported big businesses. These policies were effective when the economy was booming, but were disastrous when it wasn’t. When the economy crashed in 1929, republican president Herbert Hoover didn’t intervene, and gained the hate of the American people. When FDR signed the new deal republicans weren’t in favor of it since they saw government intervention as too much federal control.

When the civil rights movement began to take way southern representatives from both parties opposed the movement in its early stages. While northern representatives of both parties supported legislation as it picked up steam. 

In 1964, democratic president Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil rights act. In the 1964 election republican candidate Barry Goldwater publicly opposed the new law, as he believed it expanded the central government’s power to a dangerous level. 

It was this argument that led to a final switch. Black voters, who had been mostly in support of the Republican party because of the 1866 civil rights act, had already been switching to the democrat party. However, after hearing Goldwaters argument the majority left the Republican party in favor of the Democrats. They saw the Democratic party as advocates for equality and justice, while the Republican party was too concerned with keeping status quo in the country.

As the 60s and 70s continued the democratic party sought change in other places such as abortion and school prayer. While southern democrats began to resent how much the party was intervening into the rights of people. 

By the 1980s southern democrats had become republicans, and the majority of the south was no republican. The Republican party is now solidified as conservative, while the Democrat party is the liberal one.

Takeaways

It’s clear that this switch has completely formed our politics today, and has influenced the amount of polarization that each party has grown from another. As each party grows farther apart year after year, it’s easy to wonder if a switch like this could possibly happen again over time. With the amount of separation from each other the two parties have now it’s hard to see how this could happen, but the two parties were also quite separated in the times leading up to the switch. I think that with how the Republican party is trying to address certain issues now, this could lead to in the future, another switch in a different way. Because people that vote Republican that support different big issues that it is now attempting to address may feel like switching to the Democrat party.