Party Realignment Essay

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What is a democracy to you? To many of us, it’s just a term that signifies our American government, not understanding that it is our individual freedom and the power to a voice. The political parties in our system are the Democratic, Republican, Libertarian, Green and Constitution parties. Our American Democracy today is being affected due to the current campaign environment and is also affecting American Political Parties. Party realignment in the United States is when the balance of power changes extremely between a country’s political parties. Also, change occurs to the groups of people who vote for them as well. This only happens sometimes, when political parties are created or die out. On the other hand, Party dealignment is the process in which a lot of citizens who can vote leaves alone its only loving political party and any association with it, without developing a new one to replace it. Nixon’s Southern Strategy was that he allegedly used hidden code words that attracted the racists throughout the south and the democrat party. This secret language caused a groundbreaking shift in the electoral landscape that relocated the racist evil democrats into the republican camp and the good-hearted republicans into the democrat camp. All these concepts relate to the Republican Party and their views on immigration, religion, and prejudices about gender, race, and sexual freedom. Stated on the Republican Party platform, "That is why we oppose any form of amnesty for those who, by intentionally violating the law, disadvantage those who have obeyed it. Granting amnesty only rewards and encourages more lawbreaking.” The Republican Party is against illegal immigrants. They don’t support allowing aliens to stay in the United States undocumented or under false names. In the “The Final Unraveling of Nixon’s Southern strategy” article, the author thinks that the Tea Party Rebels are causing rifts of divisions within the party. …show more content…
According to the author, Tea Party rebels are in league with a party that plans to cut Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security in order to finance more tax cuts for billionaires and how the democrats should demand that they explain why. Tea Party patriots also noticed that abortion was still legal, gays were getting married and that meant that the GOP failed to make these things illegal. The author also says that Nixon’s southern strategy was an effective electoral ploy, however, it is beginning to look like a deal with the devil. Lofgren “The Party is Over” explained the changes that took place in the republican party after 2008. “They doubled down on advancing policies that transparently favored the top one percent of earners in this country while obstructing measures such as the extension of unemployment insurance.” (Lofgren, 2012) They also now pursue what became the foreign policy. Extreme views about the Republicans have been on the rise since the 1980s, not just 1994. The republicans believe taxes shouldn’t be increased for the wealthy nor anyone, they believe in “flat tax” They also want increased spending on military issues, abortion to become illegal, and they support the death penalty. Obamacare was something they didn’t support as well. The republicans don’t care about the poor, they only care about making the rich, richer. Based on the article Piven and Cloward “Why Americans Still don’t Vote”, in the 20th century, certain developments changed the way in which Americans voted. In the beginning of the twentieth century due to literacy test, poll taxes, voter registration requirements and all the things needed to be allowed to vote eliminated voting for blacks, poor whites in the south, and northern immigrant working class. Turnout rates had fallen to half the eligible electorate. (Piven, 2000) Although thanks to the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the 24th amendment of 1964, which together dismissed poll taxes, literacy tests, and voter-registration obstructions that had kept many poor whites and blacks from voting. The aftermath led to a rise in black and white voter participation, state and local policies were less discriminatory. This transformed the southern system dramatically. (Piven, 2000) The factors that made possible Reagans sweeping victory in 1980 were the coordination of business campaign contributions, and voter registration and mobilization efforts of

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