Political Parties and the Electoral Process

There are two major political parties in America right now; the Democrats and the Republicans. Everyone knows that the Democrats are more liberal and the Republicans are more conservative but might not know what each party really stands for and how they are similar and different.

The Democratic Party traces its origins to the anti-federalist factions around the time of America’s independence from British rule. These factions were organized into the Democrat – Republican party by Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and other influential opponents of the Federalists in 1792 (Democrat vs Republican. n.d.).

The Republican Party is the younger of the two parties. Founded in 1854 by anti-slavery expansion activists and modernizers, the Republican Party rose to prominence with the election of Abraham Lincoln, the first Republican president (Democrat vs Republican. n.d.).

Many of the positions that the parties take are quite alike, they just have different policies. Both parties believe that we should lower taxes however; the Democratic Party believes we should lower taxes mainly in the middle class while the Republican Party believes we should lower taxes of all who are receiving and income (Prabhat, S. 2011).

Another example is the Social Security issue. With the increase of retired people and increase in longer life spans, the social security is being drained. Both parties believe that we need to preserve and strengthen the social security program. The Republican Party believes that it should merit bipartisanship and be made optional while the Democratic Party opposes privatizing the program, raising retirement ages, and reducing benefits (Prabhat, S. 2011).

Environment is another issue in which each party shares the same positions. Both believe that we need to protect and restore the environment. Yet, the Republican Party wants to focus primarily on protecting water resources while the Democratic Party wants to focus on the global environment (Prabhat, S. 2011)....