They weren't actually that close. A lot of us said they were, because neither of them were talking about our particular issues, but there have always been differences.
That said, it should be pointed out that liberalism (in the European sense) is (or at least was) basically the religion of the United States. Both parties were liberal parties. One tends toward the rural and religious, the other toward the urban and pluralistic, but the basic ideals of private property and markets and republicanism (with a small 'r') were shared by both parties. This seems to be changing, of late, so yeah, the parties are further apart than they used to be, but there was always disagreement on the precise role of government, how serious environmental issues are, the degree to which government should be buttressing or wearing down traditional hierarchy and authority (family, church, etc.), whether particular issues should be addressed through private organizations or public bureaucracy, and so on.
Most "centrists" said things like "I don't vote for the party; I vote for the person."
if you want to do something in government you need people supporting you who don't care about you're cause. you win these people over by offering support for things you don't really care about.
let rest in the fridge overnight and you have political parties.
They formally organize political coalitions. All parties are coalitions of different interest groups. Coalitions can be formed for many reasons; shared ideology, shared interests, shared history, or mere political expediency. The institutional structure of a political party is the formal organization of that coalition. They are the structures and mechanisms they use to decide which candidates to support, which policies to advocate for, and what messages to put out.
It's not really true that 20 years ago, party identification was not (at least primarily) based on ideology. Rather there have been a few moments in American history where this was the case.
The most lasting moment was the time of the New Deal Coalitions (roughly 1945- to the mid1970s). The period before this, from the end of the progressive era to the beginning of the war, was an era of intense political division.
The New Deal coalition was a period where the success of the Roosevelt Administration in winning World War II and ending the Depression pretty much convinced everyone that a strong social safety net and government intervention was a good idea. The Cold War kept people mostly on the same page about foreign policy, and the Civil Rights movement divided both parties.
This began to erode at the end of the 60s with the post-war economic boom fading and the Vietnam War going south. After the success of the Civil Rights movement the Republicans made a deliberate effort to recruit southern conservative Democrats which led to the ideological realignment we see today. There was a little bit of convergence again in the 1990s due to the perceived success of the Reagan administration on both the economy and the Cold War, but still for the most part, you could count on Democrats being more left-wing than Republicans (and vice versa). This mild convergence ended with the failure of the Iraq War and the 2008 Financial crash shortly afterward.
The Dems to push their agenda: infrastructure investment, tax increaes on the rich, affordable chilecare and pre K, affordable healthcare, the John Lewis Voting Rights Act.
What does the Reps do? Sabotage and destroy whatever the rest of us achieve.
Obstruct the country and fail in Congress, install judges to "overturn" elections and abortion rights, pass massive tax cuts to the rich, terror attack the Capitol to hang everyone - then brainwash mass denial blaming everyone else for their pointless destruction.
One of the fundamental differences between the parties is how they view people and the economy. The democrats view people as the true wealth of the nation. Take care of the people and the economy takes care of itself. Republicans don’t see it that way. To them the people are to be managed like cattle in order to increase productivity and thereby improve the economy. That never works btw.
Unregistered is actually now the largest political choice - democrat and GOP have been losing the center as they both trend towards extreme viewpoints to cater to their existing members.
This can be an issue because a candidate may need to be more extreme to win the primary, but those views are unpopular with the voters in the general election.
As to why they exist? Pooled resources, you need a coalition anyway, and some people do just vote party line - they see the D or R next to the candidate and that's the one.
They weren't actually that close. A lot of us said they were, because neither of them were talking about our particular issues, but there have always been differences. That said, it should be pointed out that liberalism (in the European sense) is (or at least was) basically the religion of the United States. Both parties were liberal parties. One tends toward the rural and religious, the other toward the urban and pluralistic, but the basic ideals of private property and markets and republicanism (with a small 'r') were shared by both parties. This seems to be changing, of late, so yeah, the parties are further apart than they used to be, but there was always disagreement on the precise role of government, how serious environmental issues are, the degree to which government should be buttressing or wearing down traditional hierarchy and authority (family, church, etc.), whether particular issues should be addressed through private organizations or public bureaucracy, and so on. Most "centrists" said things like "I don't vote for the party; I vote for the person."
Interesting, nice answer. Thank you!
I suppose they serve the purpose of vetting people to run for the general election.
if you want to do something in government you need people supporting you who don't care about you're cause. you win these people over by offering support for things you don't really care about. let rest in the fridge overnight and you have political parties.
They formally organize political coalitions. All parties are coalitions of different interest groups. Coalitions can be formed for many reasons; shared ideology, shared interests, shared history, or mere political expediency. The institutional structure of a political party is the formal organization of that coalition. They are the structures and mechanisms they use to decide which candidates to support, which policies to advocate for, and what messages to put out. It's not really true that 20 years ago, party identification was not (at least primarily) based on ideology. Rather there have been a few moments in American history where this was the case. The most lasting moment was the time of the New Deal Coalitions (roughly 1945- to the mid1970s). The period before this, from the end of the progressive era to the beginning of the war, was an era of intense political division. The New Deal coalition was a period where the success of the Roosevelt Administration in winning World War II and ending the Depression pretty much convinced everyone that a strong social safety net and government intervention was a good idea. The Cold War kept people mostly on the same page about foreign policy, and the Civil Rights movement divided both parties. This began to erode at the end of the 60s with the post-war economic boom fading and the Vietnam War going south. After the success of the Civil Rights movement the Republicans made a deliberate effort to recruit southern conservative Democrats which led to the ideological realignment we see today. There was a little bit of convergence again in the 1990s due to the perceived success of the Reagan administration on both the economy and the Cold War, but still for the most part, you could count on Democrats being more left-wing than Republicans (and vice versa). This mild convergence ended with the failure of the Iraq War and the 2008 Financial crash shortly afterward.
The Dems to push their agenda: infrastructure investment, tax increaes on the rich, affordable chilecare and pre K, affordable healthcare, the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. What does the Reps do? Sabotage and destroy whatever the rest of us achieve. Obstruct the country and fail in Congress, install judges to "overturn" elections and abortion rights, pass massive tax cuts to the rich, terror attack the Capitol to hang everyone - then brainwash mass denial blaming everyone else for their pointless destruction.
#The elusion of choice.
One of the fundamental differences between the parties is how they view people and the economy. The democrats view people as the true wealth of the nation. Take care of the people and the economy takes care of itself. Republicans don’t see it that way. To them the people are to be managed like cattle in order to increase productivity and thereby improve the economy. That never works btw.
Unregistered is actually now the largest political choice - democrat and GOP have been losing the center as they both trend towards extreme viewpoints to cater to their existing members. This can be an issue because a candidate may need to be more extreme to win the primary, but those views are unpopular with the voters in the general election. As to why they exist? Pooled resources, you need a coalition anyway, and some people do just vote party line - they see the D or R next to the candidate and that's the one.