US parties

Question 1

an example of a more liberal republican

Answer 1

George W. Bush ran his 2000 election with calling himself a “compassionate conservative”

Question 2

How does Ideology change between regions

Answer 2

Southern Democrats such as Senator Bill Nelson of Florida tend to be more conservative than New England Democrats such as Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut. Similarly, New England Republicans such as Senator Susan Collins of Maine are more liberal than Southern Republicans such as Senator Richard Burr of North Carolina

Question 3

how many people said republicans were more conservative than democrats in 1984 vs 2012 and how many said they were the same?

Answer 3

53% said Republicans were more conservative in 1984 vs 73% in 2012

32% in 1984 said they were the same vs 18% in 2012

Question 4

how much did non-liberals vs liberals prefer Clinton over Bernie by

Answer 4

liberals: 53% to 46%

non-liberals: 61% to 36%

Question 5

why was Trump not a typical moderate or conservative republican?

Answer 5

he opposed some republican things such as free trade, Wall Street finances and corporate executives who moved jobs abroad, but appointed conservative judges to the supreme court, admired president Ronald Reagan and courted leading evangelical leaders

Question 6

what were Biden and Trumps differing views on covid-19?

Answer 6

Biden wants to set up a national-contact tracing programme, establish at least 10 testing centres in every state and provide free testing for all, as well as supporting a mask-wearing mandate for all.
Trump set up a task force in january which he said was moving towards safely opening up the country, and prioritised the speedy development of vaccines, directing $10bn towards this

Question 7

what are Biden and Trumps differing views on the climate

Answer 7

Biden rejoined paris agreement when elected and wants to reach net-zero by 2050
Trump is a clinate change sceptic, wants to expand non-renewable energy and withdrew from Paris Climate agreement

Question 8

what are Trump and Bidens differing views on the economy?

Answer 8

Biden wants to raise taxes for high earners and supports raising minimum wage to $15 an hour
Trump wanted to deliver an income tax cut and pledged to create 10 million jobs in 10 months

Question 9

what are Biden and Trumps differing views on healthcare?

Answer 9

Biden wants to protect and expand the ACA, lower the eligibility age for medicare from 65 to 60 and wants to give all Americans option to enrol in a public health insurance similar to medicare
Trump want to repeal affordable care act (says he wants to improve and replace it), lower drug prices by allowing cheaper ones from abroad

Question 10

what are Trump and Bidens differing views on foreign policy?

Answer 10

Biden promised to repair relationships with US allies and says he would do away with unilateral tariffs on china and instead hold them accountable with an international coalition that china cant afford to ignore
Trump reiterated promise to bring down US troops levels overseas, while continuing to invest in military. says he will continue to challenge international alliances and trade tariffs with China

Question 11

what are Trump and Bidens differing views on race and policing

Answer 11

Biden views racism as a systematic problem and has set out policies to address racial disparities in the justice system. He has rejected calls to defund police
Trump says he doesn’t believe racism is a systematic problem within US police forces. He has positioned himself as a firm advocate for law enforcement

Question 12

what are Biden and Trumps differing views on guns?

Answer 12

Biden has proposed banning assault weapons, universal background checks limiting the number of guns a person can purchase to one per month and making it easier to sue neglectful gun manufacturers and sellers
Trump has an extensive interpretation of the second amendment

Question 13

what are Trump and Bidens differing views on the supreme court?

Answer 13

Biden wants the vacancy to be filled after the next president enters office
Trump says its his constitutional right to fill the vacancy on the court which he did

Question 14

what were the gender gaps for Trump and Clinton in 2016?

Answer 14

11 points for Trump and 13 points for Clinton

Question 15

what is the support for Democrats among African-Americans?

Answer 15

In the ten elections between 1980 and 2016, African-Americans never gave less than 83% support to the Democrats, going up to 95% in 2008 for Obama

Question 16

what was the Republican vote amongst hispanics in 1996, 2000 and 2004

Answer 16

20% in 1996 to 31% in 2000 and to 43% in 2004

Question 17

what are Reagan Democrats?

Answer 17

white, working-class voters, mostly living in the Northeast and Midwest, employed in blue collar jobs, who had been traditional Democrats but who supported Ronald Reagan in 1980 and 1984

Question 18

what percentage of white non-college men voted for Trump in 2016?

Answer 18

71%

Question 19

what are the factors leading to strengthening of national party structures (at the expense of state and local)?

Answer 19

• new campaign finance laws meant money flowed more to national parties and the presidential candidates themselves rather than being raised locally
• television meant candidates could appeal directly to voters; a role state and local parties had played
• more sophisticated and widely available opinion polls allowed candidates to hear what voters were saying
• adoption of new technology allowed national parties to target voters
• parties become more ideologically cohesive and politics more partisan
• national parties established systems to recruit and train state and local party candidates
• organisational structures of main parties are ‘top down’

Question 20

what are national committees and how do they work?

Answer 20

the only manifestations of permanent party structure at the national level are the national committees of each party.
each has a chair, normally elected by the members of the respective national committee, though by tradition incumbent presidents recommended the chair of their own national committees.
party chairs mostly anonymous party bureaucrats

Question 21

which part of the country is solidly democrat and how much do they vote for them?

Answer 21

the Northeast.
In the seven elections 1984-2008, the Northeast gave the Democratic candidate his largest share of the vote. In 2012 the democrats won every northeast state.
The Democrats also have a hold over the Northwest - the last republican candidate to in a west coast state was when George H W Bush won California in 1988

Question 22

which part os the US do the Republicans have a hold over?

Answer 22

the South - in 2000 the Republicans won every state in the South and in 2016 Hillary Clinton only won Virginia in the state

Question 23

how much support for each party vary in urban vs rural areas

Answer 23

urban areas heavily support democrats whilst rural areas swing significantly towards the republicans. In 2020, the democrats had a 14.1 percentage point lead in large metro areas and a -36 percentage point loss in rural areas

Question 24

what percentage of Protestants voted for Republicans in the last 6 presidential elections?

Answer 24

54% to 59%

Question 25

what percentage of the white evangelical vote did Trump get in 2016?

Answer 25

81%

Question 26

In how many of the last 6 elections did democrats win the catholic vote?

Answer 26

4/6

Question 27

how much did religiously unaffiliated vote for Trump vs Biden in 2020?

Answer 27

22% Trump/Republicans

71% Biden/Democrats

Question 28

what are theories of party decline?

Answer 28

Candidate selection - parties lost control over presidential candidate selection (e.g republican hierarchy lost control with Rump. Democrats struggled because of strong opposition of Sanders). this is because candidates now chosen by normal voters
Communication with voters - parties have lost traditional function as the communication between politicians and voters. Now communicate via TV and opinion polls rather than party rallies and party organised functions
Emergence of ‘movements’ - many Americans more prone to join a movement rather than a traditional party, movements can exert political influence on parties eg the tea part, Trump talked of his campaign as a movement

Question 29

theories of party renewal?

Answer 29

theories of party decline exaggerated - parties may be less significant than the used to be but still play important role.

Two major parties controlled white house, congress and most state governorships for entire 20th century

nationalisation of campaign - nationalising of election campaigns. Especially true of Republican Party in midterm elections 1994 and 2002 (1994 - ‘contract with America’)

increased partisanship in congress - partisanship has increased in the last 10 years and if parties were declining in importance a decline in partisanship would be expected

Question 30

examples of party factions in the US

Answer 30

Democrats - blue dog, conservative, liberal, libertarian, progressive
Republicans - Christian right, (Neo-)conservative, moderate, Freedom caucus, Tea Party

Question 31

how many states votes for the same party’s candidate in the seven presidential elections between 1992 and 2016

Answer 31

28

Question 32

what shows that parties are becoming more partisan in the us?

Answer 32

in 2015, all 54 republicans were more conservative than Heidi Heitkamp (the most conservative democrat) and all 45 democrats were more liberal than Susan Collins (the most liberal republican, whereas in 1982 35 democrats were more conservative than Weicker (the most liberal republican) and 23 republicans were more liberal than Zorinsky (the most conservative democrat)

Question 33

how would you characterise red america vs blue america?

Answer 33

red america is white, overwhelmingly protestant but often joined by catholics, wealthy, rural or suburban, conservative. tend to think federal government does too many things, federal income tax should be cut, is pro life, pro guns and pro traditional marriage and opposed to obamacare. gets news from fox news loves Bush but hates clintons and obama.
blue america is racially diverse. religion not important, wealthier, predominantly urban, liberal. most think federal government should do more ad federal income tax should be increased. pro-choice, favours gun control and pro same-sex marriage and is supportive of Obamacae. gets news from CNN.

Question 34

evidence for a two-party system in the us?

Answer 34

popular vote, seats in the legislature, control of the executive, state government, leadership in congress and state politics dominated by two major parties

Question 35

In how many of the last 8 presidential elections has the combined vote exceeded 95% and in how many has it been over 80%?

Answer 35

In 5 out of 8 their vote has exceeded 95% and in all of them it has been above 80%

Question 36

when was the last time a president wasn’t either a democrat or republican?

Answer 36

1853

Question 37

How many members of the house and senate were either democrats or republicans in January 2017

Answer 37

all members of the senate and 98 out of 100 of the senate (Bernie Sanders of Vermount and Angus King of Maine not elected as either. Sanders only opposed by republican candidates at elections. King former independent governors and caucuses with democrats)

Question 38

how many of 50 state governors are either democrats or republicans?

Answer 38

49

Question 39

what are the reasons for a two-party system in the us?

Answer 39

electoral system, broad party ideologies, primary elections

Question 40

arguments against the us having a two party system?

Answer 40

the USA has a 50 party system with individual state parties being autonomous and ideologically varied, some states are virtually one-party states, third parties have a played a significant role in some elections, many voters join groups or movements rather than parties, many Americans are self described independents

Question 41

examples of third parties in the US?

Answer 41

national and permanent : the Libertarian Party (on ballot in all 50 states in 2016) and the Green Party(on ballot in 44 states in 2016)
regional third parties: States Rights Party, American Independent Party
temporary third partys: reform party, american independent party
issue based parties: prohibition party, green party
ideological: socialist party, libertarian party

Question 42

what are difficulties third parties face?

Answer 42

electoral system(1992 Ross Perot won 19% of vote but no electoral college votes), ballot access laws(In New York a third party candidate must gain a certain amount of signatures in every county to get on the ballot and in California the number of signatures required is equal to 1% of the electorate), lack of resources, lack of media coverage, co-optation (both Democrat President Bill Clinton and the congressional republicans adopted policies to deal with Perot’s flagship issue - the federal budget deficit)

Question 43

evidence for third parties playing a significant role in US politics

Answer 43

Ross Perot won 19% of the vote in 1992 and contributed to President Bush’s defeat, The Green Party’s 2.7% in 2000 contributed to Al Gores defeat, third parties can lose elections but win influence be changing policies of one (or both) of the two major parties, some states (e.g. Alaska, New York) have quite vibrant third parties which can play a significant role in state and local races

Question 44

arguments against third parties playing any significant role on US politics

Answer 44

the major parties dominate presidential elections, the two major parties control congress, the two major parties control state politics, the two major parties co-opt the policies if successful third parties, thereby curbing their electoral success

Question 45

what did Ross Perot/the Reform Party advocate for and why was he successful?

Answer 45

advocated for a balanced federal budget, campaign finance reforms and congressional term limits.
capitalised on low public support for President H.W.Bush, folksy manner and half-hour informercials on broadcast networks, on the ballot in all 50 states, billionaire, recession

Question 46

how did the Green Party influence the election in 2000? (US)

Answer 46

The difference in the election was Florida, which Bush won by fewer than 600 votes to give him a 271-266 Electoral college edge. had even a small percentage of the nearly 100,000 votes garnered by Nader in Florida shifted to Gore, Gore would have won election

Question 47

What percentage of Americans identify as independents?

Answer 47

On December 17, 2020, Gallup polling found that 41% of Americans identified as Independent.