The Ideological Differences Between The Democratic And Republican Parties Are Far Greater Than The Differences Within Them- Discuss

The Democratic and Republican Parties are the two major political parties in the United States and they represent the more liberal and more conservative parts of the electorate respectively. However, each party covers such a wide-range of the political spectrum with numerous factions within each party that it could be argued that some of the factions overlap. This could mean that there are more differences within the political parties than there are between them.

The two parties are ideologically distinct in many ways. The Democrats tend to be associated with more liberal, left-wing views such as pro-choice rather than pro-life and a big federal government. Typically, a Democrat voter would be from the North-East geographically. Contrary, Republicans tend to hold more conservative, right-wing policies such as being pro-life and being against vast federal intervention. The Republicans typically get their votes from the South, in particularly from religious fundamentalists, business companies and wealthy families. The typical policies associated with each party are clearly complete opposite which demonstrates the vast ideological differences between the two parties.

It cannot be denied that there are vast differences within the two major political parties due to the various caucuses/factions within them. For example, within the Democratic Party there is the Progressive Caucus which is the most left-wing section of the party and there are also the Blue Dog Democrats which are the most conservative part of the party. These factions of the parties hold numerous different ideas for example, the Blue Dogs want low taxes whereas the Progressive Caucus have traditionally funded big government schemes such as the New Deal and Lyndon B Johnsons Great Society . Often, the Blue Dog Democrats side with the moderate Republicans more than they do with their own party. This is clear evidence that there are vast differences within the political parties and that the overlaps on the political system sometimes indicate that factions have more in common outside of the parties than the factions within the parties.

Whilst the political parties are ideologically distinct, in recent years they have converged ideologically to appeal to a wide-range of the electorate which suggests that differences within the parties are larger than differences between the parties. President Bush was a Republican which means traditionally he should have been committed to a small federal government, in line with his parties ideological view. Despite this, the Bush administration vastly increased government spending by 33% in his first term with his various policies such as expanding Medicare which costed $400 billion. This is what would have been expected of a Democratic president but the Republicans became defenders of big federal government . This is an example of how the parties are aligning and becoming more politically converged in order to catch-all voters.

Overall, it is fair to say the ideological differences between the Democratic and Republican parties are far greater than the differences within them. This is because the parties cover such a broad range of the political spectrum that whilst there are still some overlaps between the parties, the parties are still ideologically distinctive by their typically associated views of the Democrats being more left-wing and the Republicans being more right-wing and conservative.