Danielle Lowe
Mr. Hoppock
AP Government/ Period 2
1 March 2012
Political Parties Essay
Over the past decades, there has been an ongoing argument
about the status of the key political parties, the Democrats and
Republicans, on whether they are in decline or are resurgent in
American society. Many people have analyzed the trends relating
to political parties and, along with their own views, have created
their stance on the matter and have written many articles reflecting
that. In The Party’s Over, David Broder acknowledges the decline
of American political parties, highlighting the key causes of the
decline. He links many of the problems within the American
governmental system with those of the political parties’, along with
explaining how voters’ behavior has also lead to the decline of
political parties. In They Only Look Dead, E. J. Dionne describes
the “Anxious Middle” as a critical part of voters who determine the
outcome of American elections and shows this with examples
when it was extremely relevant to the outcomes of elections, like
the 1992 Presidential Election and the 1994 Congressional
Election. He also shows how candidates within these elections
tried to appeal to this large section of voters. In an election law
journal, Michael J. Malbin writes Political Parties Under the PostMcConnell Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, an article that
considers the how the ban of soft money, unlimited money donated
to political parties for party building activities, will have on
political parties and how they will do without it. With these articles
in mind, political parties are in a decline with respects to the three
sub-parties, which include the Organizational Party, the
Government Party, and the Party of the Electorate.
The Organizational Party, which includes the Democratic
National Committee and the Republican National Committee, is
viewed as in decline due to the appearance of Super PACs and the
movement of power from the party to candidates, but show some
resurgence because they have a clear definition of who they are. It
can be viewed that the Organizational Party are resurgent because
due to their more polarized characteristics and view points, there is
a clear division as to where each part stands on a particular issue.
For example, the Republican National Committee supports the
Republican view that America needs to have a strong military
force and would make that a platform for themselves, while the
Democratic National Committee supports the Democratic view
that America should use diplomacy rather than military force and
would make that a platform for themselves. Political parties can
also be viewed as resurgent within the Organizational Party
because it is able to represent a large group of people since it holds
view point on a broad range of topics. Ultimately, however, the
Organizational Party is in a state of declination. As noted in
Malbin’s Political Parties Under the Post-McConnell Bipartisan
Campaign Reform Act article, with soft money banned from usage
in campaigning, more political candidates are relying on Super
PACs as a way of means to get substantial amounts of money. The
article also shows how the contributions from Super PACs have
increased overtime. Political candidates are now relying more on
Super PAC contributions than money raised by their political
party. This essentially weakens the political parties’ power,
shifting their power to the Super PACs, since money equates to
power. Since the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act banned soft
money, political candidates relying more on Super PACs have
cause a decline in the Organizational Party.
The Government Party, which consists of people in office
like the president and those in Congress, is also in decline due to
people in office and political candidates shifting their agenda and
views to shy away from their party’s title along with Super PACs
taking on more power than the people in office or candidate. It can
also be viewed that the Government Party is resurgent because
more people in office are taking on the roles of the political parties
themselves along with defining them, which is precisely what
Newt Gingrich did while he held office in the 1990s. With clear
definition of a party and a figure to match with it, people are able
to identify political parties much easier. Still, the Government
Party is essentially in a decline because of people in office shifting
their stances and agendas away from party labels. In They Only
Look Dead, Dionne explains how people in office or running for
office are starting to shy away from their party labels so they
become more appealing to the “Anxious Middle”. In the 1990’s
both Clinton and the Republican Party candidates for Congress
appealed to this section of voters by keeping their platforms free
from extreme stances on certain relevant view points and vague.
By this the Government Party is in declination because people in
office or candidates are not strongly associating themselves or their
agendas with party labels. The Government Party is also in decline
because of Super PACs taking on more power than the people in
office or candidates. Because soft money was banned, candidates
are raising more money through Super PACs. However, this poses
many problems for a candidate or incumbent. The candidate or
incumbent cannot work directly with the Super PAC organizations,
leaving the Super PACs under little control. In a recent GOP
debate, Mitt Romney admitted that he himself could not control the
Super PAC organizations that have made contributions to his
campaign. With this the candidate loses power, which is then
shifted to random people of the political party who decided to
contribute through a Super PAC, ultimately leading to them
controlling the element. With less control and power in the
campaign, the Government Party’s status proves to be in a
declining state.
The Party of the Electorate, which are the voters in America,
is also in decline because voters’ behavior and lack of voting.
However, it can be also viewed that the Party of the Electorate is
resurgent due to an increase in the number of voters who
participated in the 2008 Presidential Election. During that year, the
Democratic candidate Barack Obama was running for office,
having potential being the first African American president in
United State’s history. As an outcome, the Democratic Party
registered a significant amount of democratic voters in 2008.
However, compared to the trends for other elections with the past
couple of decades, the number of people participating in elections
has decreased overtime. Broder points out in his book, The Party’s
Over, that the American citizens’ participation in voting was
becoming weary in the 1970s, and the voter turnout has not gotten
much better almost 40 years later. One reason for this is that the
system of the electoral college poses problems because some
people feel that there is a lack of representation in the process.
They are led to believe that their vote is not properly valued in the
process and view it unnecessary to bother voting, essentially
making them feel powerless. This is a big reason for the Party of
the Electorate being in declination. Broder also lists reasons as to
why political parties are declining in American society. He stated
that the political parties are in decline because of ticket splitting
and how more people identifying themselves as independents.
Ticket splitting is defined as “a device for denying either party
responsibility for government” (Broder). Ticket splitting moves
away from the idea of voting with a particular party to just voting
on who would best fix certain problems. For example, the elderly
people residing in Florida vote democratically when voting in the
Presidential Elections because they know a democratic candidate
will support giving them an adequate amount of money though
entitlement programs. However, those elderly citizens of Florida
vote for the Republican candidates on a state level, like for
congressmen and senators, because they know that the Republicans
support lower taxes, which they are in favor of. Also, the
increasing number of people who are identifying themselves as
independents is causing the Party of the Electorate to decline
because it weakens the party. With more people shying away from
political party labels, the political parties are weakened because of
the decreasing number of voters who support them. This can be
due to either the people are unpleased with the members of the
party they used to associate with, because they have changing
views as society is changing, or because parties are too polarized
and they want more moderate answers. All of this is the reason as
to why the Party of the Electorate is declining.
In conclusion, political parties as a whole are currently in
decline in American politics, as they have been for the past few
decades. If nothing is done to restore the political parties’ status,
they will continue to decline until they are viewed as irrelevant
factors in American politics. Political parties as a whole have to
address the problems with their system. Broder suggest that in
order to do this that both parties should experiment with devices
for putting heavier emphasis on the platform-writing phase of the
convention’s work, Americans need discipline the use of money
in politics, strengthen the party organizations and their staffs, and
become somewhat effective about what Americans do with votes.
If this happens, then political parties will be prominent in politics
again.