Partisanship and Polarisation
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- Created on: 08-06-14 19:48
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- Partisanship and Polarisation
- The Political Re-alignment of the 1980s
- The South was first won by the Republicans in 1994 and have kept it ever since
- By the 90s this changed and the South became Republican because of the religious views and the Republicans had swung to the right and become more conservative and religious
- Led to the two parties become more ideologically distinct
- Before the 80s the South was solidly Democrat
- Red America V Blue America
- Reinforced by redistricting which cemented party domination in their states
- Two cultures who had little in common - often called 50/50 America because the two sides were evenly split
- Some say this is too simplistic because there are swing states
- After the 90s and into the 21st century, increasingly polarised America made up of red states for Republicans and Blue states for Democrats
- The Move to Ideological Extremes
- Democrats
- Solidly liberal on issues like graduated income tax, women's right to choose, women's equality, immigration laws
- In 2006 the party produced six for '06 - withdrawal from Iraq, increase minimum wage for poor and grants for students to reduce fees
- Obamacare to make health insurance affordable for poor people
- Since the 80s they have become more liberal
- The Republican Right
- Rise of the religious right dominance in the south opened the way for influence of the religious right
- New Right under Reagan led the party more to the right
- Neo Cons influential in early 21st century and party adopted a more aggressive and right wing foreign policy
- Dominated by traditional and moderate Republicans up to the 80s but some argue it's moved more to the right
- Tea Party emerged in 2008/9 and had influence by 2013
- New Tactics
- Increasing unwillingness to compromise with the Democrats
- Brought USA to a standstill in 2013
- Increasing party discipline insisting on uniting behind a right wing agenda
- Increasing unwillingness to compromise with the Democrats
- Democrats
- Effects
- Polarisation of the parties in Congress which makes it difficult to compromis
- Polarisation of political opinions amongst the American public
- Lack of compromise led to deadlock and weal government in 2013
- The Role of the Media
- Led to proliferation of stations and phone ins which are aggressively right or left wing
- Fox News is solidly right wing Republican
- Tv and radio outlets have multiplied and many of the new ones are not regulated for bias and accuracy
- Most people only tune into channels which reflect their views and these channels just confirm them for them
- Led to proliferation of stations and phone ins which are aggressively right or left wing
- The Political Re-alignment of the 1980s
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