lasalle honors .docx

Political Parties: Shout, yee-haw or blow hell no?

Political Parties are organizations that seek to attain political power within a government and are essential to the governments development and institution. These political parties serve as the essential link between the state and society, but lately, the political parties have seemed to be doing the United States a great disadvantage with frequent bi-partisan disagreements and gridlock. Although frustrating at times, a nation without these strong and competitive political parties will inevitably be a nation in which the power lies in the confused voter and a naturally authoritarian President. The power to change how we view politics is in the hand of the voter and most definitely not in hands of a corrupt politician looking for incumbency and a paycheck. As the United States of America approaches democracy, its eligible citizens vote in politicians who will be able to voice their fellow citizens opinions; at least thats how it is supposed to work. Unfortunately eligible voters do not hold up their part of the deal. Only 48 percent of eligible voters vote in national lower house elections. (1) This low voter turnout is what creates unhappy, and sometimes, hypocritical citizens. The opinions of the 70 million eligible voters who vote will count, but the other 76,311,000 people who dont vote wont have their opinion heard. This low voter turnout results in only a fraction of the countries population to be heard, and some issues to not be brought to light. This is what creates a generally dissatisfied population in the United States. If voters do not vote, then opinions both national, and international will not be met. The turn out of voters also depends greatly on the sex, and socio-economic standing of the voter. In the 2008 presidential election 78 percent off eligible voters who made more than 150,000 dollars a year or more voted in comparison to the 41 percent of eligible voters who made less than 15,000 dollars a year. Also in the 2008 presidential election, 7.8 more women than men voted. (2) Some eligible voters even argue that they do not vote because they feel, due to the Electoral College, that their popular vote doesnt matter. In order to fix these low voter turnouts by targeting the statistics we have we would have to have Fair Representation Voting which means that the candidates should be from various socio-economic standings and of different races and gender. We would also have to have a National Popular Vote for president, which would allow every vote in every state, to be equal to one another. This would expand the presidents campaign from just ten states, to all fifty states! Although the United States of America has their two majority parties ingrained in them since the almost existence of the government, many citizens must realize that the opposing party sometimes support their decisions greater than the party they belong to. Political parties are not a requirement to be had in the Constitution and the only reason why we have them is because of popular decision. We as a nation have split our views into two parties; one representing a generally conservative view, and another representing a progressive and more liberal view on how the government should be run. These two parties at power, Democrats and Republicans, help a voter identify what the candidate stands for, but many voters, they fail to realize that these politicians do in fact have individual beliefs and that they may not fit the umbrella definition of what their party stands for. This lack of knowledge is simply from ignorance and laziness to educate him or herself on what the candidate believes in. Many eligible voters view their opposing party as a general stereotype that is portrayed through the media, while in fact many candidates; although on opposing sides, share greater similar beliefs to them than a candidate from their own party. If people constantly blindly vote for a candidate that is simply in their party, the United States will continue to be at a bi-partisan disagreement and constant gridlock, thus resulting in the frustration and disagreement towards the government. Political Parties are not always corrupt, and the voters are not always uneducated. The US citizens must realize the importance of these parties. These parties voice a general opinion of the people who belong to them and they keep the power equal within the branches of governments. These political parties also make sure that there are multiple opinions on how the conflict should be handled, thus creating less of a one-sided debate. When the positions are satisfied by majority vote, most citizens are content with who represents them. Without these political parties we would have people in power that may share all of the same opinions on certain conflicts and many of the citizens opinions would not be voiced or argued for. Only 19 of the 196 Countries in the world operate without political parties. These 19 countries all have on thing in common, they are all ran by authoritarian rule. Political parties, although hard to believe at times, are beneficial to the United States and allow us to approach democracy. United States citizens will not advocate for their political parties to be taken away, but they can show their frustration by voting a new political party to power. United States citizens have the power to vote in third parties. A third party is, any party contending for votes that failed to outpoll either of its two strongest rivals (or, in the context of an impending election, is considered highly unlikely to do so). (3) Some third parties such as the Green Party of the United Stars, the Constitution Party, and the Libertarian Party are trending in the United States: All having over 75,000 registered voters. These third parties influence the ideas of the two major political parties. Because these parties are becoming popular, it means that more United States Citizens are agreeing with what the party stands for. This influences the Democratic and Republican Party to adapt some of their ideas and to appease the citizens in order to maintain control in the government. Third parties sometimes expose issues that are overlooked by the two major parties. For example, the Green Party explains on their website, Greens want to stop runaway climate change, by reducing greenhouse gas emissions at least 40% by 2020 and 95% by 2050, over 1990 levels. (4) The Green Party is a political party that is very liberal in the view on how the government should be run, and they also focus on social issues such as environmental control, and healthcare. Their emphasis in these topics influence some voters to take interest in them and thus resulting in the major parties adapting their popular ideas in order to remain in power. United States Citizens may be frustrated with these political parties, but we all understand that we would not live under the government we live in without them. Eligible, and soon to eligible voters must educate themselves on party platforms and their effectiveness. The only person who has the power to change how we view politics is the voter. It is evident that without these political parties, the United States would fall into an authoritarian government and the power will be in the hands of the few nobles at power resulting in a dissatisfied nation. The United States is approaching democracy through the effectiveness of these parties and the voters themselves.

Work Cited

(1) - "Voting Statistics." Statistic Brain RSS. N.p., 6 June 2009. Web. 02 Nov. 2014.(2) - "FairVote.org | What Affects Voter Turnout Rates." FairVote. N.p., 4 Feb. 2010. Web. 04 Nov. 2014.

(3) - "Third Party." TheFreeDictionary.com. N.p., 5 Jan. 2008. Web. 04 Nov. 2014.(4) - "Green Party - III. ECOLOGICAL SUSTAINABILITY." Green Party - III. ECOLOGICAL SUSTAINABILITY. Green Party, 1 Jan. 2001. Web. 04 Nov. 2014. Frank AulettiMrs. LaSalle US Government honors 2 November 2014