Decide to Party or Be Non-Partisan

Abstract

The two major parties in the United States are the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. As much as we may want and need variety and strength in a third or even more parties, we’ve got two political party machines that continue to dominate elections at all levels. Successes and frustrations have arisen around party politics throughout the history of our country. The ability of the two parties to work together has also varied over time. Regardless of the parties’ ability to work together, what’s interesting is that in 2004 the tables of contents for the Republican and Democratic parties’ platform documents included the same platform plank titles (as the chapter headings), but each party proposed different actions for achieving their goals. For example, both parties indicated that education was important to them, yet, in the 2011 state legislative and Congressional sessions, we saw just how differently Democrats and Republicans treated unions, teachers, budgets, and citizen protestors.