Democratic Party

Why do voters have to pick a Republican or a Democrat in the US?

Retrieved on: 
Monday, July 10, 2023

Why does it have to be Democrat vs. Republican in elections?

Key Points: 
  • Why does it have to be Democrat vs. Republican in elections?
  • Why can’t it be Republican vs. Republican or Democrat vs. Democrat?
  • – Gianna, age 13, Phoenix, Arizona
    Why does it have to be Democrat vs. Republican in elections?
  • Why can’t it be Republican vs. Republican or Democrat vs. Democrat?

Why do we have a two-party system?

    • It states that only two major parties will emerge whenever elections follow a set of rules known as single-winner plurality voting.
    • Single-winner means only one candidate can win a given election.
    • Think of it this way: Suppose a teacher threw a class party and agreed to order whatever food the students wanted.
    • While other options exist, many voters decide to pick between the only two that can win.

It doesn’t have to be Republican vs. Democrat

    • While a Democrat or Republican wins most elections in the United States, that doesn’t mean voters can only have two choices.
    • Second, plenty of candidates run for office every year as something other than a Republican or Democrat.
    • As my research shows, Libertarians generally agree with the Republican Party on economic issues and the Democratic Party on social issues.
    • This system allows voters to rank all candidates – Democratic, Republican, independent or minor party – from their favorite to least favorite on the same ballot.
    • So voters often do have more options than simply Democrat vs. Republican.

Politics with Michelle Grattan: Author Bruce Wolpe on the "shocking" consequences for Australia of a Trump 24 win

Retrieved on: 
Thursday, July 6, 2023

Donald Trump is favoured to be the Republican candidate, despite facing multiple charges over removing classified documents.

Key Points: 
  • Donald Trump is favoured to be the Republican candidate, despite facing multiple charges over removing classified documents.
  • In this podcast, author Bruce Wolpe - a senior fellow at the United States Centre at the University of Sydney, who previously worked with the Democratic Party in Congress, discusses his new book “Trump’s Australia”.
  • Wolpe argues a second Trump term would have shocking consequences for Australia.
  • Wolpe says “as of now”, Biden is certain to run again.

THE MOMENTUM CONTINUES FOR FORMER BROWARD COUNTY MAYOR DR. BARBARA SHARIEF AS SHE PICKS UP SIX KEY ENDORSEMENTS IN HER QUEST TO FILL THE UPCOMING OPEN SEAT (SD35) CURRENTLY HELD BY TERM LIMITED DEMOCRAT STATE SENATOR LAUREN BOOK

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, June 13, 2023

These elected officials are joining a long list of supporters of Team Sharief from Broward County that endorsed her during her successful campaign kick-off last month.

Key Points: 
  • These elected officials are joining a long list of supporters of Team Sharief from Broward County that endorsed her during her successful campaign kick-off last month.
  • All six threw their support today behind the former Broward County Mayor as she runs unopposed for the democratic nomination for the open seat in 2024, for Senate District 35.
  • Democrats must be united in opposing the extreme positions on Women's healthcare and immigration that the Republicans in Tallahassee pushed last session.
  • District 35 includes parts of seven cities Weston, Davie, Southwest Ranches, Miramar, Pembroke Pines, Cooper City, and Sunrise.

In the year since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and ruled states should decide the legality of abortion, voters at the state level have been doing just that: 4 essential reads

Retrieved on: 
Monday, June 12, 2023

Since the Dobbs decision, women and men alike have exercised the political power Alito referenced at the ballot box and, in the states that allow it, through legislation citizens initiate themselves.

Key Points: 
  • Since the Dobbs decision, women and men alike have exercised the political power Alito referenced at the ballot box and, in the states that allow it, through legislation citizens initiate themselves.
  • The Conversation has covered the fight over abortion rights in the U.S. for years.
  • Here are four essential reads to help you understand some of the state-level decisions legislators and citizens have made since the Dobbs ruling.

1. Kansans safeguard constitutional access to abortion

    • On Aug. 2, 2022, in the first state referendum on abortion since the Dobbs ruling, voters in Kansas rejected a proposed constitutional amendment to deny the right to abortion in that state.
    • The 59% to 41% vote was decisive.
    • “Since the Dobbs decision was announced, Americans also increasingly appear to prefer fewer restrictions on abortion, even as many states are moving to enact more restrictions,” they wrote.
    • Support for abortion in all nine scenarios increased following the Dobbs ruling.”

      Read more:
      Kansas vote for abortion rights highlights disconnect between majority opinion on abortion laws and restrictive state laws being passed after Supreme Court decision

2. Kansas was no fluke

    • In Kentucky as in Kansas, for example, voters rejected a proposed constitutional amendment that would have stripped residents of the right to seek an abortion.
    • And in California, Michigan and Vermont, voters approved constitutional amendments to protect the right to an abortion.
    • Linda C. McClain, a law professor, and Nicole Huberfeld, a professor of law and health law, of Boston University, have studied the issue.
    • “Commentary and exit polling suggest that abortion was a motivating issue among Pennsylvania voters – especially younger voters.” Shapiro won the contest.

3. Some abortion fights are through constitutional amendments

    • John Dinan, a scholar of state constitutions at Wake Forest University, wrote that even before the Dobbs ruling, state constitutional amendments had shaped abortion policy as much as state court rulings had.
    • In November 2022, voters in Vermont, California and Michigan approved amendments that explicitly protect reproductive rights.”

      Read more:
      State battles over abortion are leading to state constitutional amendments – an option in all states and available directly to citizens in 18 states

4. A patchwork legal landscape

Biden's strength is consensus, but America is increasingly divided. Can he win again?

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, May 16, 2023

Presidential power is hard to give up, and time goes by very quickly amid the unfathomable demands placed on the office.

Key Points: 
  • Presidential power is hard to give up, and time goes by very quickly amid the unfathomable demands placed on the office.
  • What’s more interesting is the reason why Biden — despite concerns about his age — continues to be the Democratic Party’s standard bearer.

The anti-Trump

    • In 2020, Biden was considered an adequate anti-Trump figure.
    • Despite running a relatively lacklustre campaign, Biden’s unobtrusive nature allowed him to emerge as the consensus candidate of a divided Democratic party that was nonetheless united in its intent on removing Trump.
    • The normalcy and state of national unity that Biden has pursued seem no longer attainable.
    • Since the Democrats’ underwhelming performance in the 2022 mid-term elections, his intention to return the United States to normalcy has stalled.

Biden’s strength now his weakness

    • For Biden, this approach remains unchanged.
    • Instead, the Republican and Democratic parties are embracing distinct and mutually exclusive visions with no possibility for common ground.
    • The country has increasingly split into two distinctive and geographically confined camps.
    • As a result, the sort of personal, non-partisan Senate politics that Biden excelled at is no longer attainable as a model for federal policymaking.

No one really wins

    • But can the traditional institutional structures of the American republic survive this tumultuous period?
    • Biden’s political approach isn’t going to fulfil the aspirations of either Democrats or Republicans, which could pave the way to the manipulation of both judicial and electoral institutions.
    • He is a political disruptor who is able to attack what he’s against but struggles to offer positive and enduring replacements.
    • Biden makes this clear in his own campaign announcement, effectively framing his appeal around the argument that there are no alternatives.

Common disdain

    • Within the Democratic Party, Biden has been effective as a coalition-builder of the party’s factions, suggesting a common disdain for Trump may be enough to keep the party united with him at the helm.
    • But Biden may also stay in power because the Republicans have yet to work out their ongoing relationship with Trump.

Eco Wave Power CEO Inna Braverman Spoke at the Annual Vital Voices Festival and Updated Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on the Progress of Wave Energy Bills in New Jersey and California

Retrieved on: 
Monday, May 8, 2023

and the New Jersey legislature (Bill A4483- Wave Energy Bill Initiative by Assemblyman Robert Karabinchak, Sponsored by Senator Andrew Zwicker), and requested for Secretary Clinton's support in the promotion of the implementation of wave energy in the United States.

Key Points: 
  • and the New Jersey legislature (Bill A4483- Wave Energy Bill Initiative by Assemblyman Robert Karabinchak, Sponsored by Senator Andrew Zwicker), and requested for Secretary Clinton's support in the promotion of the implementation of wave energy in the United States.
  • Through her service as a US Senator, Secretary of State, First Lady, and nominee for President of the United States for the Democratic Party, Sec.
  • Clinton and to update her about the immense wave energy potential in the United States, as according to the U.S Energy Information Administration, wave energy can provide up to 66% of all the United States energy needs."
  • "It was also a pleasure to join her and the impressive group of women leaders that spoke at the Vital Voices Festival.

Eco Wave Power CEO Inna Braverman Spoke at the Annual Vital Voices Festival and Updated Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on the Progress of Wave Energy Bills in New Jersey and California

Retrieved on: 
Monday, May 8, 2023

and the New Jersey legislature (Bill A4483- Wave Energy Bill Initiative by Assemblyman Robert Karabinchak, Sponsored by Senator Andrew Zwicker), and requested for Secretary Clinton's support in the promotion of the implementation of wave energy in the United States.

Key Points: 
  • and the New Jersey legislature (Bill A4483- Wave Energy Bill Initiative by Assemblyman Robert Karabinchak, Sponsored by Senator Andrew Zwicker), and requested for Secretary Clinton's support in the promotion of the implementation of wave energy in the United States.
  • Through her service as a US Senator, Secretary of State, First Lady, and nominee for President of the United States for the Democratic Party, Sec.
  • Clinton and to update her about the immense wave energy potential in the United States, as according to the U.S Energy Information Administration, wave energy can provide up to 66% of all the United States energy needs."
  • "It was also a pleasure to join her and the impressive group of women leaders that spoke at the Vital Voices Festival.

In centennial year, Turkish voters will choose between Erdoğan’s conservative path and the founder’s modernist vision

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, April 25, 2023

On May 14, 2023, voters will go to the polls for presidential and parliamentary elections, and in October, the country will celebrate the centennial of the Republic.

Key Points: 
  • On May 14, 2023, voters will go to the polls for presidential and parliamentary elections, and in October, the country will celebrate the centennial of the Republic.
  • As a professor of political science, I have analyzed Turkish politics for many years.
  • The upcoming elections are truly historic because voters will choose which vision they prefer in the second centennial of Turkey – Erdoğan’s or Atatürk’s.

The presidential race

    • Four candidates are running in the forthcoming presidential race.
    • But public surveys suggest that it is a two-man race between President Erdoğan and Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the leader of the Republican People’s Party, or CHP, founded by Atatürk.

Erdoğan and populist Islamism

    • This included many Kurds, members of an ethnic minority in Turkey, who want cultural recognition and therefore resisted Turkish nationalism.
    • By 2013, these groups succeeded in weakening Atatürkists’ grip on politics and the bureaucracy.
    • On the contrary, he has wooed nationalists to his populist Islamist regime.
    • And they share anti-Western attitudes, from promoting anti-Western conspiracy theories to proposing Turkey’s exit from NATO.

The Atatürkist alternative

    • As the leader of the CHP, Kılıçdaroğlu represents the Atatürkist alternative to Erdoğan’s populist Islamism.
    • Yet Kılıçdaroğlu has been an exception among the Atatürkist elite.
    • To oversee the economy, Kılıçdaroğlu is reportedly eyeing two candidates – a former economy minister and a University of Pennsylvania finance professor.

Candidates’ advantages and hurdles

    • Erdoğan will rely on aspects of the authoritarian administration he has built over the last two decades.
    • But Erdoğan faces hurdles related to his authoritarian style, too, particularly the many discontented citizens his 20-year rule has produced.
    • The ongoing economic crisis – with an inflation rate over 80% – is another hindrance to his reelection.
    • And his vote could take a hit from the fallout of the recent earthquake that killed over 45,000 people in Turkey.

A global impact?

    • An Erdoğan win will signal that the global rise of right-wing populists is still robust enough to dominate a leading Muslim-majority country.
    • A victory for Kılıçdaroğlu, meanwhile, may be celebrated by democrats worldwide as a defeat of a populist Islamist leader, despite his control over the media and state institutions.

For Republican presidential hopefuls, Iowa is still the first political beauty contest

Retrieved on: 
Monday, April 24, 2023

The Democratic National Committee may have dethroned the Iowa caucuses as kingmaker in its presidential nominating process, but Iowa voters still have the power to crown Republican presidential contenders or threaten their White House ambitions.

Key Points: 
  • The Democratic National Committee may have dethroned the Iowa caucuses as kingmaker in its presidential nominating process, but Iowa voters still have the power to crown Republican presidential contenders or threaten their White House ambitions.
  • Scott and Hutchinson know that for Republicans, the road to the White House begins in Iowa.
  • The state gives presidential hopefuls a venue to test their messages and campaign skills early in the campaign process.
  • I am an emeritus professor of political science at Iowa State University, where I began working in 1970 and have watched the Iowa caucuses evolve.

Iowa wasn’t always first

    • Iowa held a presidential primary in 1916, but it went back to the caucus system the following year because the primary was costly and none of the major candidates participated.
    • At the same time, Iowa Democrats, dissatisfied with the state’s caucus system, forced state reforms that included holding district and state conventions separately.
    • The first time the Iowa Democrats held caucuses in January was in 1972.
    • That year, a little-known candidate, Jimmy Carter, the governor of Georgia, won the Democratic Party’s Iowa caucuses and eventually the party’s presidential nomination and then the presidency.

All Republican campaigns begin in Iowa

    • That plan allowed candidates and party leaders to maximize use of the massive media coverage that always comes with the Iowa caucuses.
    • Republicans are sticking with that plan and will hold their opening presidential caucuses in Iowa on Feb. 5, 2024.
    • Instead of Iowa and then New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina, the new Democratic lineup makes South Carolina the first state.
    • But if Iowa Democrats ignore the calendar change, the Democratic Party can issue sanctions, which may include Iowa losing half its delegates.

To understand American politics, you need to move beyond left and right

Retrieved on: 
Wednesday, April 19, 2023

But this animosity seems to have more to do with tribal loyalty than liberal-versus-conservative disagreements about policy.

Key Points: 
  • But this animosity seems to have more to do with tribal loyalty than liberal-versus-conservative disagreements about policy.
  • Liberal Democrats are on the left, conservative Republicans on the right, and a small sliver of moderate independents are in the middle.
  • But political scientists like us have long argued that a line is a bad metaphor for how Americans think about politics.
  • Recently, some political scientists have argued that views on racial issues represent a third “dimension” in American politics.

A new picture of American politics

    • In our new article in Sociological Inquiry, we analyzed public opinion data from 2004 to 2020 to develop a more nuanced picture of American political attitudes.
    • Our aim was to do a better job of figuring out what Americans actually think about politics, including policies related to race and racism.
    • Many have very strong views on certain issues, but can’t be pigeonholed as being on the left or right in general.
    • Picture, for instance, those voters in 2016 who were attracted to both Bernie Sanders’ economic populism and Donald Trump’s attacks on immigrants.

Five groups – but only two parties

    • These three groups of Americans have a difficult time fitting in with either of the two major parties in the U.S.
    • Seeing Americans as divided into these five groups – as opposed to polarized between the left and right – shows that both political parties are competing for coalitions of voters with different combinations of views.
    • But perhaps most importantly, these five groups show how diverse Americans’ political attitudes really are.