Demographics and Economics of the Political Parties

By: Madison Shanfeld

CNN

The previous several articles have been focused on current events within politics. However, to get a better understanding of modern political issues as they arise, you must first understand the basics of the system. A great place to start is with the fundamentals of the Democrat and Republican parties in the United States.

What is a Political Party

The simple definition of a political party is a group that seeks to elect candidates to public office by supplying them with a label or identification by which they are known to the public. In short, the party is more like a categorization of a candidate so that the citizens voting can get a general idea of their ideology, values, and beliefs without conducting thorough research. Being part of these parties provides candidates structural and monetary support throughout their campaign.

Democrat Overview

Andrew Jackson is typically given the title of “Founder” of the Democrat party in 1828. Typically, this party is represented by the color blue and the symbol of a Donkey in news

articles, television, movies, and government offices. Initially, they favored a weak central government, low taxes, and a conservative viewpoint of states rights and individual responsibility. However, after the Great Depression, the party went through a realignment, and now supports a strong federal government and social programs, as well as increased regulations on environment, economy and education. This is not everything that the party supports, nor does every member in the party feel the same way on all of these topics,  but they are the most prevalent within the Democratic party. 

Republican Overview

Abraham Lincoln is seen as the founder of the Republican party in 1854. Similar to the

Democratic party, they have a traditional color and symbol, red and an elephant. During the early stages of this party, Republicans were in favor of a strong national government, increased social programs, and the creation of strong economic and environmental policies. When the parties went through the Great Depression realignments, the party became in favor of a small centralized government, with a preference for state governments, individual responsibility, and low taxes. Like the Democratic party, Republicans are not limited to these viewpoints, and different members will have different opinions, the party is more of an umbrella of policies.

Demographics of the Parties

Each party has a set of typical demographics that tend to vote for them. This does not limit who can vote for which party, but it is more of a generalization that can help to understand what the members and voters of the respected party might be aiming to achieve and why.

Democrats:

Typically the Democratic party tends to pull in urban areas as well as the north east,

Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, ect, and the west coast when it comes to location. In addition, younger, more highly educated members of society, and union workers lean towards the Democratic party historically. When it comes to more personal demographics, women, members of the LGBTQ+ community, non-christians, people of color, and immigrants, more commonly vote Democrat.

Republicans:

In contrast, people from rural areas and Southern or Great Plains states swing more Republican. Citizens of the United States who work in blue collar jobs, with no college degree, white citizens, and the wealthy fall under the typical demographics associated with the Republican party. Like Democrats, Republicans have more personal demographics that commonly vote with them, such as, protestants or evangelicals, business owners, and men.

Party Platforms

A party platform is simply just the position that a party has. The United States is a large country and since there are only two main parties, the platforms tend to be large and the commonly discussed issues are incredibly prevalent across the whole country. As with every aspect of political parties, just because the party tends to have one position on an issue does not mean that every person who votes or works for that party shares all of the same views on every platform. 

Democratic Party Platforms:

Pro-choice, increased gun regulation, pro-public school, pro-LGBTQ+ rights, greater civil rights protections, pro-union, higher taxes on the wealthy, environmentalism, stronger central government, anti-death penalty, pro-immigration, increased criminal justice reforms, more social programs, pro-worker, increased economic regulations, more federal school regulations, less military spending, anti- nuclear weapons and plants, and support of the decriminalization of some drugs.

Republican Party Platforms:

Pro- Gun rights, anti-abortions, pro-death penalty, low taxes, small federal government and stronger state government, decreased economic regulations, anti-transgender community, fewer environmental regulations, anti-affirmative action, increased border security, more strict immigration, in support of judaea christian values, tough on crime, anti-drug, pro-school choice, anti-union, fewer social programs, pro-space exploration.

Economic Policies of the Parties

Overall, both of the party policies have the same end goal, to grow the American economy. The different parties just have different strategies of how to accomplish this goal. In the economy, outside forces are the most predominant factor, and the government wants to mitigate the outside forces as much as possible. 

Republican:

Republicans tend to support a system called Trickle Down Economics or Reaganomics. This has the target effects of their policy on the wealthy that then trickles down to the working class then works its way back to the wealthy in a complete cycle. However, this relies on something called supply side economics. Supply side economics seeks to maximize economic efficiency through deregulation, minimizing barriers on businesses, and increased infrastructure, components of general society’s function. The reason behind deregulation is that when businesses make money, they will then put it back into the economy to grow their business while creating more jobs. In addition, Trickle Down Economics implements lower taxes, particularly on the wealthy, because when the wealthy have more money, they will reinvest it back into the economy. Every economic plan will have criticisms. For the Republicans, it is that this strategy relies on the wealthy channeling their monetary resources and reinvesting their money instead of keeping it in a savings account. In reality, Trickle Down Economics is dependent on the percent of the money that is put back into the economy.

Democratic:

 Unlike the Republican Party, the Democratic economics starts with the working class, then works its way up to the upper class then travels back down in a cycle. It is the opposite of Trickle Down Economics; instead of maximizing the policy for the wealthy, this seeks to maximize consumer participation so the wealthy can create more money. Their economic policy is built on Keynesian economics which has two simple steps. The first is deficit spending: lower the taxes and increase government spending on infrastructure and social programs. Social Programs are used in this system because the money given by the government is being put directly into the economy through the people who are benefited by them. Since the citizens who benefit from the social programs need them, they will spend all of the money given to them, thus continuing the flow into the economy. Since the public is giving less money in taxes and receiving more in social programs, people are usually on board with step one of Keynesian economics. However, step two is where it is harder to keep people supporting it. This step includes the taxes being raised back to where they were prior to being lowered, and a decrease in government spending. Some of this decreased spending is natural, like when infrastructure projects finish. However, since the public has to pay more, people tend to reject the idea. 

Conclusion

Now that you can understand the basic constructs, demographics, and economic polities of the parties, debates, elections, and general political discussions should be more comprehensible and easier to understand. This information can also help those who don't know their party, see what might better align with their values.This is the final reminder that the parties function as a categorization, a democrat doesn't have to share every value and a republican may not fit into the traditional demographics.