Democratic and Republican main constituencies and the current trends Essay

                 The two great political parties are one of the major political systems that were not envisaged by the founding for fathers. The two features that were constituted encompassed constitutional frameworks that encouraged the two party developments. The Electoral College, which was at least modified by the twelve amendments along with the single member district which, while not mandated constitutionally has been the rule rather than exception as from back 1970s. This tended to channel the politician into two major parties, each being incentivized to get majority backing and every party seeking to discipline factions as a coherent whole. The Republican and the Democratic parties are the oldest and also the third oldest political parties in the globe to date. The British conservative party, if dated from the Disraeli’s rebellion against Sir Peel Robert of the Corn Law in 1846 takes the second position of the oldest parties. (Alan, 2010).                   The Democratic Party can be dated since 1832, when the backers of incumbent president Jackson Andrew did organize a democratic national convention so as to nominate their hero for presidency along with his political manager Martin van Buren for the position of vice president. Since then, the democrats have met every four years period in unbroken string of 45 convections.                  The Republican political party was formed in the year 1854, either in Michigan, Ripon, Jackson or Wisconsin in opposition to what was termed as Kansas Nebraska act. The Republicans have met since 1856 every four years in national conventions. The Democrats and the Republicans constituencies                   These two political parties, since the ancient times have existed through the loyalty of constituencies. Without the aid of these constituencies, nothing at all can happen to boost them. These constituencies are the ones who vote and donate money to run these political parties. For instance, the democratic political party enjoys the following constituencies: the unionized labor, the ethnic minorities, the most women, the urban power blocks and the educated urbanites. These constituencies are the ones that contribute funds for this Democratic Party and give the votes to the flag bearers to ensure the perpetuity of the party. On the other hand, the Republican political party enjoys the following constituencies: the big businesses in the country, the massive corporations, almost all the defense related businesses, the small businesses, the health related businesses, the Christians, the National rifle association and the fundamentalists. It is very important to note that these groups are much generalized. Of course, not every woman or American- African guy will vote for the Democratic political party and not each and every business person will vote Republican. But these parties have allied themselves with the majority of the participants in these constituencies. In some of the instances, the political parties have been chosen by the constituencies instead of the other way round but the party policy and rhetoric speaks directly to these constituencies (Alan, 2010). Even if not always the fact, the parties wants to create the impression that they care about the interests of these groups. In Group and Out Group                     The main strength of the Republican Party is that their core constituencies are seen as undeniably and hence uniquely Americans or the natives. The main constituencies of the Republican Party is the people who are seen by other people or themselves or to put it in other words as the in group. In the 19th century, this in group mainly consisted of the Northern white Protestants. Today, this group mainly consist of the white married Christians and the most prosperous business people. The vital strength of the Republican Party constituencies is the composition of it of the uniquely and perhaps the undeniably American. The main weakness that this party has faced all through is that their core constituency has never been enough by itself to make the majority of the population of the Americans. America is seen by the outside world as being uniquely diverse country, but the fact is the US has been a diverse state always, ethnically, regionally, radically an d religiously. This regional diversity is the one that made Henry Adams to begin his American history in the Madison and Jefferson administration through a description of three main regional cultures that he segregated as: the South, Middle States and the New England. More diverse religiously, that the founders prohibited the nationally established churches. And also vowed not to interfere with any established churches in any state. More racially diverse that the 20 percent of the counted Americans in the first census of 1790 were the black slaves who are now the black Americans (Passelsand, 2002).                  On the other hand, the main constituency of the Democratic political party has always been the people who are seen by the outsiders and also by themselves as some people other than the ordinary Americans or in other words the outside groups. During the 19th century, these out groups constituted the White southern along with the urban Catholic of the immigrants’ origin and also the minor groups such as Mormons. Currently, these out groups includes, the highly educated seculars, the black Americans, and the single women and also the meager group of people that consist of Gays and lesbian (even though this is the only group that voted less democratic in 2008 than 2004) Current trends in the Republican and Democratic parties                  The major politics in America is changing rapidly and a very powerful demographic concatenation force is transforming the American electorates and also reshaping the main political parties. As the demographic transformation continues, the reshaping will always continue. The democratic political party will become more deepened to the constituencies that supported Barrack Obama in the his 2008 historic victory, and the republican party will be forced to dig hard into the center to compete for more constituencies.                     These trends are majorly being forced by the current activities that are taking place in the world, mainly the political aspect and the racial part of the concerned groups. For instance, the Iraq war that took place recently. This shifted the support of many Asian-American people to the Democratic Party. There is a widespread abandonment of the Republican Party by the Asian-Americans.                     According to the released data by the institute of politics at the Harvard university which was gathered from an online survey of 2525 18-24 year old, 47 percent of these youth currently identify themselves as democrats, 15% as republican and 39% as independent. This makes them more affiliated to the Democratic Party than any other ethnic group except the Africans. A Korean- American Betsy Kim, 44, sees a clear shift of the Asian American youth towards the Democratic Party. Kim says that the Asian –American of her age and younger lean to the Democratic Party due to the benefits that the party is doing to the communities of color (BEN, 2007).                  This is the pattern that is being repeated from constituency to the other and most of the states are moving towards the democratic direction. In the state of Pennsylvania, the white working class decreased by 25 points between the period 1`988 to 2008 while the white college students increased 16 points and also the minority by 8 points. In the Nevada city, the white who are the working class decreased by 24 points over this period and the minority voter up by 19 points with whiten college graduate by 4 points. These series of trends will continue and by 2040 the United States will be majority-Minority nation. So the Republican Party should seek more backing and restructure its politics so as to keep up with the ongoing trends. References Alan Berubeand others, (2010). State of metropolitan America. Washington: Brookinggs Institution. P. 50-63 Ben Adler 12/20/07Asian-American youth trend Democratic. PrintPasselsand Cohen, (2002). Us populations projections 2005-2050. Lopez and Minushkin. (2008). National latinos survey. Hispanic voter Attitudes Source document