What do the comments made by Clinton Rossiter in the 1960s and Mark Shields in the 1990s tell us about what the two major parties in the USA used to be like?
From the comments they made, it suggests that the two major parties in the USA used to be so similar; they were dubbed as “two republican parties” within the US. They therefore were both mostly right winged, however the issue that separated the two would be to whether to have abortion as a pro-choice or not.
In what ways have US voters been re-sorted?
Voters have switched parties just like some politicians have. Examples of this would be Southern states such as Mississippi used to be solidly Democrats after the civil war, however from 1960s onwards they became solidly Republicans.
What have been four results of this ideological re-sorting?
* There are now clear divisions between the two major parties, issues such as abortion and gun control.
* The way people vote and what party they indentify them self to be, however is they identify themselves to be a Democrat, does not necessary mean they will always vote for Democrat candidate. An example of this would e in 1972 where 33% of Democrats voted for Republican President Richard Nixon.
* Swing-Sates: to an extent this can be seen on a nation scale wise as in 1964 the country voted for Democrat Lyndon Johnson then in 1968 they voted for Richard Nixon.
* Split-ticket voting: There has been a decline in this which means there is also a decline in split districts.
How was senate in 2011 different from the senate in 1993?
In 1993 the senate had a range of conservative senators, from really conservative to more liberal conservatives like James Jeffords of Vermont. Whereas in 2011 there is no overlap at all between the two parties in the Senate. This means that they all seem quiet liberal compared to how they used to be in 1993.
