Party Affliliation

Based on my study of the data concerning trends in party affiliation, I agree with the view that the role of political parties is in a serious decline. According to The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, many independent voters' political attitudes seem to express the public's current uncertainty toward the two major parties. Another reason that I feel that the role of political parties is declining, according to Anis Shivani, is that there has been a remarkable lessening of the assortment of differences between the two parties, with the exception of the environment, women, and minorities.

According to Anis Shivani, "The rise of independent voters is another chimera; in practice, they tend to be weakly affiliated with either party, not ideologically motivated of informed voters who might support strong domestic initiatives of any kind."

(http://www.counterpunch.org/shivani01042003.html 09/28/05) Independent voters seem to just fall behind whatever party's beliefs that they believe in at the time. Most independent voters seemed to be very uninformed about politics.

Anis Shivani states, "As far back as the late seventies, weakened party organizations as factors in the nomination process were said to have resulted in a "no-party system."" "The traditional argument has been that dealignment, i.e., declining partisanship among the electorate, including such reflections as third party voting and ticket splitting, is a momentary phenomenon to be followed by a new realignment." (http:///www.counterpunch.org/shivani01042003.html 09/28/05) Anis Shivani explains here that the reason that the two parties are beginning to decline is due to the lack of separation between the two. The two parties seem to agree on everything except for women, the environment, and minorities.

In conclusion, the two parties are beginning to become unified in many of their ideas and beliefs. Both parties, due to lack of separation, are beginning to decline which is leading more and more people to vote more as independent parties, rather than accepting the beliefs of either of the two main parties. As can be seen, the Democratic party and the Republican party are in a serious decline and are in need of a revival.