Assess the view that the division within the parties is greater than the division
between them?
I disagree with the view that divisions within the parties is greater than the division between
them. There are many divisions between the parties such as on social and moral issues like
abortion and economic policies. Whilst there are some divisions within the parties due to
factional disagreements overall, the parties are more in agreement within than between
parties.
The republican and Democrat party are widely divided on social and moral issues such as
abortion. The Republican party wholly oppose abortion mainly on moral and religious
grounds. This contrasts to the Democrats who take a pro-choice stance towards the issue
and are hugely in favour of abortion as they advocate for women’s rights. Clear divisions can
be seen for example, in the “heartbeat bills” put forth by republicans, which set out to prevent
or limit the abortion rights in each state, were repeatedly stopped from passing through by
the Democrats. Furthermore in 2022 the Women’s health protect act, a democrat led-bill
which attempted to codify a right to an abortion failed to pass. All democrats voted for the
legislation except senator Joe Manchin and all Republicans opposed the bill. This not only
demonstrates that there is unity within the party on moral issues such as abortion but also
indicates the clear divisions between the party. However, it could be argued that there are
some agreements between the party suggesting they are not hugely divided between each
other. For example, the respect for marriage act, a democrat led bill was passed with 37
republicans voting in favour of the bill. This suggests that the gap between the divisions are
beginning to decrease as the Republicans voted in line with Democrats on a social issue
essentially accepting gay marriages which was a issue both parties were divided on
previously. Nonetheless, this argument is limited because 37 Republicans is still a minority
and suggests that the majority did not vote in line with the Democrats. Furthermore, this
situation is likely to be an anomaly as the act included the right for interracial marriages
which the republicans claimed as a reason to vote in line with the Democrats not because of
a difference stance of gay marriages. There is lukewarm support, if put to an amendment it
would not pass. Therefore, the strongest argument is that the parties are more divided
between each other as the parties are mostly unified within on social and moral issues
whereas there is clear clashes and division between the parties.
It could be argued that the divisions within the parties are greater due to the extreme factions
in the party who don’t align themselves with the rest of the party. In any given political party
factions occur because it is unlikely that all members have identical stance on ideologies or
policies. For example, in the Democrat party the progressive caucus particularly “the squad”
are seen to be not aligned with some of the party policies. In 2021 when Biden wanted to
pass the infrastructure investment and jobs act worth $1.2 trillion 6 members voted against
the legislation on the grounds that it didn’t go far enough and sought a bigger amount. This
shows that there are divisions within the party as even the republican party voted in favour of
the legislation whilst the 6 members opposed their own party’s bill. Similarly, there is
divisions within the republican party particularly among the Trumpists and the moderate
Republicans. For example, following the 6th of January riots 17 Republican members voted
to impeach Trump including senators Lina Murkowski. This demonstrates significant
divisions as they are essentially opposing the then ex-president for the republican party.
However, both these examples are limited in its view. The 6 members who voted against the
act is only a minority, on the whole the majority of the party voted in line with the party which
shows that there is not a huge amount of division. Furthermore, if the act was unable to pass
without the vote of the 6 members, then the likelihood is that they would have voted in favour
of the act, therefore it can be argued that the members voted against the act to make a
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