The Political Spectrum of the United States

The political spectrum of the United States is comprised of four different political cultures Liberalism, Conservatism, Populist and Libertarians (Unit 1A). Of these cultures the two most dominant are liberals and conservatives. Therefore, since independence liberals and conservatives have always sided against one another. Thus, explaining the reason why conservatives back the campaigning of the Republican Party while liberals are more for supporting the Democratic Party. However, originally most people were in the middle of the two, but in recent decades there has been a major change in political opinion (Unit 1A). Today, liberals are more liberal and conservatives are more conservative, leaving political scientists to wonder if we are more divided now than we were a generation ago (Unit 1A).

The 2004 election was the start of the clash culture, "Red States" for Republican voters and "Blue States" for Democratic voters (Unit 1A). When conservative Bush Jr. ran for reelection in 2004 against Senator Kerry he focused his campaign on national security. The campaign party for Bush Jr. used political advertising discouraging Senator Kerry's leadership skills and his ideals on terrorism (Unit 1B). While Senator Kerry's campaign focused on the war in Iraq job, and health care issues. With the popularity of President Bush declining steadily Kerry's supporters rallied anti-war sentiment, symbolized by the success of the box office movie Fahrenheit 9/11 (Unit 1B). However in this election both Bush and Kerry both undertook scrutiny involving their prior military backgrounds, which became national attention of CBS News. The 2004 re-election of Bush can be deemed due to his strong stance on the war on terror and the growing economy. However, the Conyers Report suggests that voter suppression occurred by setting up to few voting booths in African American neighborhoods.

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