Political Parties and the Electoral Process Essay

Political Parties and the Electoral Process - Essay Example Apparently, the two major political parties receive massive support due to the ideologies (Levendusky, 2009). Consequentially, the two leading parties in the US are the democrats and the republicans. They have been dominating the political scene of the United States for years and have since amassed massive support in regard to their presidential candidates. The two parties hold contrasting views of different ideologies which receive prevalent attention. Therefore, the two parties either choose to take a liberal view of ideologies or settle on the conservative view of ideologies. The liberal view states that abortion is a legal action that is taken by women as citizens of the United States. They state that women are human beings who have the right to make decision in regard to their lives. Therefore, they have legal choice of using abortion to control their lives as it is open to all the citizens. On the other hand, the conservative view states that immorality is not acceptable (Ashbe e, 2004). As a matter of fact, they state that abortion is immoral and should be banned. In this particular view, the politicians think that abortion is an infringement of the right to life since the unborn child is a form of life. The second point of contrast is the issue of gun control (Levendusky, 2009). Gun control is a prevalent issue in the United States since many people would wish to own guns for security reasons. Since the government issues licenses for individuals owning guns, there is need to have restrictions and control on the issuance. On one side, the liberal view of ideologies states that there should be high restrictions of gun control. As such, there should be a number of laws that should restrict the ownership of guns. Inclusion of stringent laws would reduce the bizarre incidences that occur due to gun ownership. On the other hand, the conservative politicians insinuate that there should be less restriction on the gun control issue. The third issue that draws att ention in the two leading parties is the issue of taxes (Levendusky, 2009). Taxes affect all the citizens of the country and should be considered with utter keenness. On one side, the liberals think that taxes should be high and progressive. Higher taxes will give the country more revenue which will be used for development. On the other hand, the conservatives state that taxes should be lower and progress at a lower rate. This will not affect the citizens as the taxes will not have dire effect on their income. Lastly, the two political parties differ on the issue of gay marriage. For example, the liberals state that gay marriage should be legalized. On the other hand, conservative politics state that gay marriages are illegal. Key reasons why third parties have never been successful at the presidential level Though there are third parties in the United States, they do not seem to give an impressive performance in the presidential elections. This has been attributed by a number of re asons. First, the two leading parties have been clinching the presidential office. As such, the parties have had the advantage of holding the office and pushing their candidates to get a better place in the upcoming elections. On the other hand, the third parties have not had such an advantage. Secondly, the ideologies of the two leading parties are steadfast. The two leading parties take a stand in the prevalent issues in the country and expound on the strategies they will use in solving the situation. This