Today, the United States is now undergoing the well known presidential election. An election is a process into which the citizens of a country choose their leader who will lead them in nation development or for what so ever is the mission of a given state. Election process is somewhat sensitive issue because during election, there are many anomalies happen like cheating in a ballot. These cases may happen due to the desire to hold the position of the highest rank.
That is why there is a need to know very well the aspiring candidates from the start of the election process until the Election Day proper.Just like in a sport, there are also teams that help each other to win a position in a government and these teams are more politically known a political parties or simple party. In the United States, there are many political parties but only two were able to dominate every election in the country. These two major parties are the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. The next part of the discussion will focus on the older party which is the Democrats.
The discussion will include the history, political platforms, mission and vision, and an analytic comparison to its opponent which is the Republican.During the 1780’s, sharp conflicts marked American politics. Establishment of the Constitution in 1789, the unanimous election of George Washington and the recommendation by the first Congress of the Bill Rights, brought the development of a firmer national consensus (Americana Corporation). Historically, the first name of the party was not Democrats but Democrats-Republican party. The first leader of the party was Thomas Jefferson, the person who drafted the Declaration of Independence, James Madison who is a member of the congress in 1789 to 1797 and many other influential political people in 1792 (Americana Corporation).The Democratic-Republicans came into power in 1800-1801, when Jefferson and Aaron Burr led John Adams in electoral votes.
The electoral system then in effect made no provision for separate votes or president and vice president, and a contest in the House resulted in Jefferson’s becoming president and Burr vice president. The Democratic-Republicans won a clear senate majority, and two-to-one majority in the House (Americana Corporation). The main political platform of the Democrat party, as the name implies is democracy. They promote democracy as their form of government.
It main political ideologies are political and social liberalism and progressivism. Democratic Party is responsible in promoting democracy as their form of governmental institution. There are also social issues were they usually favor like same sex marriage, lower defense spending, immigration and universal health care programs (Crane). During the early years of the party, they opposed banks and corporations as state legislated economic privilege instead they favor and focus on agricultural and agrarian reform of the country.They also looked backward in the past as their guidance on deciding and making policies for the country that is why they are considered party of tradition. But through the time, their ideology and political platforms varies and this depends on the issue that the country is facing.
During the American Civil war were slavery in the country is prominent, they do not oppose in slavery system but they promote especially in the Southern part of the America (Bartlett). The slavery issue brought a gradual transition in the Democratic Party.Its power based continued to embrace important farm support in the West, along with support among newly prosperous business groups and among urban masses, particularly the Irish and other immigrants. Part of the paper is the discussion of the main opponent of Democrats which is the Republican Party. Republican started as an opposition to the slavery system of the Democrats.
The first president under the Republican Party was Abraham Lincoln. . The main political ideology of Republican members is conservatism. They are more socially conservative and economically liberal.
They permit the use of funds for national defense in contrast to the Democrats. George W. Bush who is the current president of United States is a Republican. United States was known as Two-party system.
This is because in almost Election Day, either Democrats or Republican dominate electoral politics. The said system had made it difficult for the other parties like the independent to get a position in the government because unlike in any other democratic countries, the election process in the United States is indirect.Meaning that the citizens of the country do not really vote the candidate they want to sit the power, instead a group of people, who are known as the Electoral college vote for the different position in the government including the president (Bibby). And the next part of the discussion will be taking a quick glance on the latest result, issues in the 2008 US Presidential Election. Just like the last presidential election, the Democrats and Republican are choosing their bet that will run for the said position.
For the Democrat Party, there are two contenders that want to seek the support of the party, Senator Barack Obama (Salvato), a black American and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, wife of former President Bill Clinton. Obama swept four contests in his historic and deadlocked battle with Clinton, slicing into his chief’s rival slim delegate lead and completing his best night of the Democratic presidential campaign (Gunzburger). While in the Republican side, John McCain was the number contender against the Democrats.From the recent result, Mike Huckabee snatched two victories on Saturday from presumptive McCain. Although his wins in Kansas and Louisiana were no threats to McCain’s front runner status, it reflected the difficulty that McCain faces in wooing the party’s core conversation bloc (Gunzburger).
Planning Organizing Staffing Directing Coordinating Reporting Budgeting (POSDCORB) In this part of the paper, there will be a thorough analysis on the Democratic Party in terms of its planning, organizing, staffing, directing, coordinating, reporting and budgeting process.This is because; these are the process that maintains the great political status of the said party. Democrats plan and organize their party by holding a convention and this depends on the level, whether it is a state convention or the highest which is the national convention. The Democratic convention is like a meeting or gathering of all the members of the party where they plan their every step in gaining political power and establishing policy that will guide every member to achieve their common goals.Members or staff of the Democrat party is open to all regardless of race, creed, color, national or ethnic origin, age, gender, sexual orientation, disability, economic status or philosophical persuasion. The staffing or process of gaining their members is handled by the Democratic National Committee (DNC) The directing purpose of the party is monitored and handled by DNC.
All the major events like campaign, writing of political platforms are being handled by DNC. They make specific committee that will overlook all these major events.Example of these committees is the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee who supervises the campaign of all its candidates in the congress level. Coordination is also one of the most important processes that must be kept in mind by each Democrat. Because there are many levels or committees that constitute the whole party like local committee, regional, national and other specific committees, coordination was done by making committee meeting.
Each meeting was also the time of reporting all the events. Every meeting has different frequency and depends on the composition of the committee or body.The Democratic National Executive Committee is the highest governing body of the party and all the coordinating and reporting procedures are done (Frank et al. ).
The Democrat party is doing many fundraising activity that will increase their budget for future needs on all their major events. Target budget allocation is done annually and the said budget will be adopted on the last day of the year in preparation for the coming year. All the budgeting matter will be supervised by the Chair and the Financial Committee and has the responsibility that all the funds of the party will be used in accordance to the purpose of the party (Klein).
