Low Voter Turnout In Texas

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Voting is one of the many civic duties, as an American citizen, that is the most exercised. In the recent years, the voter turnout has increased from the previous years, but the turnout is still less than desired. In the 2008 presidential election alone, 61.7% of the eligible United States population voted and 53.7% of the eligible Texan population voted. This is much better than previous years, but still does not show a collective effort on the part of all eligible populations to vote. Americans have been known to have low voter turnouts. This can have very bad implications for those who have been elected into office. Those who have been elected have been without a majorities vote on the situation, mainly because no one comes out to …show more content…

There has always been a large divide between the Democratic and Republican parties. This is also evident in Texas. The Texas Democratic Party platform and the Texas Republican Party platform are very different from one another. Ideologically, the Texas Republican Party tends to be strongly conservative, opposing government involvement in the economy, but endorsing regulating citizen’s personal lives. Inside the Republican Party there are two factions, the social conservatives and he economic conservatives. Although they are two separate factions, they share a lot of the same values, and it is not accurate to speak of the groups within the Republican Party. The Texas Democratic Party, on the other hand, is mainly split between conservative democrats and liberal democrats. Conservative democrats tend to be more traditional in its views on social issues, but is also conflicted and inconsistent on economic issues. The liberal democrats tend to be oppose government involvement in the personal lives of its citizens and will usually recommend policies that depend on government’s being active in economic affairs. Overall, the Texas Republican Party usually is more favorable to white, rich, males and the Texas Democratic Party usually is more favorable to minorities and …show more content…

The national Republican and Democratic parties share similar values in comparison to their stately counterparts. Democrats on both levels are seen as more open-minded and liberal in their values and beliefs, while Republicans on both levels are seen as strict and conservative. The two levels relate to one another, creating a very seamless and strong message. Even though there are multiple similarities to one another, there are differences between national and state party platforms. The overarching difference between the two ends up being that state political parties spend more time and effort on local personalities and issues, while the national parties spends more effort on larger, more pressing issues. I feel that this is due to the fact that state parties can listen to their citizens better than the national parties because the national parties are usually busier than the state