Party Identification

A person’s loyalty to or preference for one political party is called party identification. When people identify with a party, they usually agree with the party’s stance on a few major issues and give little weight to its stance on issues they consider minor or secondary. An individual’s party identification tends to be life long unless there is a major shift in a party’s agenda or problems with its leadership.
Several factors influence party identification, and one of these factors is a person’s race. In the years following the Civil War, the majority of African Americans and Northerners favored the Republican Party. Many African Americans changed their party identification during the 1930s Depression Era, when they began supporting the Democratic Party and its New Deal policies. The 1960s civil rights movement marked another shift in which African Americans increasingly supported Democratic candidates at the polls. In the last half of the twentieth century, African Americans and Mexican Americans have tended to be Democrats. Conversely, other Hispanics such as Cubans have shown strong allegiance to the Republican Party.
A person’s gender also influences his or her party identification, especially in areas concerning abortion, equal pay, the military, and affirmative action. Some women today support the Democratic Party because of its liberal position on such issues. However, men and women who belong to evangelical Christian groups tend to favor the family-values platforms of the Republican Party.
People’s religious beliefs, whether strongly held or not, are another big influence on their party identification. Catholics were once loyal Democrats but have switched their support to the Republican Party. Two issues that contributed to this shift are abortion and birth control—issues on which Republicans usually take a more conservative stance than Democrats. Protestant Christians, especially those who identify themselves as evangelical, also favor the Republican Party for its stance on family values, homosexuality, and abortion. However, the American Jewish community is still strongly Democratic, as they have been for the last half-century.
Education and economics also affect a person’s party identification. Highly educated people usually have higher-paying jobs, and consequently better economic status, than the less educated. Middle-class white-collar workers tend to be Republican, whereas blue-collar, union, and working-class people tend to be Democrats. This economic party alignment is true for all races within these economic classifications. Also, urban populations, which typically tend to have lower income and economic status, identify strongly with the Democrats, while suburban voters typically tend to identify with the Republican Party.
Education can have a liberalizing effect on individuals. This idea, however, should not be construed to mean that all well-educated people are liberals—quite the opposite is true. However, well-educated conservatives tend to be less conservative than they were before they attended college. Colleges usually allow individuals to question assumptions, experiment with new ideas, and experience the world in ways the individual had not prior to going to college, all of which can have liberalizing effects. In this way, college can also make those who are already liberal even more liberal. This effect can be seen among the “intelligentsia” class, which consists of very liberal intellectuals who tend to be Democrats. These intellectuals can be found at higher education institutions such as Berkeley and Wisconsin-Madison, both of which are “hotbeds” for liberal thinking.
Age is another factor that helps determine a person’s party identification. Young people usually identify with the party their parents support. Although important, the age factor is less influential than race, gender, religion, and economics in determining party identification.
Historically, voters who identified with a party voted for that party’s candidates in all of the elections in which they voted. This trend has been changing since the 1960s, however, because people have access to more information during election periods. People who once relied heavily on political parties for information now get it from television, radio programs, and the Internet. This access to information not only makes voters less dependent on political parties but also makes them less likely to vote along party lines in all elections.
Another reason why voters no longer vote strictly along party lines is because they now have greater access to personal information about political candidates. A candidate’s image is important to voters. If a party’s candidate does not meet people’s expectations, they often vote for a different party’s candidate.