Am I A Republican Or A Democrat

Red States Outnumber Blue States

In February 2016, Gallup reported that for the first time since Gallup started tracking, red states now outnumber blue states.

In 2008, 35 states leaned Democratic and this number is down to only 14 now. In the same time, the number of Republican leaning states rose from 5 to 20. Gallup determined 16 states to be competitive, i.e., they leaned toward neither party. Wyoming, Idaho and Utah were the most Republican states, while states that leaned the most Democratic were Vermont, Hawaii and Rhode Island.

Most Independent Likely Voters Lean Toward A Major Party

• In surveys over the past year, independent likely voters have been more likely to lean Democratic than Republican 11% did not lean toward either party.
• These shares have shifted since 2018, when 43% leaned Democratic, 29% leaned Republican, and 28% did not lean toward either party.
• Independent likely voters are much more likely to be moderate than liberal or conservative .
• Overall, about three in four Republican likely voters say they are conservative, while 63% of Democratic likely voters describe themselves as liberal. Conversely, only 9% of Democrats label themselves as conservative, while just 4% of Republicans call themselves liberal.

When Identity Aligns With Party Politics Gets More Vicious

Sorting has occurred on both sides, but the Republican Party has tended more toward homogeneity: whiter, more Christian and more conservative. Democrats are a far more diverse party. So although the term identity politics is often wielded to criticize the Democrats for focusing on race and gender, Republicans are typically more susceptible to appeals based on their shared identity than Democrats, according to research by Julie Wronski and Lilliana Mason, political scientists at the University of Mississippi and the University of Maryland, College Park.

Personal identities have split the parties

From 1968 to 1978, white men who attended church frequently were 6 percentage points more likely to be a Democrat than a Republican. From 2008 to 2016, they were 43 points more likely to be Republican. The party identification of young, unmarried women stayed about the same but the average American became significantly more likely to identify as Republican, magnifying the difference between these two groups.

Polarization has encouraged more straight-ticket voting: Once, a voter might have chosen the Republican presidential candidate but a Democrat for the Senate, but now ones whole ballot tends to align with ones presidential preference. Polarization has also made voters hesitant to support politicians willing to cooperate with the other side, contributing to legislative gridlock.

Don’t Miss: Blue Ox Patriot 2 For Sale

Can A Religious White Republican Party Survive

The partisan gap between black and white voters is the most durable and powerful split in modern American politics. Soon after President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act in 1964, he remarked, I think we just delivered the South to the Republican Party for a long time to come. He wasnt wrong. Afterward, the Republicans courted racist white voters by opposing school and housing integration.

Among white people, religion is the most stable and important determinant of party choice. But the way religion shapes party attachment has changed. Today, the best way to sort the population of white voters is not by which religion they belong to, but by how religious they are.

Among white Americans:

else

Religious

The number of religious white Americans is plummeting. In the long term, that spells disaster for Republicans. I dont think the Republican Party right now has a sustainable business model, said Alan Abramowitz, a political scientist at Emory University.

The party knows this. Or at least it should. After Republicans lost the 2012 election, the party leadership commissioned a report on how to move forward. One answer was clear: appeal to nonwhite and less conservative voters. But in the years since, the Republicans led by Mr. Trump have doubled down on white identity politics and seem to believe that their path to a majority is through gerrymandering, voter suppression or attempts to skew the census.

Many Demographic Traits Of Likely Voters Differ Across Parties

• Independents and Democrats are more likely to be young adults than are Republicans , while Republicans are more likely to be age 55 and older than are Democrats or independents .
• Democratic likely voters are much more likely to be women than men , while independents are much more likely to be men than women Republicans are more evenly divided.
• Independents and Democrats are much more likely to be college graduates than are Republicans .
• About one in four Democrats have household incomes under $40,000, compared to about two in ten Republicans and independents .

You May Like: When Did Republicans Turn Into Democrats

Are You A Faith And Flag Conservative Progressive Left Or Somewhere In Between

Take our quiz to find out which one of our nine political typology groups is your best match, compared with a nationally representative survey of more than 10,000 U.S. adults by Pew Research Center. You may find some of these questions are difficult to answer. Thats OK. In those cases, pick the answer that comes closest to your view, even if it isnt exactly right.

Do You Have To Vote For The Party You’re Registered With

Your state may give you the opportunity to declare your political party affiliation on your voter registration card.

• You do not have to vote for the party youre registered with in a federal, state, or local general election.
• But in a presidential primary or caucus, depending on your states rules, you may have to vote for the political party youve registered with.

Don’t Miss: Bloomberg Was A Republican Mayor

Likely Voters Are Disproportionately White Democratic Likely Voters Are More Diverse

• Whites make up only 40% of Californias adult population but comprise 55% of likely voters. In contrast, Latinos make up 35% of the states adult population but only 22% of likely voters. The shares of Asian American and African American likely voters are roughly proportionate to their shares of the states adult population16% for Asian Americans and 6% for African Americans.
• Just under half of Democratic likely voters are white 28% are Latino, 13% are Asian American, and 8% are African American.
• An overwhelming majority of Republican likely voters are white relatively few are Latino , Asian American , or African American .
• Among independents, 51% are white, 20% are Latino, 19% are Asian American, and 5% are African American.

Left Wing And Right Wing Politics

Politics is said to be split in half and you either have left or right political views. Left-wing politics is typically associated with progressive ideas and equality. Democrats are viewed as left-wingers. Right-wing politics values tradition, equity, and survival of the fittest. Republicans are viewed as right-wingers.

Left-Wing

Left-wing beliefs are liberal in that they believe society is best served with an expanded role of the government. Examples of an expanded role for the government include entitlement programs such as social security and Medicare, Medicaid, universal healthcare, food stamps, free public education, unemployment benefits, strong environmental laws, and other regulations on industries.

Right Wing

Right-wingers believe that the best outcome for society is achieved when individual rights and civil liberties are paramount and the role and especially the power of the government is minimized. Right-wing ideology would favor market-based solutions to the issues that these government programs aim to tackle. For example, encouraging a freer marketplace for healthcare, driven by consumer choice to drive down costs. Or privately held retirement accounts like 401 plans instead of government-guaranteed Social Security.

Don’t Miss: Was Melania Trump A Call Girl

Famous Republican Vs Democratic Presidents

Republicans have controlled the White House for 28 of the last 43 years since Richard Nixon became president. Famous Democrat Presidents have been Franklin Roosevelt, who pioneered the New Deal in America and stood for 4 terms, John F. Kennedy, who presided over the Bay of Pigs invasion and the Cuban missile crisis, and was assassinated in Office Bill Clinton, who was impeached by the House of Representatives and Nobel Peace Prize winners Barack Obama and Jimmy Carter.

Famous Republican Presidents include Abraham Lincoln, who abolished slavery Teddy Roosevelt, known for the Panama Canal Ronald Reagan, credited for ending the Cold War with Gorbachev and the two Bush family Presidents of recent times. Republican President Richard Nixon was forced to resign over the Watergate scandal.

To compare the two parties’ presidential candidates in the 2020 elections, see Donald Trump vs Joe Biden.

Where Do You Fit Take The Pew Political Party Quiz

Polarization has come to define this era of political discourse in the United States, influencing much more than how people cast votes at the ballot box. Divisive politics are shaping how people perceive and respond to public health crises, like the coronavirus pandemic, and how they interpret threats to national security, such as the Jan. 6 attacks at the U.S. Capitol.

To better understand what divides and unites Americans today, the Pew Research Center created its Political Typology Quiz. It was developed by surveying more than 10,200 people online in July 2021 through the nationally representative American Trends Panel. The scores indicate where an individual stands on issues ranging from racism and economic inequality to the pandemic and funding for law enforcement. Researchers then analyzed the responses on a scale of political beliefs with faith-and-flag conservatives on one end, the progressive left on the other, and a number of groups in between.

Where do you land on the political spectrum? Take the quiz below to find out.

Left: Photo Illustration from Getty Images

Also Check: Jeep Patriot Air Conditioning Fuse

Isanship Can Turn Violent

Parties dont just matter in elections. They affect how people identify, not just the other way around. Some people adjust their religious habits to better match their partisanship: For example, Republicans in search of other Republicans might start attending church more often. Put another way, people arent just sorting themselves into parties. Parties are sorting people, too, making cultural and racial rifts wider and harder to bridge.

And because partisan identities tend to be deeply held, political events rarely shake adults party preferences, which means the resentment from identity-based polarization probably isnt going to spontaneously dissolve. In fact, it might get worse. Dr. Abramowitz writes in his book The Great Alignment: Race, Party Transformation, and the Rise of Donald Trump that polarizing forces increased racial diversity, the waning influence of religion and the rise of partisan media are far from spent.

Nathan Kalmoe, a political scientist at Louisiana State University, has examined political parties during the most divided period in American history: the Civil War. In his book With Ballots & Bullets: Partisanship & Violence in the American Civil War, he demonstrates how newspapers and party leaders encouraged citizens to fight by exploiting their partisan identities, fueling a war that killed 750,000 people.

Sahil Chinoy is a graphics editor for The New York Times Opinion section.

Quiz: Let Us Predict Whether Youre A Democrat Or A Republican

Tell us a few details about you and well guess which political party you belong to. It shouldnt be that simple, right? Were all complex people with a multiplicity of identities and values. But the reality is that in America today, how you answer a handful of questions is very likely to determine how you vote.

This quiz, based on recent surveys with more than 140,000 responses, presents a series of yes-or-no questions to predict whether someone is more likely to identify as a Democrat or a Republican. It captures divisions that should make you worried about the future of American democracy.

We wont collect your answers.

The first question is the most important: Its about race. Asking whether someone is black, Hispanic or Asian cleaves the electorate into two groups. Those who answer yes lean Democratic the others are split roughly evenly between the parties. Among those who are not black, Hispanic or Asian , the second most important question is whether the person considers religion important. If they answer yes, they are probably Republican.

Its not just race and religion, though. Party allegiances are now also tied to education, gender and age. Americans have sorted themselves more completely and rigidly than any time in recent history.

How demographics predict party affiliation

The group most likely to be Democrats are black women older than about 30.

Meeting in the Middle

Reliable Republicans

Meeting in the Middle

Reliable Republicans

You May Like: Us Patriot Tactical Return Policy

Are You A Democrat Or A Republican

Why I Am A Democrat

The easiest and fairest answer to why I am a Democrat is to say “because I was born one.” The accident of birth explains much more than the purely physical and intellectual differences in individuals. It is useful also in analyzing basic differences in social philosophy, economic outlook, and politics, which of necessity bears the imprint of both. Starting with the premise that one is born either a Democrat or a Republican, and is exposed to more or less intensive indoctrination during the formative years, the chances are that the family party line will be well established before the first vote is cast. I would venture to guess that some 95 percent of this group here tonight adheres to the general political beliefs of their immediate forbears.

In short to justify the change in political affiliations the opposing political party must present a program which is at least to some degree superior to that of the traditional party. I am by tradition a Democrat. If in my eyes the merits of the Democrat and Republican Party remain equal, the Republican Party has not carried the burden of persuasion. If this were the whole story however, I doubt that I should have become a candidate for Congress on the Democratic ticket. My active participation in a campaign for elective public office is the best proof I know, that my political convictions have gone beyond family traditionalism.

But that is for the future.

Read Also: Who Controls The House Of Representatives Republicans Or Democrats

Women Arent A Voting Bloc

A persons gender is not especially good at predicting party affiliation at least not on its own. When combined with age and marital status, though, it becomes more relevant. Seventy percent of millennial women identify with or lean toward the Democrats, according to a 2018 report from the Pew Research Center, and about 57 percent of unmarried women leaned Democratic in a 2015 Pew report.

The gender gap has fluctuated

The age gap developed recently

The early 2000s saw younger voters break for the Democrats, possibly because of opinions on the Iraq war.

The difference between men and women peaked in the mid-1990s and shrank afterward.

Single voters are increasingly important. In 1960, 72 percent of U.S. adults were married in 2016, only half were.

+30D

35 and older

The partisan gender gap developed in the 1980s as men drifted toward the Republican Party it widened in the 2016 Trump versus Clinton election. Much like racial resentment explains support for Mr. Trump, researchers have found that hostile sexism measured by asking questions like whether someone believes women seek to control men is increasingly dividing the parties.

Am I A Democrat Or A Republican Quiz

Find out here if you’re a Democrat, Republican or Independent. Be involved.

• Do you support the increase of minimum wage?

• Sample QuestionWhich animal do you like, a horse or an elephant?I don’t like both because can’t be pet inside a house.I like horses because I am into equestrian.I think an elephant is superbly huge but gentle. I like that animal certainly.

Read Also: What Is President Trump’s Phone Number

Republican Vs Democratic Demographics

Interesting data about how support for each party broke down by race, geography and the urban-rural divide during the 2018 mid-term elections are presented in charts here.

The Pew Research Group, among others, regularly surveys American citizens to determine party affiliation or support for various demographic groups. Some of their latest results are below.