Essay Example on Two-Party Voting: Divide & Conquer in US Government

Currently, the government of the United States has a two-party voting system. The two-party voting system includes divided government and straight-ticket voting. Divided government is where one party has control over the executive branch, while on the other hand, the straight-ticket voting is the situation where voters can vote for any candidate that a political party has in the ballots. These two voting system ensures that one of the party holds most of its power in a congress area while the other party has minority power. In American administration, Democratic and Republican parties effectively control the voting system. The two-party system is well known for deterring changes from creating policies that go against a specific party viewpoint. The voting system used has sparked debates if they are wrong or right. The voters in the United States have only two parties that they can pick from for them to have a fair chance of winning an election. This simply is not seen as democracy. This paper will discuss why American politics prefers divided government in contrast to straight-ticket voting.

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Divided government has now become the new normal, which was relatively rare in the early periods in the United States history. Divided government has influence in major areas of governing, for instance, the bureaucratic rulemaking. Divided government has a significant effect on government operations. For example, Merrick Garland was unable to get a hearing for his nomination to the Supreme Court. During the start of the 116th congress, change was seen in majority control of the house (Burden and Kimball 6). Significant changes shifted the congress from a unified to divided partisan control of the government. In this specific flavor of divided government, the white house and senate were controlled by one party while the house was controlled by the other party. This act was last experienced between 2011 and 2015 when the white house was controlled by the Democrats and the House controlled by the Republicans.

Research shows that divided governments whereby the rival political parties control the legislative and executive branches experience greater difficulties in controlling expenditures and budget deficits than the straight-ticket voting. Typically, the leftist parties have higher spending compared to the rightist parties hence differing in the spending priorities. Though the divided government has become a norm in the American government, there is a conflict in the priorities, and as a result, a fiscal stalemate can happen. However, if the divided government is able to become more conservative and unified, it will have higher chances of balancing the budget. Nevertheless, some research indicates that American voters require a divided government since they are not sure concerning endorsing an ideological direction that is being given by either of the two parties. Besides, having a divided government rather than straight-ticket voting avoids having a constitutional breakdown. As a result, this avoids one party assaulting power and installing itself as being the sole lawmaker.

In contrast with straight-ticket voting, by using a divided government, it is difficult to enter a major war. For instance, during the 20th century, most of the wars that took place happened when congress and the president were at the same party (Cox and Kernell 113). Intriguingly, the Democrats have been at the forefront of the war. In fact, all the major United States wars that lasted more than a few days with exempting the Iraq war had all taken place when the congress and the White House was occupied by the Democrats. Another advantage of divided government over straight-ticket voting was in terms of the significant reforms. In a divided government, there are higher chances of the major reforms being sustained after they have been enacted with bipartisan support. For instance, in 1981 and 1986, during President Reagan's reign, the revolutionary tax reforms came to life and passed during the divided government era (Edward, Barrett and Peake 551). These two tax reforms have survived to date also with other major reforms that were enacted by the divided government. Another advantage of divided government over a straight-ticket voting government is in terms of government spending and the amount of government spending in relation to the GDP of the country. In a divided government, the real rate of growth in federal spending that is inflation-adjusted tends to be much lower. Nevertheless, a divided government is a necessary condition but not a sufficient condition to achieve government shrinkage. For a fact, since World War II, the government shrinkage has happened during the divided government era.

In politics today, straight-ticket voting is seen as the biggest problem. Possibly, millions of people not only in the United States but also the entire world, they find themselves voting purely based on the party, going down through the ticket and casting for anyone registered under the party of interest without even having a second thought. Research says that using straight-ticket voting shows how evil the Republicans are and, at the same time, how Democrats are idiots (Cox and Kernell 53). Using this kind of voting system, this horrible mentality is perpetuated. This voting system inflicts a mentality that the republicans should always cast votes to the republicans, and on the other hand, the democrats should cast votes to the democrats. In contrast, to the divided government, there is no democracy in straight-ticket voting. It does not matter what politicians are claiming to stand for or the changes they will make in the government. Still, as long they have a magic Republican or Democrat next in their name in the ballots, most of the voters will give them votes without even putting into consideration their agendas or platform. By taking divided government as the new norm in the United States, voters will make the right decisions on who to vote for, and they will do actual research for every candidate irrespective of the party.

Conclusion

To sum it all up, both divided government and straight-ticket voting have their advantages and disadvantages. But the benefits of having a divided government outweigh the straight-ticket voting. The biggest concern of straight-ticket voting is that it does not advocate for democracy, which is a significant hindrance to the development of a country. However, this is America, and people have the freedom to vote for anyone they want. There is absolutely no problem to cast votes based on a party and not the other. But for the wellbeing of the states and the United States, it is essential to put into consideration various factors before voting. For instance, the plans for office for individual candidates and where they get donations from. By using divided government as a norm, the United States will be seen as an ideal society that exercises their civic duty through doing research on each candidate and weighing their pros and cons irrespective of their partisan lines.

Works Cited

Burden, Barry C, and David C Kimball. Why Americans split their tickets: campaigns, competition, and divided government. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2002.

Cox, Gary, and Samuel Kernell. The Politics of Divided Government. Milton: Routledge, 2019.

Edward, George, Andrew Barrett, and Jeffrey Peake. "The Legislative Impact of Divided Government." American Journal of Political Science (1997): 545-563.