2 Politics (Parties)

The main objective of a political party is [note ALL of these are fine things a party does, but what is the MAIN thing?]

• to get its candidate elected into government office

• to articulate its views to the voting population

• to organize political activity

• to inspire the membership to vote for the ticket

The benefits of having a major political party back your candidacy include all of the following except

• it will give you all the money you need to run your campaign

• it has a very large number of people supporting you

• it has organizations in every US state

• many of the party faithful will still vote for you just because you're that party's candidate

What are the names of the two major political parties in the United States today?

• Green and Libertarian

• Socialist and Communist

• Democrats and Republicans

• Libertarians and Constitutionalists

Match the animal symbol with the correct political party.

• Republican is the donkey - Democrat is the elephant

• Republican is the elephant - Democrat is the donkey

• Republican is the elephant - Democrat is the eagle

• Wahtoochee is the sasquatch - Nitpicky is the squidward

The reasons the US has only two major parties include all of the following EXCEPT

• the way the Electoral College works

• candidates and their voters know the best chances to win involve having only two viable candidates

• the US Constitution explicitly limits the country to only two

• the major parties will always steal the best ideas from any third party

Besides deciding which major party you must join, if you want to run for office later you should right now start

• raising money for your campaign

• passing bills into law

• getting a degree in political science from a major university

• schmoozing with as many people as you can so they'll know you

Today the parties are generally lined up with which ideology?

• Republicans are more conservative - Democrats are more liberal

• Republicans are more liberal - Democrats are more conservative

• Republicans are more conservative - Democrats are more moderate

• Republicans are more fascist - Democrats are more socialist

For a number of reasons third party candidates never win office for the highest level government positions because they simply don't have a chance, and another word for that is they are not

• organized

• viable

• legal

• intelligent

The reasons the founding fathers (Madison, Hamilton, Franklin, et al) were very nervous about large political parties was the chance one of them could become a faction, which means

• the party would be too loud and the neighbors would object

• someone might just forget to bring the chips and sodas, and the party would be really lame

• any one of them would not be invited to the party and that would be a real bummer

• it would become more powerful than even the government itself and would then establish a dictatorship

In the US the only way you can have a chance to gain a major political office is to

• shoot dead the present officeholder so you can take over right away

• shine as a fiercely independent loner with a marvelously appealing streak of authenticity so people can really trust you

• get the Federal Election Commission to place you into the office that is the best fit for you and your qualifications

• join a large enough group of politically active people who will work really hard to get you elected