The Party

In today's society which political party a person belongs to is becoming a more and more important issue. The country may be more polarized than it has ever been before and therefore that may lead to some spirited debates regarding which politcal party a person belongs too. But have you ever stopped to wonder what exactly a politcal party is?

According to the website Wikipedia a political party is "
a political organization that subscribes to a certain ideology and seeks to attain political power within a government. The party's policies often represent an aggregation of interests within the party, which will inevitably vary considerably even between party members. In certain electoral situations, more common in elections using proportional representation than First Past the Post, a government may be formed of more than one party, called a coalition government."

Overall, this is a good definition of what a politcal party truly is. The two main parties today, the Democrats and the Republicans, are very good examples of this definition. Both parties seek to attain political power in the government, and there are a general set of beliefs that the parties subscribe to. But while that general set of beliefs serves as a basis for most members of the party, it does not restrict every member of the party to have the exact same beliefs. We see a good example of that in our government every day right now due to the amount of support that President Bush has lost from his own party. Many members of the Republican party don't agree with his current actions, especially in the matter of the war in Iraq. But this shows that while all those people may belong to the same party, they do not all share the exact same beliefs. That is the beauty of our country and the way it set up, everyone can have their own beliefs and opinions, but for the most are all able to peacefully co-exist.