Political Parties Notes

February 18th, 2015

Warm Up

How can knowing a candidate's political party help you know if you want to vote for them?








Learning Objective: Students will understand the key differences between Democrats and Republicans & how they pick their candidates for office.

Success Criteria: Students can compare and contrast the platforms of the two main political parties and describe the primary system.

Republicans v Democrats

What do we know about Republicans? Democrats?

I. Republicans/conservatives/the right

• not fans for change, like stable predictable 
• people need to take care of themselves (government just needs to get out of their way)
• too much help from the government makes them lazy and dependent on the government
• prefer small government & low taxes
• you earned the money, you should get to keep it
• this means less benefits programs (food stamps, social security, etc.)

II. Democrats/liberals/the left

• want change, doesn't accept things the way they are
• people can take care of themselves, but need a helping hand from time to time
• we're in this together
• this means larger government, more spending, more taxes

III. Primary system

• direct primary: an election used by a political party to pick a candidate for office

• closed primary: only party members can vote in the election 
• open primary: anyone can vote in the election