The political elites of
both parties have been able to control their party’s presidential nominees for
nearly 50 years. They have used their financial resource as well as their media
connections to ensure that the candidates they supported won their parties
nomination. The candidates they typically supported were moderate and chosen because
they would not upset the status quo. In 2016 the established political elite for
the Republican party failed at electing a moderate and instead controversial Donald
Trump was chosen as the nominee. Despite many of the established backed
candidates spending more money and having more endorsements, Donald Trump was
able to still clinch the nomination. Many famous republicans publicly claimed
that Donald Trump was harmful to the republican party, but even this failed to
stop Donald Trump. In 2020 the political elite in the Democratic party are
struggling to get a moderate candidate they back elected. Bernie Sanders is the
clear front runner to win the Democratic nomination for president, but he is disliked
by most of the established Democratic Party. They view him as to radical and
has been criticized by famous democrats such as Hilary Clinton. Both Donald
Trump and Bernie Sanders have been able to defeat the established political elite
who have had power in the party for decades. They have been able to do this through
strengthening ignored factions in the party through new media. Donald Trump
appealed to a faction of the Republican party that felt ignored by the traditional
party elite, but through the power of social media Trump could contact these
voters directly. The rise of social media has allowed candidates to bypass traditional
media who may alter the candidate’s message and directly contact their base.
Bernie Sanders has used social media to activate a more liberal faction of the democratic
party who have felt oppressed by the democratic elites. Technology that allows for
candidates to directly contact voters has led to the traditional party factions
losing power and new more radical factions gaining that power.
In
2010 Koger, Masket, and Howell published “Cooperative Party Factions in America”
which analyzes how factions in political parties share information with one
another. Their findings demonstrate that political parties do not share
information with other political parties, but the factions inside of political parties
are willing to share information with one another. The data that the authors
presents also demonstrates that there are factions in each party that are more
central to the sharing of information than others. In the Democratic party the more
central factions are the major party committee’s which dominate the information
sharing. The more liberal factions such as the New Yorker are still involved in
information sharing, but they aren’t as central as the more traditional parts
of the party. For the Republican party the factions that dominate information
sharing are the national committee and the national review both factions are moderate.
The more socially conservative factions such as the Citizen Leader Coalition
are not very involved in information sharing within the party. Factions inside
the political parties are willing to share information, but the established and
traditional factions’ control most of the information sharing.
This
article demonstrates that dominant factions inside of political parties tended
to be more traditional and more moderate. It also demonstrates that there are
more ideologically extreme factions that are being exclude from the party by
the more traditional factions. These are factions that Donald Trump and Bernie
Sanders appeal to who have developed a resentment towards the traditional elites.
Both politicians have been able to bypass traditional media and reached out directly
to these factions using social media. These factions have increased their political
involvement and become major factions in the party they belong to. This can be
demonstrated through analyzing the factions in the Republican party. The National
Review used to be the center of the Republican party information sharing and
one of most powerful factions in the party. However, currently they are one of
the few factions that still oppose Donald Trump and have failed to change with
the new Republican party. With new technology candidates that are not supported
by the established factions of the party are able to bypass the establishment
and reach out directly to their supporters. This has shifted the power in each
party as more traditional factions lose power and are replaced by outside
factions that have been activated through more radical candidates.
Sources:
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