parties in US. To what extent are there ideological divisions between Democratic and Republican parties?

Aside from this, it is generally argued that the two major parties bear no resemblance of any kind. There are policy areas in which they take highly conflicting view points. The Democrats have been seen to be more left wing supporting taking a more individualised approach. For example, Democrats have favoured the rights of women to have an abortion and the increased rights for gay and lesbian people. On the other hand, the Republicans are more right of the ideological spectrum. They have focused rather more on radical institutionalised approach. For example, Republicans have long supported the need to cut taxes and have even opposed the idea gun control. Evidently, from the ruling of the Roe v. Wade case, both parties stood for different ideological angles for the issue of abortion. Democrats favoured a more pro-choice perspective, while Republicans taking a more pro-life perspective. Again this can be regarded as a significant counter argument to the assumption that the Democratic and Republican parties stand with diverse ideologies.

From advocating policies such as religion, individual's rights e.g. gay people and taxes, the Democrats have come to be known as liberals. With contrast, the Republicans with their freedom of gun ownership, tax cuts have come to be known as the conservatives. Indeed, clearly this shows that both parties have separated into two subgroups that have divided them from each another.

However, many can argue that in terms of supporting the rights of individuals, both parties have similarities. The Republican's current ideology is to support family and schools, minorities such as various settlers and also on tough crime. Even though the Democrats have supported the rights of the accused, this has not always been the case. Bill Clinton adopted a more conservative stance to get "tough on crime" and took off the liberal edge. Consequently, it's clear that both parties generally have factions in their ideologies that may not necessarily be identical but take on a degree of similarity.

To further the argument that the major parties are divided, this is apparent in the varieties of Republicans and Democrats that exist. For instance, despite the fact that there are traditional Republicans and compassionate Republicans e.g. Bush, even though they take minor differences on issues, they collectively differ to those of the Democrats a lot. New right Republicans are against abortion, pro death penalty are very opposite to the new left Democrats who are generally pacific in their approach to foreign policy, support homosexuals and others such as single parent's etc.

To reach a conclusion, it can be argued that the two major parties have become somewhat different in their ideology, although many can claim that the still bear clear resemblance. From the issues looked at, it remains unclear whether they are entirely different in this ideological spectrums or very similar. My personal belief is that they have divided.