How has the role of the political party changed over the 20th-21st Centuries?
Political parties use to be good ole boys club that only rich white men would attend meetings for. In fact, many political parties purposely set up residents in upper white class areas just to attract those people. That was back in the day of the early political machines that would just dominate all forms of politics, and life, for people. These machines, with the rich white men controlling them, would give incentives to people to vote for their candidate. Then the 60’s happened. Suddenly young people wanted to be more involved in politics, especially since they could not vote until 21 but could die in Vietnam at 18. So these kids became instrumental in changing the political parties. Not only did the fact that Democrats use to be the party of the bible belt change, but politicians actively going after younger voters changed. Once the voting age was lowered, political activism became something that everyone could be involved in, young and old, black and white, rich and poor. After the
