US Politics: Blame Game. Recine. Comics English

[slickquiz id=3]

Transcript

• Box 1: 22% of Americans blame the Democrats for the sequester.
• Box 2: 28% blame the Republicans.
• Box 3: … and 37% blame both parties.
• Box 4: But, since American has a two-party system, both parties will keep getting voted in.

Context and Vocabulary

Political Parties in the US

Party (n.) /ˈpɑːti/ an organization that shares the same political beliefs and tries to win elections.

In the United-States, the political landascape is divided primarily into 2 main parties (there are third-parties, but they still don’t receive much attention):

• The Democratic party:
  • Obama, for example, belongs to the Democratic Party.
  • It is considered to be more to the left than the Republican party.
  • In political cartoons, like this on, it is often represented by a donkey.
  • A Democrat (adj.) /ˈdeməkræt/ is someone who supports the US Democratic party.
• The Republican party:
  • George W. Bush, for example, belongs to the Republican Party.
  • It is considered to be more to the right than the Democratic party.
  • In political cartoons, like this one, it is often represented by an elephant.
  • A Republican (adj.) /rɪˈpʌblɪkən/ is someone who supports the US Republican party.

Both parties are usually strongly opposed to each other.

The Sequester

The sequester (n. /sɪˈkwes.tər/) refers to a complicated situation in US politics in early 2013 when the two parties had to agree on the next US budget. Since they didn’t find an agreement, the sequester came into effect. It limited the budget for all expenses done by the government (with a few exceptions).

This cartoon

This political cartoon highlights 2 interesting facts:

• the rivalry between the Republicans and the Democrats (laughting at each other);
• the majority of American blame both parties for not being able to agree on the budget for the government;

It makes fun of the fact that even though most people don’t like these political parties, they will still be elected since there is almost no other choice … Not very encouraging …!