 Generally, most people of voting age in the United States show loyalty or at least a preference toward candidates and political viewpoints of one political party. Typically, they agree with the party's stance on a few major issues and give little weight to its position on issues they consider minor. This is called party identification. Several factors seem to influence party identification. One is a person's race. Since the New Deal policies of the Great Depression and the Civil Rights Movement of the 60s, many African Americans have identified with the ideals of the Democratic Party. Mexican Americans also tend to align with Democrats. Conversely, Cuban Americans tend to favor the family values platforms of the Republican Party. Gender can also influence party identification, especially in areas concerning abortion, equal pay, the military, and affirmative action. Women who consider these issues a priority tend to support the Democratic Party for its liberal positions on these and other issues. Religious beliefs are also a great influence on political party affiliation. Catholics often align with the Republican Party based on two issues important to their faith, abortion and birth control, on which Republicans typically take a conservative stance. American Christians also favor the Republican Party for its stance on family values, homosexuality, and abortion. American Jews, however, tend to identify with the Democratic platform. Education and income can also be a dividing line for party loyalties. Highly educated people tend to make up the white-collar workforce and have better economic status. This group more often aligns with Republicans. Blue-collar, union, and working-class people tend to be Democrats. This factor tends to supersede race, with high-earning minorities aligning with Republican ideals and low-income minorities aligning with the Democrats. Education can have a liberalizing effect, though, as well. The college environment typically encourages young people to begin questioning assumptions and the status quo. It is very common for the intelligentsia class, highly intellectual people, to align with the more liberal platform of the Democrats. Age can also influence a person's party identification, but typically to a lesser degree than other factors. Prior to the 1960s, voters tended to align with one party and vote across the board for that party's candidates. This trend has changed, however, since the 1960s, now that people have access to television, radio, and the Internet and no longer rely on political parties to provide decision-making information. Another reason voters have moved away from strict party loyalty is that more information is available today about each candidate's personal image. Now, rather than his or her stance on issues, the candidate's personal character and background has a great influence on voters' opinions. Personal image is like mixing cement. When it's wet, you can move it around and shape it, but at some point it hardens and there's almost nothing you can do to reshape it. Walter Mondale, 1991. For most of this nation's first two centuries, the political landscape was dominated by one party at a time. Eras of dominance occurred where the majority party dominated not only the policy agenda, but also the policy-making institutions, the presidency, legislative bodies, and courts. This dominance had a huge political impact on our nation's history. But as societal changes moved faster than the political party's ideals, each era ended with party realignment or de-alignment. Party realignment occurs when the minority party becomes stronger than the majority party. This usually occurs when a minority party candidate wins a critical election at a volatile time in history. It can also happen when large groups of people change party affiliation, such as when the Southern Democrats aligned with the Republican Party in the last half of the 20th century. I do believe the Democratic Party has moved far to the right. I do believe that the party has a bunch of elephants running around in donkey clothes. Reverend L. Sharpton, 2004. Party de-alignment occurs when no single political party is dominant. This can occur when neither Republicans nor Democrats hold a majority of seats in Congress. It can also come about with voters moving from the major parties to the ranks of the independents or non-aligned voter. This type of shift happened during the 1980s and 90s, when many voters found the Democrats and Republicans to be too moderate and not having enough differentiation. The first political era in the U.S. was the Federalist Era, which began with the formation and dominance of the Federalist Party with John Adams as president. However, realignment was soon to occur. The Democratic Republican Party began to gain political might. And in 1828, when Andrew Jackson won the presidential election, it ushered in a new era known as the Jacksonian Era. The era marked an important change in the process used to nominate presidential candidates. The caucus system, where members of Congress nominated a party's presidential candidate, was replaced by party conventions to give voters more influence. As the nation faced a critical time in its history, the election of 1860 saw another realignment and ushered in the Republican Era. Abraham Lincoln won the presidential election and led the U.S. through the Civil War. During the war, the Republican Party retained the support of businesses, industrialists, farmers and former slaves to dominate the political landscape for close to 60 years. The Great Depression brought on another realignment, and Americans turned to Franklin Roosevelt and his Democratic Party to solve the economic crisis with their New Deal policies. True individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1944. The New Deal era saw the Democrats retain power until the late 60s when voters disapproved of Lyndon Johnson's handling of the Vietnam War. But this era ended with de-alignment. Since Richard Nixon replaced Johnson, neither political party has gained a long-term monopoly on politics. The U.S. is now in an era of divided government. This is partly due to the fact that party loyalty is far less intense than it was 50 years ago. This may be an indication that either the voting public is highly informed and issue-oriented, or that they tend to move away from forming coalitions. This era of divided government and weakened political parties has allowed several third parties to rise up. Democratic Party candidates have yet to win a presidential election, but they are having a larger and larger impact, as more voters become independents rather than aligning with Democrats or Republicans.