They come together every four years to nominate a candidate for the presidency. Parties are ideologically not very consistent. Major parties are not parties of ideology. There are two dominant political parties, the Republicans and the Democrats. They are also strong regionally in the northeast, northwest, large urban centers, and decrasingly in the south.
Republicans tend to be more protestant, suburban, white, middle and upper class, and male.
Democrats tend to also support big defense spending but to a lesser degree than Republicans. They support more spending for the poor and for social welfare. They tend to favor a greater role for the federal government in dealing with issues affecting the country. Democrats are more likely to support choice on abortion, oppose prayer is school, support at least non-discrimination against gays. However, we should not exaggerate thesedifferences because both parties have a lot in common.