This article picked by a teacher with suggested questions is part of the Financial Times free schools access programme. Details/registration here.

Specification: 

  • Edexcel: Component 3A: 5.2.2 The current conflicts and tendencies and the changing power and influence that exist within the parties.

  • AQA: Component 2: 3.2.1.6 Political parties: factionalised nature of parties and internal divisions

Background: what you need to know 

The bitter recriminations in the Republican Party continue following its loss of the House, the presidency and the Senate. Liz Cheney, who survived one vote to remove her from her position as number three in the House Republican leadership in February, succumbed to a vote against her on May 12.

Her offence, as this article explains, is to insist that the Republican Party should face the truth — that Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden. Her continuing denunciation of Trump’s discredited claims about election fraud and his role in the January 6 attack on the US Capitol is enough to earn her the condemnation of most Republicans in the House. Freed from the responsibilities of her leadership position, Cheney is now free to pursue her defiant crusade to free the Republican Party from the former president’s “destructive lies . . . [and to make] the GOP worthy again of being the party of Lincoln”.

Click to read the articles below and then answer the questions:

Liz Cheney launches blistering attack on fellow Republicans over Trump

Depending on which examination board you are following, answer one of the following questions.

Question in the style of AQA Politics Paper 2

  • Explain and analyse three ways in which the Republican Party remains the party of Donald Trump. (9 marks)

Question in the style of Edexcel Politics Paper 3

  • Evaluate the view that Republican Party remains the party of Donald Trump.

    You must consider this view and the alternative to this view in a balanced way. (30 marks)

Mark Rathbone

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