Political Parties and Unfair Elections
Political Parties and Unfair Elections
The Civil War and the Vietnam era of the 1960s forever changed the political party systems of our country. Those two time periods and the issues involved led to America embracing a two-party system, which is intact to this day. Due to the two-party system, it is extremely difficult for a candidate to be elected if he is not a member of either the Democratic or Republican party. This is not a situation that our founders would have encouraged, as they "disliked parties, thinking of them as factions motivated by ambition and self-interest" (Wilson and DiIulio, Jr. 194). Considering the political atmosphere in our country today, the founder’s views ring true.
True to the founder’s attitudes towards political parties, the Constitution did not specify parties. Two differing viewpoints emerged in the 1790s, however; leading to the development of the first political party. John Adams and Alexander Hamilton both favored a strong national government, business development, a loose interpretation of the Constitution and they were very outspoken about their opinions. “It was to counteract Hamilton’s commanding influence over policy that Jefferson and Madison developed the constitutional arguments on which they founded their opposition Republican Party” (Rakove 399). Jefferson’s followers called themselves Democrat Republicans and were the first political party in American history. Their ideology called for a society based on small farms, a relatively weak central government, and a strict interpretation of the Constitution.
What is often called the second party system emerged around 1824 with Andrew Jackson’s first run for the presidency (Wilson and DiIulio, Jr. 195). At that time the country was growing quickly and many states dropped the property qualifications for voting, resulting in a much larger electorate. Andrew Jackson took advantage of this and upon his election in 1828; the Democratic Party represented an
The Civil War and the Vietnam era of the 1960s forever changed the political party systems of our country. Those two time periods and the issues involved led to America embracing a two-party system, which is intact to this day. Due to the two-party system, it is extremely difficult for a candidate to be elected if he is not a member of either the Democratic or Republican party. This is not a situation that our founders would have encouraged, as they "disliked parties, thinking of them as factions motivated by ambition and self-interest" (Wilson and DiIulio, Jr. 194). Considering the political atmosphere in our country today, the founder’s views ring true.
True to the founder’s attitudes towards political parties, the Constitution did not specify parties. Two differing viewpoints emerged in the 1790s, however; leading to the development of the first political party. John Adams and Alexander Hamilton both favored a strong national government, business development, a loose interpretation of the Constitution and they were very outspoken about their opinions. “It was to counteract Hamilton’s commanding influence over policy that Jefferson and Madison developed the constitutional arguments on which they founded their opposition Republican Party” (Rakove 399). Jefferson’s followers called themselves Democrat Republicans and were the first political party in American history. Their ideology called for a society based on small farms, a relatively weak central government, and a strict interpretation of the Constitution.
What is often called the second party system emerged around 1824 with Andrew Jackson’s first run for the presidency (Wilson and DiIulio, Jr. 195). At that time the country was growing quickly and many states dropped the property qualifications for voting, resulting in a much larger electorate. Andrew Jackson took advantage of this and upon his election in 1828; the Democratic Party represented an
Cited: deHaven-Smith, L. (Ed.). (2005). The battle for Florida: an annotated compendium of materials from the Dover, E.D. (2002). Missed opportunity: Gore, incumbency, and television in election 2000 Palast, G. (2003). The best democracy money can buy. New York, N.Y.: Penguin Group. Posner, R.A. (2001). Breaking the deadlock: the 2000 election, the constitution, and the courts. Rakove, Jack. Revolutionaries- A New History of the Invention of America. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Co., 2010. Print. Rosenstiel, P. (2010). National popular vote. Retrieved from http://www.nationalpopularvote.com/pages Thoreau, J. (2007). Born to cheat: how Bush, Cheney, Rove & co Wilson, James Q., and John J. DiIulio, Jr. American Government, The Essentials. 11th. Boston: Wadsworth , 2008. Print. Zelden, C.L. (2010). Bush v. Gore: exposing the hidden crisis in American democracy. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas.