A Brief History of American Political Parties

One will be making a wrong assumption to believe that the political parties we hear and see today just sprang and start existing in a day. These parties have come a long way and definitely have where they are coming from and where they are going. In this essay, I will attempt a brief and concise of the major political parties in America. This I intend to achieve in the following paragraphs.

First, the major political parties that I will focus on in my essay will be the Democratic Party and the Republican Party, not that there are no other political parties but time and space will not allow me to make an exposition into their history. Apart from the Democratic Party and the Republican Party, we have other majority parties like Libertarian Party, the Constitution Party and the Green Party as majority parties.

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The Democratic Party has come a long way to be the oldest political party in America and is presumably the oldest in the world. Thomas Jefferson and James Madison founded the Democratic Party in 1792 with other rivals of the then Federalist Party. The party was called Democratic-Republican Party. This was the platform that gave Thomas Jefferson the opportunity to be the Democratic President of the United States in 1800. The list of presidents the Democratic Party has produced is; Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, John Quincy Adams, William J Bryan, Franklin D Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy and Bill Clinton.

The Republican Party is the second majority party in America. Anti-slavery expansion activists and modernizers founded it in 1854. The popularity of the Republican Party rose when Abraham Lincoln was voted president to be the foremost Republican president in the America. One notable thing is the role the party played in the American Civil War and Reconstruction. The party has had the seat in the white house under the auspices of Eisenhower, Nixon, Ford, Reagan and Bush. In terms of position, the Republican Party is rather socially conventional and economically tolerant.

The Libertarian Party was founded in December of 1971 and is regarded as the third largest party in the United States. The party has its members in public office and is most popular of the other continuing third parties.

Another third party that is worth mentioning is the Green Party that was founded in 1984. The philosophies that are linked with this political party are Green Politics, Liberalism and Progressivism. The party gained prominence during the Raphael Nadar’s campaign in 1996 and 2000.

Also, it will be important to consider the Constitution Party of America, which was founded in 1992 and was regarded as the U.S. Taxpayers Party but the name of the party was altered in 1999. The party can be credited to have produced a public officer in Montana by the name Rick Jore.

Reference:

Greenfield, Steve (March 20, 2005) "The Decline of the Green Party." CommonDreams.org

www.prenhall.com/magleby

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