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  • From: Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com>
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Homestead] Political parties
  • Date: Fri, 21 Mar 2008 13:01:00 -0700


On Mar 21, 2008, at 12:53 PM, Marie McHarry wrote:

The Founding Fathers didn't want political parties, so they set up a
system that assumed there would be none. Parties developed
nonetheless, and the way our votes are counted ensures that we will
have a two party system.

Yeah, they were certainly not omniscient. This from Wikipedia:

Many of America's Founding Fathers hated the thought of political parties. They were sure quarreling factions would be more interested in contending with each other than in working for the common good. They wanted individual citizens to vote for individual candidates, without the interference of organized groups — but this was not to be.
By the 1790s, different views of the new country's proper course had already developed, and those who held these opposing views tried to win support for their cause by banding together. The followers of Alexander Hamilton, the Hamiltonian faction, took up the name "Federalist"; they favored a strong central government that would support the interests of commerce and industry. The followers ofThomas Jefferson, the Jeffersonians and then the "Anti-Federalists," took up the name "Democratic-Republicans" they preferred a decentralized agrarian republic in which the federal government had limited power. By 1828, the Federalists had disappeared as an organization, replaced by the Whigs, brought to life in opposition to the election that year of President Andrew Jackson. Jackson's presidency split the Democratic- Republican party: Jacksonians became the Democratic Party and those following the leadership of John Quincy Adams became the "National Republicans." The two-party system, still in existence today, was born. (Note: The National Republicans of John Quincy Adams is not the same party as today's Republican Party.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_the_United_States#Political_parties





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