The United States Political Parties: the Past, Present, and Future

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The United States Political Parties: The Past, Present, and Future Often a socially unwelcome topic of conversation, politics can lead to heated discussions resulting from the sense of loyalty one feels towards their party of choice. The Democrats and the Republicans are the dominate parties that makeup the two party political system in the United States. Political parties have three main contributions to the nation, they help in assisting the electoral process, organizing day-to-day scheduling in government, and responsible for nominating candidates to represent their party in elections (Holt, 405). With these duties, the parties are helping citizens with the voting process, watching over policies made by elected officials, and supporting certain candidates to help in reducing election size to not overwhelm voters. Before one decides on their party stance, you must first understand the history of political parties, the importance of third parties, and where each party stands on major issues. History often defines the future, the two major parties that dominate United States government are the Republicans and the Democrats, however, it didn’t start out this way. The rise of any political party in the new country, The United States of America, started with ratifying the Constitution. The Federalists favored ratification whereas the Antifederalists opposed it. In 1789, the Federalists succeeded in ratifying the Constitution and members gained important roles in government under President George Washington. While the Constitution brought Federalists together, in President Washington’s cabinet, other issues arose and tension were high between Secretary of States, Thomas Jefferson and Secretary of Treasury, Alexander Hamilton (Holt, 409). Jefferson resigned from Secretary of State in 1793 and joined forces with former Federalist James Madison and other
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