DrZoidberg
Contributor
Political parties is unavoilable in a modern democracy. Its just too much shit to keep track of for one person. Ruling has to be a team effort.Something not in the US Constitution is political parties, and none of its creators seemed to want them. Several of them went on record as deploring parties as leading to strife from rival factions. The Founding Fathers on Party Strife (Quotes) | Satyagraha and What Our Founding Fathers Said About Political Parties - Bill King Blog and The Founding Fathers Feared Political Factions Would Tear the Nation Apart - HISTORY
But their hope of a partyless political system was not to be. In the first term of the first President, George Washington, the politicians started dividing themselves into parties, the Federalists and the Democratic-Republicans.
The Federalists wanted an industrialized nation with a strong government and a lot of international influence, while the D-R's wanted an isolationist, agrarian nation with a wimpy national government. Though many Americans continue to claim the D-R vision of the US as an ideal, the nation has become everything the Federalists wanted. The first D-R President, Thomas Jefferson, ended up acting Federalist-like with his Louisiana Purchase and his sending military expeditions to North Africa to punish raiders of American shipping.
Party divisions of United States Congresses and
Political parties in the United States and
Political eras of the United States
We are at the 117th Congress.
Era Years Congresses Party I Party II 1st Party System 1789 - 1795 1 - 3 Anti-Admin Pro-Admin 1795 - 1825 4 - 18 Dem-Rep Federalist 2nd Party System 1825 - 1837 19 - 24 Jacksonian Anti-Jackson 1837 - 1855 25 - 33 Democratic Whig 1855 - 1857 34 Democratic Opposition 3rd Party System 1857 - 1897 35 - 54 Democratic Republican 4th Party System 1897 - 1933 55 - 72 Democratic Republican 5th Party System 1933 - 1981 73 - 96 Democratic Republican 6th Party System 1981 - present 97 - present Democratic Republican
I also don't give much weight to the pipe dreams of the founding fathers. In 1776 democracy was a wild and fanciful thought experiment. No, shit they got some details wrong.