The Rise And Fall of American Political Parties

AMERICA'S FOUNDING FATHERS (and mothers, though back then they no no public political power) did not like political parties. It is difficult to find one person in 1787 who actually wanted political parties to exist in the new country. It was not popular to want them, and fashionable to speak ill of them, as all the framers of the Constitution did. Considering this, it almost seems surprisingly that we have them today, and always have. They started to form when people disagreed over how strong the new federal government should be. Hamilton wanted it stronger, Jefferson didn't, and people following those two men became factions within the Washington administration; Hamilton wanting a strong national money and banking system, Jefferson wanting to leave most things to the states. Hamilton's plan won in the long run, as we can plainly see today, with our strong federal institutions, laws, and involvement in the economy and other areas. As the nation grew in the nineteenth century, political party control was in the hands of the few; the wealthy elite white males, unsurprisingly. They chose candidates and political leaders, set the agendas, and the masses of American voting age adults was largely left out. In the twentieth century, women were given the right to vote, the primary system was developed which provided the public to vote for candidates, and took this power away from the exclusive control of the men in suits and smoke filled rooms. Radio, television, and then the internet brought the masses of American close to the actin, to the political process, and spelled the need of the all powerful, closer knit, limited membership political party system. Our Democrat and Republican parties today are weaker than ever, in terms of centralized top down control. They have become, soft , mushy, and unwieldy, as demonstrated by Trump's take over of the Republican party with his right wing populist anti-establishment movement. It may be that both of America's major parties will fade away and break into various smaller groups, as society becomes more atomized. Demagogues with money and access, like Trump, might be America's future leaders, trying to govern the country with only weak pluralities of support, and an electorate eternally in turmoil and disharmony, hopelessly fragmented. From this chaos a parliamentary system might emerge, which could work, if it can avoid choosing unstable, unreasonable demagogues for national leadership. Corporations still run politics, then as now, and money is the method, as always. If we ever decide to get the money out of politics, first, we must defeat the corporate elite in a civil war, then, if the end of money in politics brings about the end of organized parties, we'll all just have to go it alone politically, a nation with an atomized electorate, just like the founding fathers intended