HISTORY35 - American Political Parties
This article is about the history of American political parties. This subject came to my mind when reflecting on the current state of American politics, which many people think is broken . I want to try to understand how we got where we are, and then perhaps, try to figure out where we might be going, politics wise. Key sources include Lumen Learning, “The History of Political Parties,” and the University of Minnesota Libraries, “History of American Political Parties,” supplemented with numerous other online sources. I’ll start with the ratification of the United States Constitution and the subsequent rise of political parties. I’ll cover the development of political parties over six time periods as outlined in the table below. For historical perspective, I’ll talk about the historic milestones that occurred during the term of each U.S. president in each time period. I’ll also cover the results of all U.S. presidential elections to date, along with the voting results for