For close to two centuries now, US politics has been dominated by two of its mainly known parties, these are the Democratic and Republican parties. It would not be out of thought for one to wonder, including younger Americans of what became for the situation to be as it is. This is considering the fact that many other countries across the world have an array of parties that play an active role in the political systems of their countries. How is it possible that a country that boasts of democracy can have only two parties shaping up its political landscape? Even the staunchest of American loyalists might have probably asked themselves a question similar to this. This essay is geared towards explaining the story behind the Democratic and the Republican parties and how they came to wield such a huge influence over the politics of the United States.
Fast forward to George Washington’s reign as president of the United States. During this time, parties were more of factions than what real parties would come to be. They were factions because there were those who supported the ideologies and policies of the Washington Administration while there were those who opposed these same ideologies. The ones who were in support of Washington-era policies were called the Federalists whilst active members of the other faction were referred to as the republicans or rather, the Democratic-Republicans. The federalists supported a strong national government and were of the view that the mighty in the society should be represented, for even the presidency was associated with the rich and powerful. On the other hand, the republicans felt that their true purpose was to defend the independence of the states against the intrusion of the national government. They represented ordinary people like farmers and believed that the essence of a government was to represent all Americans, a stand that led federalists to start referring to them as democrats hence the name Democratic-Republicans ( Encyclopedia Britannica , 2016).
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Late 1820’s saw Democratic-Republicans start to squabble, as rifts started to show up in the party. The reason for this was that they had problems agreeing who between Andrew Jackson and John Quincy Adams would be their candidate. This led to two the subdivision of the party into two pacts namely; the Jackson republicans, who were also famously referred to as the Jackson Democrats, and the Adams republicans. Jackson went ahead to win the election and coinciding with his inauguration on the 4 th of March 1829, the two opposing sides formed two parties: The Democratic-Republicans who were pro Jackson and The National Republicans who were pro-Adams (D, 2012). The Democratic-republicans adopted their name on the basis that their ideologies reflected support for a form of governance that would be serve the best interests of everyone, just like the earlier republicans. They represented the poor and the rich, the farmers, business men and anyone else that was American, thus painting the other group as an equivalent of the federalists. The national republicans rooted for nationalization of policies as their champion Adams had wanted.
By the time President Jackson was being sworn in as president for a second term, the democratic republicans were now largely being identified as the Democrats, a name that has stayed with the party ever since ( Encyclopedia Britannica , 2016). In 1934, the National Republicans changed their name to the Whigs, a name shared by the so-called ‘patriots’ of the American revolution. These new Whigs, however, were revolting against what they called excesses of Jackson’s administration, alongside those of his successor, Martin Van Buren. In the 1850’s however, the issue of slavery became a hot topic and with it came various political upheavals (D, 2012). Slavery as an issue had created a rift in the US, in that the north felt that it was wrong and was to be abolished, while the south supported it as slaves were viewed, not as humans, but as property. Democrats and Republicans from the south supported slavery and so they joined forces on that front while those from the north were against it. This rift led to the Whig party splitting into two, an action that led the group from the north joining forces with other like-minded pacts and calling themselves the Republicans.
In 1856, the Republican Party announced in an official statement that it was against slavery. Developments within the party led to Abraham Lincoln being elected as the first Republican president in 1860. A year into his presidency, the civil war ensued and Lincoln helped the country through it and helped end slavery as well. From the near end of the 1800s to the period around 1920s, the Republican Party became popular especially among business people and the rich. This is because of the party’s measure to put high taxes on imports which meant that people ventured into American based products and so business grew (D, 2012). When the stock market crashed and people could not get access to money since the country was in a period of depression, the Republicans were blamed for this by Americans which tipped power towards the Democrats. People could not trust Republicans to fix a problem they had created (Ferreiro, 2012). They were swayed by the promise of the democrats that the government would launch programs which President Roosevelt did such as ‘the new deal’. This program created money for education, farming and the general rebuilding of America.
Then came the 1950s which saw the issue of civil rights becoming a national concern that would tip the political influence of the two parties. Many of the democrats supported the civil rights campaign and this won over many of the African Americans. Fast forward to 2007 where the US was rocked by a dip in the economy. Companies were realizing workers and businesses started moving to the middle east where there are cheaper services.to improve the problem, the two parties came up with plans to solve the problem in a bid to lure people. For instance, the Democratic Party’s view was that the government should help people and it came up with Obama Care which helped many Americans get health insurance. It also believed that taxing the rich would help build schools and other public amenities. Republicans, on the other hand, believe that lowering corporate tax would give businesses more money hence hire more people. It also believes that lowering tax of the upper class circulates more money to those who need it (D, 2012). The Democrats seemed to have ideas that would benefit all in my opinion except for the period slavery and civil war.
References
D, G. (2012). The Evolution of the Democratic and Republican Parties . prezi.com . Retrieved 18 February 2017, from https://prezi.com/f9k25w8bqrbe/the-evolution-of-the-democratic-and-republican-parties/
Encyclopedia Britannica . (2016). Democratic Party | political party, United States . Retrieved 18 February 2017, from https://www.britannica.com/topic/Democratic-Party
Ferreiro, L. (2012). The Radical Theory of Evolution That Explains Democrats and Republicans . The Atlantic . Retrieved 18 February 2017, from https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/06/the-radical-theory-of-evolution-that-explains-democrats-and-republicans/258307/
