How just two parties came to dominate presidential elections
You hear a lot about political parties in a presidential election year. Mostly you hear about the two major ones: the Democrats and the Republicans. Together they have held on to the White House for all but a few years in our nation's long history.
We didn't start out this way. George Washington did not belong to a political party, unlike each president who has followed him. In his 1796 “farewell address,” Washington warned that political parties were a danger to the new nation because they divided people rather than united them. He feared splits based on where people lived or how much money they had. And he said that parties would seek more and more power to advance their own interests and punish their opponents.
Washington's warning went unheeded. The nation's first two political parties, the DemocraticRepublicans and the Federalists, were already heatedly debating the merits of a strong national government (Federalists) versus individual and states' rights (DemocraticRepublicans).
Two of Washington's Cabinet members led this division. Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton and his supporters pushed for a strong central government that was pro-business. Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson and his allies favored limited government and protections for the working class.
The Federalists faded from view in the early 1800s, having elected just one president, John Adams. Power was now in the hands of the Demo
cratic-Republicans.
The story gets a little confusing at this point because the DemocraticRepublicans (also called Jeffersonian Republicans and, sometimes, simply Republicans) are the ancestors of today's Democratic Party. Once the Federalists were gone, they squared off against a new party called the Whigs.
When the Whigs broke apart in the 1850s, many members joined a new, anti-slavery party called the Republicans. This is the Republican Party we know today. In a four-way contest in 1860, they elected their first president, Abraham Lincoln. Even though Lincoln got less than 40 percent of the popular vote, his election made the Republicans one of the country's top two parties.
For the past 42 presidential elections, dating back to 1852, the winner has been a Republican or a Democrat. Some thirdparty candidates popped up along the way and tried. A few even got enough votes to act as spoilers, tilting the election to one of the two heavyweights. But no third-party candidate other than Lincoln has come close to winning the big prize.
So how did the United States settle into a two
party system in contrast to multiparty democracies such as France, Germany and Canada?
Historians say the pattern was set in motion two centuries ago with the embrace of winner-take-all elections nationally and locally — that means that coming in second or third place in most elections is worthless. As two major parties emerged and grew in power, third parties found it harder to attract public notice and get their candidates invited to debates or listed on ballots. In addition, voters who supported these candidates but never saw them win eventually drifted away, and third parties found it harder to create enthusiasm, given their likelihood of losing.
And that brings us to our current national election. On the Republican side, Donald Trump is seeking a second four-year term as president. The Democrats have Joe Biden, a former vice president, atop their ticket. It's a classic battle of traditional, conservative stances such as lowering taxes and spending more on the military (Republicans) versus a platform built on social equality and environmental protection (Democrats).
We don't know who will win, but we can guarantee it won't be a Whig.