For most of our country's history, power has coalesced around two major parties although in the early years they were more loosely organized factions than political parties. We had the Federalists led by Hamilton and the Democratic-Republicans led by Jefferson and Madison. Washington did not identify with either party and opposed the creation of political parties. Adams identified as a Federalist and became their only elected president. The Federalists all but disappeared after losing the 1816 election to Monroe. For much of the 1820s, power was concentrated around two men, John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson. Although elected in 1824 as a Democratic -Republican, Adams' supporters became identified as the Adams Party and the opposition as the Jacksonians. After Jackson's election in 1828, that Jacksonians became formally known as the Democratic Party which it remains to this day. Following Jackson's reelection in 1832, the Adams Party morphed into the Whigs. The Whigs were a force for about a quarter century electing two presidents and having two others ascend to the presidency following the death of the Whig president. In the 1850s, the Whig Party split over the question of slavery with the northern Whigs becoming what would be known as the Republicans and the pro-slavery Whigs breaking off into minor parties. Presumably most of these would eventually become Democrats. Beginning with the 1860 election, our two major parties have been the Democrats and Republicans. There have been a few third parties that have gained enough support to influence presidential elections without every winning one. George Wallace was the last third party candidate to win electoral votes in 1968 representing the American Independent Party.
I see a potential for another schism and realignment of the major parties as a possibility with anti-MAGA Republicans joining with moderate Democrats to form a centrist party. For that to happen, there would have to be a leader who could bring those two factions together into a political party. Right now, I don't see such a leader. If that were to happen, I think we would still have two major parties. The most likely scenario would be the centrist party to replace the Democratic Party with the far-left socialists becoming a fringe third party. Who knows which group would retain the title of the Democratic Party. Most likely, that would be the centrist party. It would be the result of rank-and-file Democrats taking back their party from the radical left. Again, that would require a leader and most of the current Democrat leadership preferring to kowtow to the radical left rather than opposing them.
Topic: Now What Mr. Trump? (Read 45510 times)