Posted on 06/13/2015 8:56:03 PM PDT by cradle of freedom
How were American elections conducted in the early days of the republic before the two party system? I have read that George Washington and other Founding Fathers were against political parties. Could we possibly find out way out of the party system that we have today and into a system that is really responsive to the citizenry?
Since Jefferson and Adams and Madison all belonged to political parties I consider your source material dubious.
There is plenty out there on early elections and parties. Do some reading
Do some reading
Bear in mind that in the original Constitution, Article II, § 1, Clause 3, the candidate with the greatest # of electoral votes became president, 2nd place became VP, w/o regard to party..
The 12th Amendment changed that in 1803, largely because of the growth of political parties.
“Weren’t there caucuses in the early days of the republic. I am not sure about this.”
Since I wasn’t there, I don’t really know but I imagine you’re right since the candidates had to get their positions out to the people and how else could they?
I bet those caucuses were not held in Churches but, instead, in pubs with the candidate footing the bill for pitchers!
Parties may have partially been the reason but from the very beginning, it appears they realized that was a mistake because it would create a situation in having the President elected almost always elected by the House due to lack of a majority vote in the Electoral College.
Washington should have just made it clear that political parties should be outlawed.
We’d all be better off if the entire RNC and DNC were behind bars.
I have always thought that political parties in our system of government was a bad idea. Parties work in parliamentary forms of government, as in England. They have no place in our system.
There is no way that those who want to kill babies, abolish the borders, kill white people, kill Christians, abolish the last traces of the Constitution, and surrender to Sharia Law will not coalesce into one party.
Then, what are the rest of the people supposed to do? Try to fight them with ten other parties?
Therefore: I predict that the two-party system will endure until we get serious and deport all Muslims, illegal aliens, baby-murderers, and Commies.
What a colossal mistake it was not to REQUIRE that electors be chosen by the legislatures.
It was a long and stormy night............
where were we?....
“IT” was over when States lost their sovereignty after the Civil War..
you know..... the war of Northern Aggression..
Once upon a time.. States controlled the federal givernment.. THEN; the federal givernment controlled the States.. i.e. civil war..
After that happened.. the States became VASSALS to the federal givernment.. instead of the other way around..
States Rights became a cliche’..
As it still is.. AND the Constitution became toilet paper..
AM I going to fast for you?..
In the early years of the Republic, tensions rapidly developed between the Federalists, representing banks and their wealthy owners and allied commercial interests concentrated in the cities, and the Jeffersonians, referring mostly to farmers, tradesmen, and small town businessmen who needed access to credit or wanted debt relief but found those denied them, the terms hard to accept, or money so scarce as to make credit or debt relief impossible.
This division became the so-called "first party system" from 1792 and 1824. Just as they do today, the Federalists and Jeffersonian parties of that era conducted campaigns, propagandized, influenced public policy, and sought patronage and favors for their supporters.
The two party system is an illusion.
Regards,
When power was divided between the states and the government they created the deleterious tendency of party loyalty was minimized. We'll never know for sure, but I cannot envision today's horrid situation, in which party members typically serve as obedient foot soldiers to party leaders would exist had it not been for the 17th Amendment. Interests across our wide continent were too varied for state senators to become captive to nationwide party fund raising.
Our government has become something similar to that which we revolted against in 1775. The British constitution was whatever parliament determined it to be. By the mid-18th century, British government had been reduced to combat between Whigs and Tories for power and wealth. The written US constitution has likewise been replaced with legislative, executive, and judicial precedent; it means whatever the DC denizens wish it to mean. The Hanoverian Kings found they had to buy and bribe members of parliament to get legislation passed. Sound familiar?
So the US system has been reduced to a system similar to the British. Yes, the states and three Washington DC institutions exist and meet to conduct business, but it is all overlaid and controlled by lawless political parties whose interests are ambition and avarice, power and wealth . . . not constitutional government, nor the general welfare, nor individual rights.
Much has been written at FR about the Uniparty, the co-joining of interests. It is happening. The two parties are becoming one, cemented together with identical interests, the aforementioned ambition and avarice. When that union is concluded, when America becomes a true one party state, the grand experiment in republican freedom will be over, for the mask will slip, and reveal that the entire apparatus of a once free people has been corrupted into a self-serving instrument of plunder.
Article V before we can't.
“What a colossal mistake it was not to REQUIRE that electors be chosen by the legislatures.”
Not that I disagree. but I’d surmise that would have gone the way of the State legislatures selecting our Senators.
“Kennedy’s dem party is long gone. Didn’t love him, but he was against abortion, slashed taxes and had a vision of exploring space.”
And the last of the anti-commie dems.
The 12th Ammendment was written to avoid a repeat of the 1800 election. As was earlier stated, 1st place was elected President, 2nd place was elected Vice President. In 1800, Jefferson and Aaron Burr ran as a ticket with Jefferson given top billing. The electors were given two votes, thus Jefferson’s electors voted for Jefferson with one, and then Burr with the other. Jefferson and Burr were tied in 1st in the electoral vote. Burr being Burr refused to back down, and contested the election in the House of Representatives. Burr saw an opportunity to be top dog and he took it. Jefferson eventually won the House vote when Hamilton convinced enough Federalists to vote for Jefferson. Hamilton disagree with Jefferson on policy, but despised Burr as a person. This dispute was later resolved in Weehawkin, NJ.
Not everybody. John Adams came in 2nd place and that got him the Vice-Presidency.
bump
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