[Congressman Billybob]

If Eric Sevareid were right, the two major parties in the US would still be the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists, since those were the original major parties. He's wrong.

John / Billybob

[scrabblehack]

Let’s see...you could argue that the Federalists went out with a whimper rather than a bang...

You could also argue that the National Republicans were the Adams-Clay faction in 1822, remained major until 1832, and gone from the Congress in 1834.

The Whigs emerged as the #2 party in 1834, slipped to 3rd party in 1854, and were gone from the Congress in 1856...

The Republicans entered the US House as the #4 party in 1854, gained major party status in 1856....

Not completely true but not completely false either....I think his point was that the Libertarians or the Socialist Workers or whoever it was he was talking about would never become a major party because they had been around too long.