Party Polarization Examples

From their earliest formation, political parties have been a controversial aspect that have both strengthened and weakened the United States. It has a massive effect on voters, congress, and policymaking in the government. Party polarization is the prominent division that exists between parties, most noticeably Democrats and Republicans, because of the extreme differences of the ideological beliefs of the opposing parties. In the past, many individuals considered themselves “mixed” and did not associate themselves with just one side. According to www.pewresearch.org, “the share of Americans who express consistently conservative or consistently liberal opinions has doubled over the past two decades”. Every year less and less people consider

This being known, upon George Washington’s retirement in 1796, he warned Americans to avoid political parties at all costs. In his Farewell Address he said “The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism" (http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/washing.asp). He claimed the adherence to one side would lead to inter-political conflict, which would divide the nation and possibly give rise to forms of dictatorship. Despite his warnings, political associations in the young United States began to divide even before the Constitution was signed. In those first stages, the two political parties were The Federalists and the Anti-Federalists. Alexander Hamilton was one of the early representatives of what became known as the Federalists. The people in this party were strong supporters of a strong central government. Thomas Jefferson and James Madison believed that the individual states deserved more power than the federal government, which should be weak. These people began to be appropriately known as Anti-Federalists, or the Democratic-Republicans. Thus, the first political parties were