Let’s be honest. The Republican Party as we know it is dead. It’s time for conservitives to stop saying they want their party back. It’s done, over and has been brought to its end by the same people who are the decendant’s of the Dixicrates, the Jim Crow era loaylist.
The United States Constitution is silent on the subject of political parties. The Founding Fathers did not originally intend for American politics to be partisan. In Federalist Papers No. 9 and No. 10, Alexander Hamilton and James Madison, respectively, wrote specifically about the dangers of domestic political factions. In addition, the first President of the United States, George Washington, was not a member of any political party at the time of his election or throughout his tenure as president. Furthermore, he hoped that political parties would not be formed, fearing conflict and stagnation, as outlined in his Farewell Address. The Founders “did not believe in parties as such, scorned those that they were conscious of as historical models, had a keen terror of party spirit and its evil consequences," but, Richard Hofstadter wrote, "almost as soon as their national government was in operation, [they] found it necessary to establish parties.”
The aftermath
First Party System: 1792–1824
- The network of followers of Alexander Hamilton, the Hamiltonian faction, took up the name "Federalist"; they favored a strong central government that would support the interests of commerce and industry and close ties to Britain.
- The followers of Madison and Thomas Jefferson, the Jeffersonians and then the "Anti-Federalists", took up the name "Democratic-Republicans"; they preferred a decentralized agrarian republic in which the federal government had limited power.
The Jeffersonians came to power in 1800 and the Federalists were too elitist to compete effectively. The Federalists survived in the Northeast, but their refusal to support the War of 1812 verged on secession and was a devastating blow when the war ended well. The Era of Good Feelings under President James Monroe (1816–1824) marked the end of the First Party System and a brief period in which partisanship was minimal. (Sounds like what we have now).
Second Party System: 1828–1854
By 1828, the Federalists had disappeared as an organization. Jackson's presidency split the Democratic-Republican Party — "Jacksonians" became the Democratic Party; those following the leadership of John Quincy Adams became the "National Republicans", (no connection to the later Republican Party that exists today). After the 1832 election, opponents of Jackson coalesced into the Whig Party. National Republicans, Anti-Masons and others joined the new party led by Henry Clay. The two party political system continued but with two different parties.
The early Democratic Party stood for individual rights and state rights, supported the primacy of the Presidency over the other branches of government, opposed banks (namely the Bank of the United States), high tariffs, as well as modernizing programs that they felt would build up industry at the expense of the farmers. It styled itself as the party of the "common man". Presidents Andrew Jackson, Martin Van Buren and James K. Polk, were all Democrats who defeated Whig candidates, but by narrow margins.
The Whigs, on the other hand, advocated the supremacy of Congress over the executive branch as well as policies of modernization and economic protectionism. Central political battles of this era were the Bank War and the Spoils system of federal patronage.
Jackson introduced the practice of "hosting barbecues and cultivating a national network of affiliates" and with his campaigns began the tradition of not just voting for a Democrat but identifying as a Democrat. "Parties were becoming a fixture not just in America’s politics but also in its social life."
In the 1850s, the issue of slavery took center stage, with disagreement in particular over the question of whether slavery should be permitted in the country's new territories in the West. The Whig Party attempted to straddle the issue with the Kansas–Nebraska Act, where the status of slavery would be decided based on "popular sovereignty", (i.e. the citizens of each territory, rather than Congress, would determine whether slavery would be allowed). Whigs sank to their death after the overwhelming electoral defeat by Franklin Pierce in the 1852 presidential election. Ex-Whigs joined the Know Nothings or the newly formed anti-slavery Republican Party. While the Know Nothing party was short-lived, Republicans would survive the intense politics leading up to the Civil War. The primary Republican policy was that slavery be excluded from all the territories. Just six years later, this new party captured the presidency when Abraham Lincoln won the election of 1860, the election that established the Democratic and Republican parties as the major parties of America.
Fast forward to five (5) party systems later and we have now entered the
Seventh Party System (2016–Present)
While not everyone will agrees that a seventh party system has begun and it’s the MAGA Party or The Donald Trump Party.
In the Republican Party, "Reagan Revolution" rhetoric and policy has been replaced by new themes. Not only has conservative blue collar workers migrated to what used to be the Republican Party, but a business class that had been part of the Republican Party since the post-Civil War Gilded Age began moving left as well as the post Civil War Christian Nationanlist, White Supremist and White Nationalist. "Today’s MAGA is most clearly now the party of local capitalism—the small-business gentry, the family firms", while "much of corporate America has swung culturally into liberalism’s camp. ... the party’s base regards corporate institutions—especially in Silicon Valley, but extending to more traditional capitalist powers—as cultural enemies". There is more emphasis on cultural/attitudinal conservatism (opposition not just to abortion but to gay marriage, transgender rights limited education and freedom of expression; support for free trade and liberal immigration was replaced by opposition to economic globalization and immigration from non-European countries to empower voting and the limitation of minorities abaility to vote or voter restreictions. Distrust of institutions (refusal to accept the results of 2020 presidential election) and loyalty for Donald Trump even after he had lost his second run for election in 2020, started an insurrection, has been indicted on criminal charges became common among Republicans during this time. President Trump was impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives twice. Both times when the charges were brought to the U.S. Senate, the Republican majority U.S. Senate acquitted President Trump.
Those who have truly left the Republican Party, need to come to terms with the fact that there is no more Republican Party and they need to create a new Conservitive or the “True Conservitive Party” because the Republican Pary that once exsisted; died with Ronald Regan.
The next strongest chance for a third party to take control of conservitism needs to prepare for the 2028 Election and those true conservitives that want to have a chance at winning needs to abandon this MAGA/Trump party and rebrand the new true Conservitive Party.
Me; I hope it all comes to an end. The two party system in beyond repair or hope and I hope that more parties come into existance so that a smarter democracy can survive.
