The Two-Party System, Part II

http://www.solidarity-us.org/site/node/4329
Date Written:  2015-01-01
Publisher:  Against the Current
Year Published:  2015
Resource Type:  Article
Cx Number:  CX20859

The second part of an overview of the history and origins of the two-party system in the United States.

Abstract: 
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Excerpt:

Reconstruction of the two-party system became essential to the general Reconstruction after the Civil War, establishing some features that remain clear today. As such, the arrangement of the parties became an essential aspect of the betrayals of associated with the Reconstruction of the post-war South.

Over the 67 years from the murder of Abraham Lincoln to the election of Franklin D. Roosevelt, most participating voters cast Republican ballots. In fact, over this long expanse, only two Democrats won the presidency, Grover Cleveland and Woodrow Wilson, both victories the result of splits among the Republicans. Despite the dominance of a Republican Party, very little happened over these years to extend the idea of representative government beyond the limitations it had for generations.