American_Political_Parties__Past_and_Present

IB History I American Political Parties: Past and Present After gaining their independence from Great Britain, the newly United States of America decided that they needed a government to rule the new country. In the year of 1781, the new American governing body, the Articles of Confederation, stabilized the nation with a series of laws, but not for long. The Articles of Confederation had many drawbacks in its creation: It did not allow an executive branch or a judicial branch, it could not regulate or stabilize the economy, it could not levy or tax the states, it had no standing army or navy and they had no provision to regulate interstate trade. The Critical Period of 1781-1786 was when the United States was about to collapse within itself. In trouble of the United States of collapsing from within, many thought that it was a time to change the Articles of Confederation. This group of men supported a new document, written by James Madison, that would insure the sovereignty of the national government, not the state governments. This new document was called the Constitution. With the new constitution produced, it caused the creation of two parties. One party supported the ratification of the constitution, while the other opposed it. The men who supported this new document were called the Federalists. The men who were against the new document were called the Democratic-Republicans, (previously, the Anti-Federalists). These two political parties will soon divide the nation to see who will dominate the politics of United States of America. In the late 1780s, the Federalists was a political group that supported the ratification of the Constitution. The main beliefs of the Federalist Party are that they believed in a strong, centralized government, ruled by an aristocracy. They wanted the high class of the American society, like educated men, businessmen, and wealthy landowners, to rule the people. The Federalists did not believe that lower, poor and uneducated people were not capable of ruling the government. Previously in the Articles of Confederation, the Federalists believed that the new central government should be the head of the nation, not individual state sovereignties. Federalists also believed that a large republic would be the best safeguard for personal freedoms, meaning that a larger, centralized government can be better to protect the rights of the citizens. The opposite of the Federalist Party is the Democratic-Republican Party. Some of the main beliefs of the Democratic-Republican Party is that they believe that the people should run the government. The Democratic-Republicans did not want the wealthy Americans to rule because they thought that the Federalists would think for themselves and not the common people. For example, the state-centered politicians and mostly backcountry farmers; in other words, the American lower and middle class were fit to rule because they would help the common man to survive in the new nation. The Democratic-Republicans saw that a smaller republic would be the better common interest to protect the individual rights of the citizens of the United States of America because a smaller government would better hear the wishes of the people. The Democratic-Republican Party believes that the power of sovereignty should go to the states, not the national government because they don’t want their rights to be threatened by a central government. The reason to have the states to have power is to prevent another autocracy, like the British monarchy. The Democratic-Republicans and the Federalists had many issues that both parties did not agree on and one of those issues was who do we have relations with, France or Britain. The Federalist Party believed that the United States should be allies with the British to reestablish commence and communications because they would had a great business opportunity with trading with the most powerful empire on earth. Also, the Federalists thought the British had an excellent government in which the American government could model with the aristocrats at the top of society. The Democratic-Republican Party believed that they should make relations with the French. After all, the French helped the American Revolution by sending troops, money, and advisors. Also, the Democratic-Republican Party supported the ideals of the French Revolution. The American society was also similar to the French society in the late 1700s. Most of the population in both France and the United States of America were farmers and lower class citizens. The farmers and lower class citizens did not want Federalists, who supported an aristocracy, to rule the country because they did not want their rights to be threatened by the higher class aristocrats. Alexander Hamilton wanted America to be an industrialized country like Britain in order to expand the country and to let the economy grow. Thomas Jefferson, the political rival of Hamilton, wanted America to be an agrarian society, so that the poor and lower classes would not suffer poor conditions of living, as in Britain or any other industrialized countries. In today’s politics, the Democratic Party is battling the Republican Party for the 2008 election. The two candidates of the 2008 election are Barack Obama of the Democratic Party and John McCain of the Republican Party. Today, the Democratic Party is very liberal and has many firm beliefs in which the government should be run. The Democratic Party emphasizes strong economic growth, affordable health care for all Americans, retirement security, open, honest and accountable government, and securing our nation while protecting our civil rights and liberties. The Democratic Party deals with the working class as well as the poor and lower classes. The Republican Party is conservative and emphasizes in a healthy growth of the economy, expand and improve the American education system, support foreign governments, such as Iraq, to grow and prosper, and protect the homeland with better homeland security. The Republican Party deals with the wealthy and upper classes in America. What I believe that the information that I got for the Republican and Democratic Parties is biased a lot. The information is one-sided and takes little consideration for the others opinions and views. I think that the biased information is there to tell you that not all the information is true by fact, but by opinions. But these opinions are limited because it tells you what the author or creator wants you to think. One of the main debates that the Democratic Party and the Republican Party still argue today is gay marriage. The Republicans see gay marriage as a bad influence on America and that marriage should be given to the right between a man and a woman. I believe that this phrase is used in the Republican Party against gay marriage, “God created Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve.” I am sure that there are some Republican s who believe it is their choice for marriage, not to be determined by someone. But it is a small minority of Republicans who believe that. On the Democratic Party side of the issue is that the Democratics support the rights of gay marriage to lesbians and the gay men. The Democratics believe that just as all of us are human, the gay man and lesbian are just as human as a regular heterosexual couple. There is no difference between a gay and a non-gay man and a lesbian and a non-lesbian woman. Another reason that gay marriage is important to the Democratic Party is that the gay and lesbian communities are important when it comes to voting because 12% of Americans are gay and lesbian and that can change the course of an election very easily. Through the course of history, the political parties had changed views and ideas. For example, the Democratic Party today is very liberal and has beliefs that are extreme, like supporting gay marriage, abortion, and support universal health care. Today’s standard, the Democratic Party is liberal, but back then, I believed that the Federalist Party was the liberal type then. My reasoning is that the Federalists wanted to change everything from the government to the economy of the United States. The Federalists wanted to change the Articles of Confederation for the Constitution and they wanted to replace the local community banks for one national bank, while the Democratic-Republicans wanted to let things be the same, meaning that the Democratic-Republicans were the conservative party in the late 1700s. The Democratic-Republicans wanted to keep the Articles of Confederation and did not want to ratify the national bank because they want things to be the same. The Republican Party today is the conservative party because it wants to keep things the same as it is. So over time, the political parties had switched ideas and concepts because to make improvements to the party or the environment had changed it. How would you compare today’s economic situation with the economic situation then' Back in the 1780s, the Articles of Confederation had caused a scar in the American economy. Local banks and the state governments were printing their own currency and the effect was that it created an inflation among the collies and congress that no power to regulate trade among the states. The troubled economy hit the newly American nation hard from foreign debts and the rise of inflation because Congress had no power with economics at the time. Dealing with the economy today, the economy of the United States of America is going in its slow period in the graph. Right now, the economy is slow and not much for improvement. Obama wants to create a plan to jump start the economy to its fast pace. From the political parties of Hamilton and Jefferson to the political parties today, the differences of the political parties of America have helped shaped America as it is today. The brilliant ideas of Hamilton, Madison and Jay had reformed the government of the late 1780s, to a new more powerful nation. the debates of Obama and McCain today has a lot of influences today on politics.