Essay On America's Two-Party System

In America, we have adopted a two party system when it comes to electing political officials. Throughout the years, third parties have come and gone. If a third party gains enough support, it is typically absorbed into one of the major political parties; whereas if it does not gain enough support it eventually peters out. Examples of third parties that have either merged into a major party or failed include: The Populist party which failed, the Greenback party merged into the Democratic party, and the Whig party was taken in by the Republican party. Each time a third party gains traction it is adopted by one of the two major parties returning to a two party system (The Bemidji Daily Pioneer). America’s two party system has helped to form a

Today gay marriage is legal and recognized on a national scale although many republicans are against it. In time, Republicans will accept and adopt gay rights issues of their own despite first having a majority within their party against it. In some ways this can seem good by letting the popular majority idea win out even when a major party has not yet endorsed it. It can also be argued that this just pushes the two major parties closer together and lessens their differences (Dearborn Independent), which leads to a need for an influence from outside the two major parties. Popular opinion can influence one major parties’ ideas onto the other or a third party can sometimes create enough of a following that one of the major parties adopt its ideas into their

Third parties usually effect our political ideas by first taking votes away from the closest affiliated party and then being dissolved into said party. The most votes a third party has ever received was in the presidential election of 1912, in which The Progressive party gained twenty-seven percent of the vote (CQG). Theodore Roosevelt had become bitter at the over their over conservative nature, so he announced he would accept a nomination from an honestly elected third party and the Progressive party obliged. For a major political figure to switch to a third party is somewhat unheard of especially in politics today and it would be viewed as career suicide (Garraty, John A), yet Roosevelt received more votes than the Republican in the election who only received twenty-three percent of the vote (CQG). After this election, Republicans started to experience a shift toward the Progressive party’s ideas, calling themselves “Bull Moose Republicans.” Then eventually the entire Progressive party became a movement in the Republican party and ended up being absorbed by the Republican party. A more modern example of a third party being absorbed or adopted into a major political party after gaining support is Ron Paul, who is a clear Libertarian, yet he ran for president on the Republican ticket as recent as 2012 due to his