Not a day goes by in the world of American politics without stories about policy differences and angry debate between the two major political parties, 民主党和共和党. We are now a nation of what is commonly called extreme partisanship — strongly held beliefs by political leaders and their supporters that at this stage in our governing system are so entrenched that efforts to achieve compromise and consensus in a non-partisan manner are nearly impossible. The Democrats and the Republicans are without question the main source of our current national divide and political polarization.
在许多方面，这种分裂和两极分化并不是一种新的发展. From the earliest days of our country leaders like George Washington and James Madison warned about the potential problems that would be created by what then was called “factions.” George Washington in his Farewell Address in 1796 warned that political parties or “factions” not be allowed to form and operate in the public arena. 麦迪逊和华盛顿的担忧, 然而, were not followed in the years ahead as political parties formed and flourished as their leaders sought to control the policy process to advance their vision of America.
In these early days of the Republic the Federalist faction of Washington and Madison who favored strong central government eventually evolved into the Whig party, while leaders like Jefferson and Jackson who favored state power formed the Democratic-Republicans (later to become the Democrats). It was not until the pre-Civil War era that a Republican Party headed by Abraham Lincoln emerged and created a two-party option for the American voter. 在后内战时期, the Republicans became the party of big business and strong government largely in the North while the Democrats became the party of the rural South, 强调各州的权利.
在20世纪, 尤其是在伍德罗·威尔逊和后来的富兰克林·德拉诺·罗斯福执政期间, the party split became more pronounced with the Democrats taking on a more national and progressive appeal using government as a force for social and economic change while the Republicans held fast to their pro-business, 反规则, 低税职位. The failure of the Republicans under 总统 Herbert Hoover to avert a devastating depression in the late 1920s opened the door for the Democrats to control the reins of government from 1932 through 1952. Franklin Roosevelt’s big government New Deal and his presidency during World War II left the Republican Party on the fringes of American politics. 直到德怀特·艾森豪威尔, 战争英雄, 是谁能在1952年入主白宫，让共和党重回主流. 然而，共和党的统治只持续了8年. 肯尼迪和林登·约翰逊将民主党的大政府项目模式延续到了20世纪60年代，比如医疗保险.
1980年罗纳德·里根击败吉米·卡特后，政党政治发生了重大转变. 随着民主党人拥护民权法和黑人投票, the Republicans developed a “Southern strategy” that weakened the Democrats’ hold on the South and swung the white vote in that region to the Grand Old Party (GOP). 里根革命使共和党得以控制政治权力，尤其是在国会. 上世纪80年代和90年代，民主党的确是在比尔•克林顿和巴拉克•奥巴马的带领下入主白宫的, but the Republicans were able to win control of the Congress and make Democrat public policy initiatives difficult if not impossible to pass. Clinton was able to pass welfare reforms but only after considerable compromise and Obama got his health care program through Congress by the narrowest of margins. The Republicans sensed that they could limit the influence of the Democrats by creating a coalition of southern and midwestern whites, 农村居民, 福音派, 无论是大企业还是小企业, 而民主党则变成了一个由受过教育的郊区居民组成的沿海政党, 妇女和少数民族. 这些地区的, 教育和社会经济的分离成为政党党派关系的基础, 意识形态的两极分化和民族分裂最终导致了唐纳德·特朗普的当选. Trump became a dominant force in the Republican Party as he appealed to his conservative base and made it nearly impossible for more moderates in the party to challenge his popularity.
In today’s political arena the two major political parties are locked in a hyper-partisan battle over policy differences — debt, 通货膨胀, 监管以及联邦政府的规模和作用. 他们对寻找中间立场几乎没有兴趣，也很少有友好辩论的例子. 可悲的是, this hyper-partisanship exists within the context of two presidential impeachments and criminal indictments of a former president. The political parties are at the center of this political conflict as they jockey for political leverage to either support the criminal charges made against Donald Trump or to aid in his defense. 这里几乎没有诚实辩论的余地，只有指控和反指控.
值得注意的是，这两个政党是随着时间的推移而演变的. While in the early days of our country the parties were loosely organized “clubs” that ran candidates for national elections and advanced the policy interests of recognized leaders, it was not until the post-Civil War and turn of the century era that political parties took on a more local and regional character. Party bosses like Boss Tweed in New York and James Michael Curley in Boston emerged on the scene to run cities or states, 控制官僚机构的缰绳, 为忠诚的会员提供工作, 并积聚相当大的权力，以确保伴随政府控制而来的经济回报持续不减.
在当前时代，政党在政治进程中的核心地位不如社交媒体, 企业捐助支持, 庞大的私人员工队伍, public opinion polling and personalized campaigning have taken center stage in the national and local political process. 此外, 越来越多的美国人正在摆脱民主党和共和党的标签，以独立人士的身份登记投票. 公职候选人仍然称自己为民主党人或共和党人, 召开党代会，维护党组织, 但唱片公司和大型聚会已经变得不那么重要了. 在今天的美国, 个人品质或感知能力, 竞选顾问和演讲撰稿人, 媒体的关注和私人资金筹集比候选人是民主党还是共和党更重要.
Political parties are not going to disappear from the public arena and many Americans will continue to define candidates by the traditional labels, but the fear of “factions” that Madison and Washington worried about is less important than how candidates for public office are viewed on the Internet and television, how much money they collect and spend and whether their campaign consultants and staff have fashioned a winnable strategy. 政党在真正意义上实现了现代化.