Sprinting Through Party History Part I

First assignment

Party Systems (Hershey ch. 1)

CHANGES IN THE PARTY SYSTEM REFLECT CHANGES IN THE NATION'S DEMOGRAPHIC AND ECONOMIC MAKEUP.

First Party System: 1792–1824

Jefferson to Madison, 1793:

The line is now drawn so clearly as to show on one side, 1. The fashionable circles of Philadelphia, New York, Boston and Charleston, (natural aristocrats), 2. Merchants trading on British capital, 3. Paper men (all the old tories are found in some one of the three descriptions). On the other side are, 1. Merchants trading on their own capital. 2. Irish merchants. 3. Tradesmen, mechanics, farmers, and every other possible description of our citizens.

1800:  Burr invents campaigning:

In those days, presidential electors were chosen by the state legislatures, and New York’s legislative elections were held early, in April. By outmaneuvering Hamilton and the Federalists, and briefly uniting the bickering Republican factions, Burr secured New York for Jefferson. He did it by employing what we would admire as a strong political ground game. Rather than affecting to be above politics, as Jefferson did, for example, Burr campaigned openly, made detailed lists of likely voters and party donors, and turned his house into a campaign headquarters.

Federalists (die off by 1816) v. Democratic-Republican Party (also called "Democratic-Republican" or "Jeffersonian Republican").

Second Party System: 1828–1854 

• Democrats v. National Republicans, then Whigs

Andrew Jackson ... and the big block of cheese.

On 1848, Rep. Abraham Lincoln (Whig-Illinois) described Zachary Taylor as the ultimate pro-choice candidate:

Now this is the whole matter. In substance, it is this: The people say to Gen: Taylor ``If you are elected, shall we have a national bank?'' He answers ``Your will, gentlemen, not mine'' ``What about the Tariff?'' ``Say yourselves.'' ``Shall our rivers and harbours be improved?'' ``Just as you please'' ``If you desire a bank, an alteration of the tariff, internal improvements, any, or all, I will not hinder you; if you do not desire them, I will not attempt to force them on you'' ``Send up your members of congress from the va[rious] districts, with opinions according to your own; and if they are for these measures, or any of them, I shall have nothing to oppose; if they are not for them, I shall not, by any appliances whatever, attempt to dragoon them into their adoption[.]'' 

• Whigs crumble over the slavery issue.

Third Party System: 1854–1892

Slavery redefines the parties:  pro-slavery Whigs ("Cotton Whigs") go Democratic.  Anti-slavery Whigs ("Conscience Whigs," e.g., Lincoln) and anti-slavery Dems go to the new Republican Party.

Democrats v. Republicans.  The Democratic coalition includes pro-business Southern Democrats, traditional Democrats in the North and Catholic immigrants, among others. The Republican coalition consists of businessmen, shop owners, skilled craftsmen, clerks, and professionals.

Fourth Party System: 1896–1928

Domestic issues changed to government regulation of business and banking, the tariff, the role of labor unions, child labor, political corruption and reform. racial segregation, women's suffrage, and immigration. The nation shifts from rural to urban, from mostly native-born to immigrant stock.

Away from the farm:

Urban political machines

"Honest Graft" and machines 

Plunkitt of Tammny Hall (esp. pp. 1-2)

Short video on immigrants and machines

First Paper Fall 2026

Pick one:

1. Choose a place you know well: your hometown, neighborhood, school district, county, or another community where you have spent substantial time. Describe what you have observed about its political character. Consider campaign signs, local controversies, political events, social divisions, voting habits, or the absence of visible political activity. Do not rely on stereotypes or general impressions.
Test your observations through outside research. Compare official election results from three elections over at least twelve years. Use at least two additional credible sources, such as census data, local news coverage, campaign materials, party platforms, or public-opinion surveys. Use Hershey’s account of party identification and party-system change to explain the pattern you find. Did demographic change, economic change, national issues, candidate appeal, or institutional rules drive the results? Identify one fact that challenges your preferred explanation. Conclude by deciding whether the community reflects a broader change in American party politics or follows its own unusual path. Explain what your personal knowledge helped you notice—and what the outside evidence forced you to reconsider. Acknowledge what one community cannot tell us about the nation.

2. Interview someone at least twenty years older than you about the first election in which that person voted and the most recent election in which that person voted. Ask what party the person favored in each election, which issues mattered most, what social groups shaped the choice, and whether any event changed the person’s allegiance. Use Hershey’s account of party identification and party-system change to analyze the interview. Did the person change, did the parties change, or did both change? Identify one issue or social division that shifted in importance between the two elections. Test the interviewee’s account through outside research. Consult at least two credible sources, including one primary or quantitative source, such as election returns, a party platform, a contemporary campaign advertisement, or public-opinion data. Do these sources confirm, complicate, or contradict the interviewee’s memory? Does the person’s political history reflect a broader change in the party system or an unusual individual journey? Present the strongest evidence against your conclusion. Explain what one person’s experience can and cannot tell us about party change.


3. Hershey describes American parties as networks that connect voters, organizations, officeholders, candidates, activists, and outside groups. Plunkitt portrays an older party system built on personal relationships, practical rewards, and neighborhood organization. Interview someone who has worked or volunteered in a campaign, party committee, elected office, political club, union, or advocacy group since 2020. You may draw on your own experience instead if you have participated in such an organization. Do not interview a classmate for this assignment. Explain how the person entered politics, what work the person performed, who set the organization’s goals, and what motivated participation. Identify which dimensions of the party—party in the electorate, party organization, party in government, or partisan outside groups—appear in the account. Which dimension exercised the most influence? Compare the account with Plunkitt’s description of party politics. Does the modern organization still rely on personal loyalty, practical favors, social ties, or material rewards? Identify one revealing similarity and one important difference. Then use Hershey and outside research to decide whether your case shows the decline, survival, or transformation of traditional party organization. Present the strongest competing interpretation of your evidence. Conclude by explaining whether your case reflects a broader pattern or an unusual situation.
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Instructions:

• Essays should be double-spaced and no more than four pages long. I will not read past the fourth page.
• Essays should be in the form of Word documents. Do not submit pdfs or Google docs.
• I strongly encourage relevant outside research, particularly when it provides historical context, evidence about an example, or support for a claim about how typical an experience is. Cite all outside sources.  For privacy reasons, do not provide the full name or identifying information of any individual to whom you speak for this assignment.
• Cite outside sources with endnotes (not footnotes) in Chicago/Turabian style. Endnote pages do not count against the page limit.
• Misrepresenting AI-generated content as your own work is plagiarism. It could result in a referral to the Academic Standards Committee. You do not want to start your college career this way.
• Watch your spelling, grammar, diction, and punctuation. Errors will count against you. Read Strunk & White and watch my writing lecture before writing this paper.
• Turn in essays to Canvas by 11:59 PM, Friday, October 2. (If you have trouble with Canvas, simply email it to me as an attached Word file.) I reserve the right to dock essays a grade point for one day’s lateness, a full letter grade after that.

The American Two-Party System

Next week, read the preface and ch. 1-4 of Plunkitt.

By Friday, send me a 250-word (max) email on this topic:

Identify one claim or observation in Chapters 1–2 that changed, sharpened, or challenged the way you thought about American political parties. What did you think before reading Hershey, and what specifically in the reading caused you to reconsider it? Use one concrete example from contemporary politics to explain your answer.

Why Parties? What do parties do?

What is a party?  How does it differ from an interest group?

Every large democracy has parties.

Countries without legal political parties. 

Why is the United States different?

The American party system reflects its unique combination of:

• Federalism
• Bicameralism
• Separation of Powers

Most democratic systems do not have party primaries.

Why only two major parties?

Duverger's Law (Hershey p. 42):  Does it hold up under scrutiny?

Why did the Framers not choose proportional representation?

The Electoral College

Major parties coopt minor ones:

• Bryan Democrats and Populism
• Wilson Democrats and Progressivism
• FDR Democrats and socialism, then Long (start at 13:30)
• Nixon and the South
  
• Clinton

Structure of Congress and the legislature forces members to choose one side or the other.

Campaign finance and media attention

Ballot access

The doom loop:

New data from Pew Research:

While Americans have long placed the two parties far apart ideologically, that distance is somewhat wider than it was a decade ago.

Americans’ ideological ratings of the Republican Party have shifted rightward, from an average of 6.9 in 2016 to 7.2 today. Their ratings of the Democratic Party have moved to the left by the same amount, from 3.1 to 2.8.

Party Systems (Hershey ch. 1)

CHANGES IN THE PARTY SYSTEM REFLECT CHANGES IN THE NATION'S DEMOGRAPHIC AND ECONOMIC MAKEUP.

OVER THE LONG HAUL, THERE IS NO CONSISTENT "LEFT" AND "RIGHT" IN AMERICAN POLITICS. 

Party!!

 For a week from today, Hershey, ch. 1-2.  Cold calls and weekly writeups.

From the article:

American political parties are not quite what the American public perceives. They are made up of official structures at the federal, state, and local levels as well as candidates, special interest groups, and a harder to define “party blob” that coalesces under a unified banner to gain political power.

PIE -- party in the electorate

• Electoral change:  a cinematic map

The issues change over time ("Free Silver" in the 1890s)

Positions change.  Statehood for Puerto Rico

Identification and Identity

PO -- party organization

PIG -- party in government

POG -- partisan outside groups

In addition to fundraising groups, consider:

• Think Tanks
• Partisan Media
• "Influencers"

Factions within parties 

• Democrats
• Republicans

Syllabus Fall 2026

DRAFT:  SUBJECT TO CHANGE

American Political Parties

CMC Government 123  Fall 2026

Mon, Wed 11 AM- 12:15 PM 

Roberts North 15  

ZOOM: https://cmc-its.zoom.us/j/92228697468

J.J. Pitney

Office:   Kravis 232

E-mail:  jpitney@cmc.edu

Web: http://www1.cmc.edu/pages/faculty/JPitney/

Student Hours: Monday and Wednesday 1-2,

by appointment, and when my door is open and I am not looking grumpy.

 

General

For most of American history, basic features of the American constitutional system -- federalism, bicameralism, and the separation of powers -- tended to fragment and disperse party authority. American parties are not strict hierarchies but networks of ordinary voters, activists, and officeholders.  In this respect, we must examine how the networks extend across several dimensions of American parties:

• Parties in the electorate (PIE);
• Party organization (PO);
• Partisan outside groups (POG);
• Party in government (PIG).

In this course, we shall study all these dimensions and consider what they mean for democratic government.  We shall also discuss trends that have changed the character of parties. Polarization is the increasing division between parties along ideological, personal, and even cognitive lines. Nationalization is the increasing tendency of state and local politics to align with national politics.

Classes

Class sessions will include lecture and discussion. Finish each week's readings before class because our discussions will involve those readings. We shall also talk about breaking news stories about parties and elections, so you must read a good daily news source such as Politico or Axios.

Blog

Our class blog is at http://cmc-gov123.blogspot.com/. I shall post videos, graphs, news stories, and other material there. We shall use some of this material in class, and you may review the rest at your convenience. 

Grades

The following will make up your course grade:

• Three 4-page essays: 20% each
• One 6-page research paper (on an assigned topic) and presentation: 25%
• Class participation, reading emails, blog: 15% 

Details

• Check due dates for coursework. Do not plan on extensions.
• As a courtesy to your fellow students, please arrive on time and refrain from eating in class.
• I strongly recommend that you take notes the old-fashioned way, by hand, on paper. Why? Research shows that it works better.
• Plagiarism and other forms of academic dishonesty are not victimless offenses because they hurt fellow students. Please study our Statement of Academic Integrity, which reads in part: "Each faculty member has the responsibility to report cases of academic dishonesty to the Academic Standards Committee."
• You may use AI to brainstorm, format graphs, and locate sources, but misrepresenting AI-generated content as your own original work constitutes plagiarism.
• This class welcomes viewpoint diversity. See: https://heterodoxacademy.org/library/advice-on-syllabus-language/
• Your experience in this class matters to me, and I have a particular interest in disability. If you have set up accommodations with Accessibility Services at CMC, please tell me about your approved accommodations so we can discuss your needs. You can start by forwarding your accommodation letter to me. If you have not yet set up accommodations but have a temporary health condition or permanent disability, please email Aridai Martinez, Associate Director of Accessibility Services, at accessibilityservices@cmc.edu to ask questions and start the process. For general information and the Request for Accommodations form, go to the CMC Accessibility Services website.

Required books (Make sure that you get the correct edition of each book.)

 

• Marjorie Randon Hershey and Barry C. Burden, Party Politics in America, 19th ed. (New York: Routledge, 2025).
• Jamie L. Carson and Gary Jacobson, The Politics of Congressional Elections, 11th ed. (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2024).

Schedule is subject to change, with advance notice.  

Because of convocation, no class on August 31.

Sept 2:  Introduction

"And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night."

-- Matthew Arnold

• J.D. Rackey and Lily Kincannon, "Parties and Electoral Reform: Insights from Political Operatives," Bipartisan Policy Center, July 13, 2026.

Sept 7: Labor Day (no class)

Sept 9: The Two-Party System

“Democrats are...the party that says government can make you richer, smarter, taller and get the chickweed out of your lawn. Republicans are the party that says government doesn't work, and then they get elected and prove it.” -- P.J. O’Rourke

• Hershey, ch. 1-2. 
  

Sept 14, 16: A Sprint Through Party History

"Look at your houses, your parents, your wives, and your children.  Are you prepared to see your dwellings in flames,  hoary hairs bathed in blood, female chastity violated, or children writhing on the pike and halberd?" -- Connecticut Courant, September 30, 1800, on what the election of Thomas Jefferson would bring.

• William Riordan, Plunkitt of Tammany Hall: A Series of Very Plain Talks on Very Practical Politics (New York: McClure, Philips, 1905), ch. 1-4 (very short).

FIRST FOUR-PAGE ESSAY ASSIGNED SEPT 14, 

DUE IN CANVAS BY FRIDAY, OCT 2.

READ STRUNK & WHITE FIRST

AND WATCH MY WRITING LECTURE.

Sept 21, 23: Party Organization

 "To divide their county into small districts, and to appoint in each a subcommittee, whose duty it shall be to make a perfect list of all the voters in their respective districts, and to ascertain with certainty for whom they will vote. If they meet with men who are doubtful as to the man they will support, such voters should be designated in separate lines, with the name of the man they will probably support."  -- Abraham Lincoln, Whig circular, 1840

• Hershey, ch. 3, 4, 5.

Sept 28, 30: Outside Groups and Campaign Finance

“Politics has got so expensive that it takes lots of money to even get beat with nowadays.” -- Will Rogers

• Hershey, ch. 12.

Oct 5, 7: Party in the Electorate 

Selina: Come on, let's go somewhere. Let's meet the public.
Mike: You want to normalize it?
Selina: Yes, exactly. I want to meet some regular normals. Where we gonna find them?
Mike: Photo op with the normals and the normalistas.          
            --Veep, season 1, episode 2.

• Hershey, ch. 6, 7, 8.

SECOND FOUR-PAGE ESSAY ASSIGNED OCT 5, 

DUE IN CANVAS BY FRIDAY, OCT 23.

Oct 12, 14:  Presidential Nominations and Elections 

Joe Cantwell: I don't understand you.
William Russell: I know you don't. Because you have no sense of responsibility toward anybody or anything. And that is a tragedy in a man, and it is a disaster in a president. -- Cliff Robertson and Henry Fonda in The Best Man

• Hershey, ch. 9, 10, 11.

Oct 19:  Fall Break

Oct  21: Congressional and State Elections I

"A congressional campaign is a lot like unmedicated childbirth: it's painful, it's messy, you don't think you can do what's required even as you're doing it, you likely consented to it months ago and now you're questioning your decisions, your likelihood to request drugs increases proportionally as you get closer to the big event, you gained weight, you don't realize you're screaming but everyone around you looks distressed, and your mother doesn't remember what it's like. Also, once you get what you want, you'll never sleep again. I'm sure there are things I'm missing, but I hear hormones make you forget so you'll do it every two years." -- Candace Valenzuela (CMC `06), 2020 candidate for US House, Texas 24.

• Carson, ch. 1-2.

RESEARCH PAPER ASSIGNED BY OCT 21.

Oct 26, 28: Congressional and State Elections II

"I may not be flashy, and I may not be the coolest guy on earth. But what St. Louis County needs right now is someone with the brains and the guts to fix our challenges — not another slick politician." -- Jake Zimmerman (CMC `96), candidate for St. Louis County Executive

• Carson, ch. 3-4.

Nov 2, 4: Congressional and State Elections III

Polymarket gave Francesca Hong a 95.8% chance of winning the 2026 Wisconsin Democratic gubernatorial primary.  She lost.  Moral: don't blow your tuition money on prediction markets.

• Carson, ch. 5-6

 Nov 9, 11:  Class Presentations 

"Our country must be strong enough to solve problems, and that means we must learn how to work together again."  -- former Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-AZ; SC `93)

RESEARCH PAPER DUE FRIDAY NOV 20

Nov 16, 18:  Party in Government 

"I’m not into blacklisting anyone from future work in their area of expertise, but I do think it’s fair to want a whole new crop of foreign-policy staffers in the next Democratic administration. It’s not like the same 120 people are the only people who know anything." -- Senator Brian Schatz (D-HI; PO `94)

• Carson, ch. 7
• Hershey, ch. 13, 14.

 Nov 23:  Alternative Futures

"I am running as a candidate for the United States Senate because the two-party system has failed America. Both parties increase the national debt, keep us in endless wars, and favor big corporations, harming our families in the process. Both parties benefit from division among Americans." -- Todd Achilles (CMC `90 P`25)

• Conor Friedersdorf (PO `02), "Independents of America, Unite!"  The Atlantic, March 14, 2026.
• Steven M. Teles & Robert P. Saldin, "The Future Is Faction," National Affairs, Fall 2020.

THIRD FOUR-PAGE PAPER ASSIGNED NOV 23, 

DUE DEC 11.

Nov 30, Dec 2:  Appraisal I 

“We're like a Third World country when it comes to some of our election practices.” – Donna Brazile
 

• Tevi Troy, "Why Party Platforms Matter," National Affairs 59 (Spring 2024), https://www.nationalaffairs.com/publications/detail/why-party-platforms-matter
• Hershey, ch 15

Dec 7, 9: Appraisal II 

“We all want progress. But progress means getting nearer to the place where you want to be. And if you have taken a wrong turning then to go forward does not get you any nearer. If you are on the wrong road progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road and in that case the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive man.” – C.S. Lewis

• Hershey, ch. 16.

Summation

 

If there were ever a time in the past 200 years that an Independent candidate could win the presidency, it’s now.

Now is the time to show the political establishment that, this time around, Americans are not going to be manipulated by fear. Now is the time to vote for hope and a… pic.twitter.com/uqXDMBE8r0

— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) April 30, 2024

More on the AIP

Rural voters

I wondered what issue could tie together the threads of this course.

The answer came two years ago.

Parties are networks that exist on 4 levels.

• PIE -- party in the electorate
• PO -- party organization
• PIG -- party in government
• POG -- partisan outside groups

Abortion and party in government

Roll Call on HR 6914.

Alito

• From 1981 to 1985,  Assistant to U.S. Solicitor General Rex E. Lee -- father of Sen. Mike Lee.
• From 1985-1987, Deputy Assistant Attorney General under Charles J. Cooper in the Office of Legal Counsel during the tenure of Attorney General Edwin Meese.  SEE HIS JOB APPLICATION
• From 1987 to 1990, United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey.

Abortion and partisan outside groups

• All five have been members of the Federalist Society.
• Amici

Abortion and party organization

• NRSC talking points
• DSCC release

Abortion and party in the electorate

 Former Rep. Tony Hall (D-OH): "Take care of your district first or you can't do world hunger."

Rural-Urban, Populism, Ideological Factions

For next Tuesday: Hershey, ch. 16.

Urban and Rural

Philip Bump at WP:

Pew data:

Why did the cities go blue?

• The Great Migration
• Immigration
• "The New Class"

Why did rural areas go red?

• Metro areas again ground while rural areas lose ground
• Deaths of despair
• Neglect and disrespect

Joan C. Williams at HBR:

Michèle Lamont, in The Dignity of Working Men, also found resentment of professionals — but not of the rich. “[I] can’t knock anyone for succeeding,” a laborer told her. “There’s a lot of people out there who are wealthy and I’m sure they worked darned hard for every cent they have,” chimed in a receiving clerk. Why the difference? For one thing, most blue-collar workers have little direct contact with the rich outside of Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. But professionals order them around every day. The dream is not to become upper-middle-class, with its different food, family, and friendship patterns; the dream is to live in your own class milieu, where you feel comfortable — just with more money. “The main thing is to be independent and give your own orders and not have to take them from anybody else,” a machine operator told Lamont. Owning one’s own business — that’s the goal. That’s another part of Trump’s appeal.

Populism

Jefferson to Madison 1793:

The line is now drawing so clearly as to shew, on one side, 1. the fashionable circles of Phila., N. York, Boston and Charleston (natural aristocrats),4 2. merchants trading on British capitals. 3. paper men, (all the old tories are found in some one of these three descriptions). On the other side are 1. merchants trading on their own capitals. 2. Irish merchants, 3. tradesmen, mechanics, farmers and every other possible description of our citizens.

Jackson v. the Bank

William Jennings Bryan

Huey Long

George Wallace:

Convergence and the Israel vote

 Palin on "the real America."  And a more intellectual version.

Factions

The Squad

The Freedom Caucus: