George Washington’s farewell address concerning political parties. Was he right?
However [political parties] may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion
John Adams said:
There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties, each arranged under its leader, and concerting measures in opposition to each other. This, in my humble apprehension, is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our Constitution.
We have to remember that the founding fathers had a fear of direct democracy. Like royalty themselves, they did not believe the average American was capable of making choices in a political area; which is why in the beginning the people had no direct vote for the offices and senate. None of them could have seen the social changes coming, the effects of universal education and changing economics where people were no longer tied to menial jobs in agriculture.
The truth is the one party system cannot work. It didn't work once Thomas Jefferson got pissed off with the back room bull**** of the ruling class and formed his own party.
The US is alone in the world with two parties, which frankly are almost the same. Societies across the world are changing and the result has been many parties, some to the point of ridiculousness with up 25 parties. Having said that, the two party system is clearly not adequately meeting the needs of Americans, more likely making matters worse through the roadblocks set up by the parties themselves, resulting in no middle ground. There is so little separating them, those things do become major issues, founded and defended to the death as core ideology of the party to the point of being beyond reason.
Sorry to say this, but emergence of a third party is likely a long way off. In the states the blue print for forming a party is to run for president. However the voter does not easily give up his vote for president, and fears a situation of a president with no support in congress. In the early days, leaders saw the answer in a one party system.
But we have moved on. We are smarter, we have much more complex needs, and frankly neither of the two parties is delivering good government so consumed they are at warring with one another.
The way to build a party is to start at the grass roots. You run people for civic and state legislatures, for congress and senate and build from there. The best most recent model is the Canadian Reform Party of the middle to late 1980's through to the early 2000's, which then became The Conservative Party of Canada and won government under Stephen Harper.
I think Americans are looking for a savior or magic bullet that will come in, sweep up and put the country back on track in eight years. In order for that to happen you need control of at least two of the three divisions of government. Further, the system has become incredibly cynical, where as soon as a politician gets elected, his one and only objective is to stay elected, second is to fit in the congressional power structure in order to move up the ladder and ensure his position.
In the end, in a democracy, the people get the government they deserve.