History UsefulNotes / AmericanPoliticalSystem

Also, note the unofficial colors of the two parties. In most of the Western world, the color red is used for left-wing parties (red having traditionally been the color of socialism), while blue was given to right-wing parties. In America, however, this is reversed -- the center-left (by American standards) Democrats have blue as their color, while the center-right Republicans are red. The terms "red states" and "blue states" stem from this dichotomy. This is [[NewerThanTheyThink a surprisingly recent development]] that dates back to the 2000 election, when the major networks all used these colors to represent each party. Other colors had been used before (including red for the Dems and blue for the GOP in 1996), but the long, drawn-out 2000 election cemented the red-vs-blue meme in the public consciousness. This sometimes creates confusion for Canadians and Europeans, who wonder why the Americans just don't do things the way the rest of the world does them (just like how they wonder why America uses [[AmericanCustomaryMeasurements a completely different system of weights and measures from every other country on Earth]]). The truth is that the Democrats were not formed as part of the Labor Movement of the 1800s to early 1900s from which most red-colored center-left parties got their start, and thus it wouldn't really be appropriate to demand they use red since they ''became'' a center-left party rather than were founded as one.

While the Constitution is not set in stone -- to date there are 27 amendments, the first ten of which are referred to as the Bill of Rights, and while the reasons are complicated, were planned to be put in the constitution before it was ratified. This gives you an idea of how hard the amendment process is -- 27 amendments (the first ten of which were done as a set, and one of which is in there to repeal an earlier one, so effectively only 16) over 220 years is pretty good.

->''Ninety-eight percent of the adults in this country are decent, hard-working, honest Americans. It's the other lousy two percent that get all the publicity. But then, we elected them.''

While the Constitution is not set in stone -- to date there are 27 amendments, the first ten of which are referred to as the Bill of Rights, and while the reasons are complicated, were planned to be put in the constitution before it was ratified. This gives you an idea of how hard the amendment process is -- 17 amendments (one of which is in there to repeal an earlier one, so effectively only 15 and the first 10 were done as a set, bringing it down to 6) over 220 years is pretty good.

* '''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist_Party_USA Communist Party USA]]''' was influential from the 1920s to 1040s and was crushed by the RedScare.

* The '''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_Party_(United_States) Constitution Party]]''' is the third largest political party according to [[http://www.ballot-access.org/2008/120108.html Ballot Access News]] as of 2008. They are an ultra-conservative party which favors states' rights, ending the income tax and "unconstitutional spending", isolationism, protectionist/mercantilist trade policies, gun rights, strong opposition to immigration, a generally fundamentalist Christian stance on most social and cultural issues (although there is a small secular bloc within the party), repeal of the Patriot Act, and withdrawal from the UnitedNations and free trade agreements. They have a great deal of credibility among [[RightWingMilitiaFanatic far-right]] {{conspiracy theorist}} crowds, as evidenced when their last Presidential candidate (who, not coincidentally, was endorsed by prominent conspiracy radio host Alex Jones) implied that he believed 9/11 to have been a FalseFlagOperation, and openly stated that he believed that JFK's assassination [[WhoShotJFK was a conspiracy]]. Since the election of BarackObama, the aims of the Constitution Party and those of the Republican party have become increasingly indistinguishable.

The vice president, in contrast, has little authority and more often functions as a government spokesman. He (no woman has ever been elected, although twice the losing candidate has picked a woman as his running mate), has the cushiest job in the world because he has ''absolutely nothing to do'' unless one of two things fails, thus he has only two official jobs. The first is basically to sit around and wait for the President of the United States to drop dead, and the second is to act as President of the Senate with nothing to do and no right to vote, except cast a tie-breaking vote if there is a deadlock.

The US is a republic, a nation that is not a monarchy, with some (i.e., the election of the members of the House of Representatives and President, as well as senators post 17th amendment.) functions determined by voting. While the distinction may sound like InsistentTerminology, it is needed to prevent confusion with "true" democracy, which the founders believed true democracy was a bad idea (for example, ThomasJefferson claimed "''A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine.''").

Unlike many other nations, the US has a single written constitution, ratified in 1789, which is referred to simply as "the Constitution". The Constitution is "the supreme law of the land" under US law, and all other statutes and acts of government must defer to it or be rendered null and void. The thesis of the thing is that Americans have the right and responsibility to kick the government directly in the [[strike:ass]] [[GroinAttack balls]] if it gets too uppity. A beautiful thing.

While the Constitution is not set in stone -- to date there are 27 amendments, the first ten of which are referred to as the Bill of Rights, and while the reasons are complicated, were planned to be put in the constitution before it was ratified. This gives you an idea of how hard the amendment process is -- 17 amendments (one of which is in there to repeal an earlier one, so effectively only 15) over 220 years is pretty good.

Unlike many other nations, the US has a single written constitution, ratified in 1789, which is referred to simply as "the Constitution". The Constitution is "the supreme law of the land" under US law, and all other statutes and acts of government must defer to it or be rendered null and void. The thesis of the thing is that Americans have the right and responsibility to kick the government directly in the ass if it gets too uppity. A beautiful thing.

Since the United States is a republic, you will occasionally find people trying to tell you that the United States "is not a democracy.". The US is a republic, a nation that is not a monarchy, with some (i.e., the election of the members of the House of Representatives and President, as well as senators post 17th amendment.) functions determined by voting. The founders thought direct democracy was a bad idea, for example, ThomasJefferson claimed "''A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine.''"

Since the United States is a republic, you will occasionally find people trying to tell you that the United States "is not a democracy." This assumes that a "democracy" only means a direct democracy, and that a representative republic is not a democracy. The US is a republic, a nation that is not a monarchy, where at least some of the population has a say in the affairs of state. The founders thought direct democracy was a bad idea, for example, ThomasJefferson claimed "''A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine.''"

In the current Congress (2009-2010 session), both houses of Congress have a Democratic majority. As the executive and legislative branches are distinct in the US government, it is possible for one or both houses of Congress to be controlled by the opposite party than the president, and indeed this is more often than not the case -- Democrat BillClinton had a Republican congress for six years of his presidency, and GeorgeWBush worked with a Democratic Congress for the final two years of his term. While such differences can often lead to a political stalemate -- a budgetary standoff between Clinton and Republican Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich lead to a federal government shutdown in 1995 -- more often than not, compromise rules the day although unprecedented Republican abuse of the filibuster rule during Barack Obama's term has served to give the minority party an effective veto, earned them the nickname "Party Of No" (due to an utter unwillingness to compromise) and revived serious discussion about doing away with the filibuster entirely.

In the current Congress (2009-2010 session), both houses of Congress have a Democratic majority. As the executive and legislative branches are distinct in the US government, it is possible for one or both houses of Congress to be controlled by the opposite party than the president, and indeed this is more often than not the case -- Democrat BillClinton had a Republican congress for six years of his presidency, and GeorgeWBush worked with a Democratic Congress for the final two years of his term. While such differences can often lead to a political stalemate -- a budgetary standoff between Clinton and Republican Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich lead to a federal government shutdown in 1995 -- more often than not, compromise rules the day.

The only two presidents that have actually been challenged in any way under these terms of eligibility to date are BarackObama and ChesterAArthur. Challenges to Obama claim that he was actually born in Kenya, and that his Hawaiian birth certificate (and newspaper announcement) were careful forgeries--never mind that his mother being born and raised in the US still makes him a citizen by birth, and thus by no means ineligible to be President. Those who subscribe to this [[strike:unusual]] lunatic, categorically untrue theory also claim that his mother could not have transmitted citizenship to him because she was too young to have lived in the U.S. the requisite number of years. This is only true if you accept that she spent more than eight months in Kenya (as she gave birth a little over eight months after her 18th birthday), but there's no evidence she ever went there to begin with; nevertheless, this particular [[strike:supposition]] lie has never been tested in a court of law, and probably won't be any time soon. Chester Arthur was accused by a man named Arthur Hinman of being born in Ireland (he had an Irish father) then brought to the US, but no one took up that story, so he then accused that Chet was born in Canada. He was allegedly born in Fairfield, Vermont, extremely close to the border.

* The '''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libertarian_Party_(United_States) Libertarian Party]]''' is pretty much ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: it aims to be the leading party for libertarianism. Libertarians tend to favor maximum individual liberty (pro-gun rights, pro-gay rights, pro-drug legalization, pro-legal abortion, anti-Patriot Act), maximum economic liberty (loose environmental and worker safety laws, pro-free trade, anti-tax, anti-bailout), and very limited government involvement in social welfare. They oppose the Iraq War and believe in a non-interventionist foreign policy, feeling that the military should only be used for the purpose of defending the United States. Libertarians do not identify themselves as "left" or "right" in the traditional sense -- most would argue for a bi-axial system of political identification, with "conservative" and "liberal" on the economic axis and "libertarian" and "authoritarian" on the social axis. Their policies can be pretty much summed up as business having the freedom to do anything it likes and everyone else having the freedom to starve under a bridge.

* The '''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libertarian_Party_(United_States) Libertarian Party]]''' is pretty much ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: it aims to be the leading party for libertarianism. Libertarians tend to favor maximum individual liberty (pro-gun rights, pro-gay rights, pro-drug legalization, pro-legal abortion, anti-Patriot Act), maximum economic liberty (loose environmental and worker safety laws, pro-free trade, anti-tax, anti-bailout), and very limited government involvement in social welfare. They oppose the Iraq War and believe in a non-interventionist foreign policy, feeling that the military should only be used for the purpose of defending the United States. Libertarians do not identify themselves as "left" or "right" in the traditional sense -- most would argue for a bi-axial system of political identification, with "conservative" and "liberal" on the economic axis and "libertarian" and "authoritarian" on the social axis.

The only two presidents that have actually been challenged in any way under these terms of eligibility to date are BarackObama and ChesterAArthur. Challenges to Obama claim that he was actually born in Kenya, and that his Hawaiian birth certificate (and newspaper announcement) were careful forgeries--never mind that his mother being born and raised in the US still makes him a citizen by birth, and thus by no means ineligible to be President. Those who subscribe to this [[strike:unusual]] lunatic, categorically untrue theory also claim that his mother could not have transmitted citizenship to him because she was too young to have lived in the U.S. the requisite number of years. This is only true if you accept that she spent more than eight months in Kenya (as she gave birth a little over eight months after her 18th birthday), but there's no evidence she ever went there to begin with; nevertheless, this particular supposition has never been tested in a court of law, and probably won't be any time soon. Chester Arthur was accused by a man named Arthur Hinman of being born in Ireland (he had an Irish father) then brought to the US, but no one took up that story, so he then accused that Chet was born in Canada. He was allegedly born in Fairfield, Vermont, extremely close to the border.

The only two presidents that have actually been challenged in any way under these terms of eligibility to date are BarackObama and ChesterAArthur. Challenges to Obama claim that he was actually born in Kenya, and that his Hawaiian birth certificate (and newspaper announcement) were careful forgeries--never mind that his mother being born and raised in the US still makes him a citizen by birth, and thus by no means ineligible to be President. Those who subscribe to this unusual theory also claim that his mother could not have transmitted citizenship to him because she was too young to have lived in the U.S. the requisite number of years. This is only true if you accept that she spent more than eight months in Kenya (as she gave birth a little over eight months after her 18th birthday), but there's no evidence she ever went there to begin with; nevertheless, this particular supposition has never been tested in a court of law, and probably won't be any time soon. Chester Arthur was accused by a man named Arthur Hinman of being born in Ireland (he had an Irish father) then brought to the US, but no one took up that story, so he then accused that Chet was born in Canada. He was allegedly born in Fairfield, Vermont, extremely close to the border.

Each state boasts a number of electors equal to its Congressional representation: two senators plus however many representatives. When the College meets, about one month after the actual election, each state's electors vote for the presidential candidates; each state is allowed to set their own laws for how the electors vote, but in recent years 48 states have granted all their votes to whomever received the majority of popular votes in their state. [[hottip:*:The two exceptions are Nebraska and Maine, who instead allocate their congressional electors based on how the congressional districts vote individually - which resulted in Nebraska's 2nd Congressional District (comprised of the Omaha metro area) elector going blue in 2008 while the rest of the state's electors went red.]]

* The '''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prohibition_Party Prohibition Party]]''' was founded in 1869 to call for the restriction and prohibition of alcoholic substances. It had its greatest success in 1919, when national alcohol prohibition was enacted, causing it to change its message to calling for stricter enforcement of the ban. However, the growing distaste for prohibition cost them dearly, and the repeal of prohibition in 1933 set the party on a long decline. The party still exists, but in the last election, it only earned 643 votes -- a far cry from the days when they could win over a quarter of a million votes. By sheer twist of fate, they were responsible for the election of the first female mayor in American history, and did so completely by accident. For fun, take a look on their [[Wikipedia Other Wiki]] page and see where they held their conventions. Going down the list, it's kind of sad.

As a general rule, winning a primary requires PanderingToTheBase, while winning a general election requires appealing to centrist "swing voters". Expect accusations of "flip-flopping," particularly from an incumbent opponent who has the luxury of sitting out the primary (it's considered a VeryBadSign of a politician's career if he faces a primary challenge as an incumbent).

Only two presidents have ever been impeached - Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton - and both escaped conviction. Richard Nixon would have been impeached, but resigned first. The Senate is chaired either by the Vice President or by the '''President Pro Tempore''', the most senior senator of the entire Senate, regardless of party affiliation. However, because President Pro Tems are, well, ''old'', they don't always have the constitution to preside over long, grueling hours of debate. Informally, the reins of power are wielded by the "Majority Leader" - ie, the senator who chairs the majority party's caucus. The current President Pro Tempore is Robert Byrd, Democrat from West Virginia, and the current majority leader is Harry Reid, of the same party, who represents Nevada.

* The '''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Know_Nothing Know Nothings]]''' were a political party that existed under the names '''Native American Party''' from 1845 to 1855, and the '''American Party''' from then until 1860. The Know Nothings were a nativist movement that was strongly opposed to immigration (particularly from Ireland and Germany), which they blamed for the crime in the cities, and Catholicism, which they felt was a foreign plot to subvert and overthrow American democracy. The name "Know Nothing" comes from the secret groups that preceded the party, whose members were told to say "I know nothing" if they were confronted about their involvement. They enjoyed massive success in the mid-1850s thanks to the collapse of the Whig Party and the two-party system, but they soon splintered and fell apart over the issue of slavery. The term "Know Nothing" would go on to be used as a derogatory term for a nativist for decades to come.

This can (and frequently does) lead to a practice called "gerrymandering" where the party in charge draws up ridiculously-shaped districts so as to secure as many safe districts for themselves while splitting up the other party's strongholds across multiple districts. Gerrymandering is legal, believe it or not; both parties squawk about reform, but neither is willing to be the first one to give up its precious ''safe seats''. The name, incidentally, goes right back to the beginnings of the Republic, first appearing around 1812 and taking its name from Massachusetts governor Elbridge Gerry. The practice might have started even earlier.

The Constitution itself lets Congress decide what happens if both POTUS and VPOTUS ([[FunWithAcronyms (Vice) President of the United States]]) are gone. Currently, this falls under the Presidential Succession Act of 1947. It goes from President, to Vice President, to Speaker of the House, to President ''pro tempore'' of the Senate, to the Cabinet members in order of the Cabinet post's longevity. Since the US hasn't gone past 'vice president' yet on the list, the fact that it ends at the Cabinet hasn't been tested. As an extra extra extra precaution, the Secret Service designates one member of the line of succession the "Designated Survivor" to stay behind at any event where the entire line will be in together. It's a precaution in case the event is attacked and the entire line is wiped out; at least there will be a LastManStanding to assume the Presidency and lead the counter assault (fiction loves this fact). The President pro tempore of the Senate in the line of succession was considered a serious problem in the late 1990s when the extremely elderly Strom Thurmond held the position- today it's held by Robert Byrd, who is 92 and has spent 51 years in the Senate.

While the Constitution is not set in stone -- to date there are 27 amendments, the first ten of which are referred to as the Bill of Rights, and while the reasons are complicated, were planned to be put in the constitution before it was ratified. This gives you an idea of how hard the amendment process is -- 17 amendments (two of which are in there to repeal earlier ones) over 220 years is pretty good.

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