History UsefulNotes / AmericanPoliticalSystem

In addition to these, four states have so-called "independent cities", which are cities that do not have a county government at all and deal directly with their state government. These can be found in Maryland (UsefulNotes/{{Baltimore}}), Missouri (UsefulNotes/StLouis), UsefulNotes/{{Nevada}} (Carson City), and UsefulNotes/{{Virginia}} (a total of 38). Under Virginia's constitution, any community that is incorporated as a "city" is completely separate from any county—even though a fair number of these communities also serve as county seats, as they were chosen as seats before seceding from the county.[[note]]For example, Charlottesville, home to the University of Virginia, is both an independent city and the seat of surrounding Albemarle County, located ''within'' and surrounded by the county, but not belonging to it.[[/note]] Several communities in the South Hampton Roads metro area of southeast Virginia are independent cities formed from former counties; Virginia Beach and Norfolk were formerly located in Princess Anne and Norfolk counties until the voters approved referendums with the independent city of Virginia Beach emerging from its consolidation with Princess Anne County, while Norfolk County became the independent cities of Norfolk and Chesapeake. This differs from cases such as UsefulNotes/NewOrleans, UsefulNotes/{{Philadelphia}}, and UsefulNotes/SanFrancisco, in which the city and county (or, in the case of New Orleans, parish) both nominally exist even though the governments are merged.\\

Both major parties tend to have their own core of rich and elite constituencies and support from industries that provide much of the financial backing for each, though each party also usually exaggerates the degree to which its opponent is the "party of [insert your AcceptableTarget industry of choice here]." The Republicans tend to garner support from small- to medium-sized business owners, oil/gas and manufacturing corporations, construction and contracting businesses, and most of the financial sector--groups that generally benefit from lower taxes and fewer regulations. The Democrats, meanwhile, are supported by lawyers and law firms, entertainment and technology companies (i.e., Hollywood and Silicon Valley), [[UsefulNotes/AmericanEducationalSystem higher education]], K–12 public school teachers, labor unions, and a smaller share of the financial industry--groups that tend to benefit from greater government aid and contracting. These interests are by no means exclusive, however, and most major industries and corporations tend to spread campaign contributions around, typically to incumbents, because they want to avoid angering either side and thus curry favor with whoever might be in office at the time. The influence of campaign money in politics is a very controversial issue in the United States, especially after the 2010 ''Citizens United v. FEC'' Supreme Court decision.\\

Their initial goals were largely libertarian and financial in nature, including smaller government, lower taxes, states' rights, and opposition to the bailouts and growing government spending (especially deficit spending), but the specific goals of its constituent groups greatly broadened the movement's focus; in particular, illegal immigration, family values, and opposition to "Global Warming" climate change legislation have been taken up as additional planks by many local and regional groups. A few politicians, such as UsefulNotes/SarahPalin, Rick Perry, Ted Cruz, and Michele Bachmann, have frequently spoken at Tea Party events and are considered by outsiders as [[FaceOfTheBand the public face of the group]], but various groups remain and have no unified official leader. Their relationship with the Republican establishment was fraught, as they helped drive the nomination of UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump as the Republicans' presidential candidate in 2016, despite fierce opposition by the moderate and business wings of the party. Since his election, the movement has essentially evolved into the dominant wing of the party, the "Tea Party" moniker mostly forgotten.

Unofficially, however, the vice president actually does have a lot of important work to do. In general, there are three kinds of veep: the advisor/enforcer, the ticket-balancer, and the consolation prize, or as [[Creator/{{MSNBC}} Chris Matthews]] has called them, the January,[[note]]This kind of [[TheLancer lancer]] is to help when the new president starts governing.[[/note]] the November,[[note]]This is to help win votes in the general election.[[/note]] and the August.[[note]]This is to shore up a weak candidate with the party's base going into the convention.[[/note]]

Note the requirement is technically a little more flexible than "only native-born", but unless you were alive in September 1787 ''and'' living between the Mississippi River and the Atlantic Ocean, it's pretty much limited to the native born. Either way, John [=McCain=] (who was born in the Panama Canal Zone) qualified.[[note]]"Any person born in the Canal Zone on or after February 26, 1904, and whether before or after the effective date of this chapter, whose father or mother or both at the time of the birth of such person was or is a citizen of the United States, is declared to be a citizen of the United States."--8 USC § 1403[[/note]] One can be born anywhere on Earth (or space) and still be a "natural-born citizen" of the U.S. if at least one of your parents is an American citizen who has lived in the U.S. for five years. A person born within the territorial boundaries of the United States is a natural-born citizen regardless of parentage, unless said person's parents are foreign diplomats or members of an invading force.\\

The only two presidents who have ever been truly challenged for being ineligible to date are Barack Obama and UsefulNotes/ChesterAArthur. Challengers to Obama claimed that he was actually born in UsefulNotes/{{Kenya}} and that his Hawaiian birth certificate and newspaper birth announcements were forgeries, no doubt by the same people who orchestrated the Area 51 coverup.[[note]]Even if it were true, he would still be a natural-born U.S. citizen because his mother was one, and while he was born after that law took effect, under the statutes of the time he was born he only needed to live in the U.S. for a few years to be considered a natural-born U.S. citizen, which his academic record more than verifies.[[/note]] President Obama originally chose to ignore the allegations, likely perceiving them of beneath his attention, but eventually got so annoyed that he released his long-form birth certificate, then splashed it on a mug with the slogan "Made in the USA" and killed UsefulNotes/OsamaBinLaden about two days later, which effectively shut up all but the noisiest of the "birther theorists." As for Chester Arthur, he was accused by Arthur Hinman of being born in UsefulNotes/{{Ireland}}. No one took up that story, so Hinman [[MovingTheGoalposts then claimed Chester had been born in]] UsefulNotes/{{Canada}}. Nobody could decide which was worse, so they elected Chester vice president. After Chester became ''president'', Hinman wrote a book called ''How a British Subject Became President of the United States''.\\

The positions of president and vice president were pretty well set up after 1800 as to who got them and what they did. The only real controversy occurred in 1841, when UsefulNotes/WilliamHenryHarrison became the first president to die in office, taking ill at his inauguration that March 4 and dying thirty-one days later. The Constitution's ExactWords said that should some circumstance (death, incapacitation, expulsion) keep the president from using the office's powers and fulfilling its responsibilities, "the Same shall devolve on the Vice President." Note that it doesn't explicitly say that the veep ''becomes'' president. The brouhaha was settled when Harrison's vice president, UsefulNotes/JohnTyler, just took the oath and did it anyway.[[note]]To modern people, the fact that this was considered controversial may be surprising, but Tyler's opponents actually referred to him with the mocking title "His Accidency."[[/note]] This was finally patched into law by the 25th Amendment in 1967.\\

The Constitution itself lets Congress decide what happens if both President and 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. A person in the line of succession must satisfy the constitutional eligibility requirement -- a foreign-born cabinet officer (e.g., Elaine Chao, who led the Labor and Transportation departments under Bush 43 and Trump respectively)[[note]]German-born Henry Kissinger, who as Secretary of State under Nixon and Ford would have gotten as close as ''third'' in line if not for the natural-born citizen requirement, is an even better example.[[/note]] would be passed over.\\

Because the number of electors is roughly equivalent to population density, theoretically all it takes to be elected president is to win the eleven states that have the most delegates: UsefulNotes/{{California}}, UsefulNotes/{{Texas}}, UsefulNotes/{{New York|State}}, UsefulNotes/{{Florida}}, Illinois, UsefulNotes/{{Pennsylvania}}, UsefulNotes/{{Ohio}}, UsefulNotes/{{Michigan}}, UsefulNotes/{{Georgia|USA}}, UsefulNotes/NorthCarolina, and UsefulNotes/NewJersey. A presidential candidate carrying said 11 states will win the election even if their opponent wins every delegate from all the other 39 states ''and'' the District of Columbia. In practice, though, this rarely happens (outside of occasional years like 1936, 1972, or 1984) because many states across the spectrum of population count are considered 'safe' for one of the two biggest parties -- for example, since the 1990s, the Democratic presidential candidates have won California by comfortable margins, while the Republicans have done the same with Texas (although it’s getting less Republican with every passing year).\\

The president's cabinet by tradition consists of the leaders of the 15 executive departments -- State, the Treasury, Defense, Justice, the Interior, Agriculture, Commerce, Labor, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Transportation, Energy, Education, Veterans' Affairs (there are a ''lot'' of US military veterans), and Homeland Security. Each department is headed by an official called a Secretary (with a capital S), except for the Department of Justice, whose chief is called the Attorney General instead. They’re all appointed by the president, subject to Senate approval, and the parameters of their responsibilities are defined in federal law. They are in legal contemplation the president’s deputies with respect to the departments they head, which in simple terms means that they are the personal representatives of the president and that they have the final say in the internal and external management functions of their departments.\\

The ''Department of Defense'' ([=DoD=]), in the vernacular known as UsefulNotes/ThePentagon (named after the geometrical shape of its headquarters building), is so freaking large in comparison with the other departments that almost 80 percent of the federal workforce gets their paycheck from it, and that the Department of Defense is considered the single largest employer in the U.S. (right ahead of UsefulNotes/{{Walmart}} and UsefulNotes/McDonalds). The Office of the Secretary of Defense is the mainly civilian staff of the Secretary of Defense, and apart from the Honorable Mr. or Madam Secretary (who incidentally must be a civilian to maintain the alibi of civilian control), there is one Deputy Secretary of Defense, five Under Secretaries of Defense, 14 Assistant Secretaries of Defense (all appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate); and a myriad of senior civil servants with titles like Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for P, and Deputy Assistant Under Secretary of Defense for Q…\\

The legislative branch of government consists of two houses -- the House of Representatives (often simply "the House") and the Senate. The House members were elected directly by the populace of each state, while the senators of each state were appointed by the state assemblies. The basic idea was one of tension between the two houses, the better to represent the rights of individual people ''and'' those of the states alike. However, since the ratification of the 17th Amendment, representatives and senators alike are now directly elected by popular vote within each state, turning the Senate into just another 100 congressmembers.[[note]]They could be called at-large congressmembers -- not to be confused with the people who've sat as the only House member for a state with so few people it merits only one congressional district, or with the historical at-large House members that many states once had, a practice that tailed off in the early-mid 20th century.[[/note]]Still, the Senate does continue to represent the state's interest in a different way: every state gets two senators, so each state, no matter how large or how small, has the same amount of representation in the Senate (Quick linguistic note: while both Senators and Representatives are members of Congress, the term "Congressperson" is pretty much exclusively used for members of the House. Senators ''really'' want you to call them "Senator").\\

Interestingly, unlike in parliamentary systems, the Speaker does not legally need to be a sitting representative or ever have been a representative at all, they just need to be any person that 50% + 1 of the House's members want to be speaker. In practice, though, no Congress has ever taken advantage of this potentially fun {{loophole|Abuse}}, and instead the Speaker is always some sort of party leader.[[note]]After Speaker John Boehner resigned in 2015, using this loophole was floated about; ultimately, though, Wisconsin Representative Paul Ryan got the job.[[/note]] The Speaker is chosen at the beginning of each new Congress by a simple majority vote -- this vote is largely a formality, as any opposition is usually handled behind closed party doors between the election and the beginning of the new Congress, usually in the form of committee assignments and legislative priorities. For the century (1923-2023) between the drawnout contests of Frederick H. Gillett (R-MA) and Kevin [=McCarthy=] (R-CA) the Speaker had been elected in a single ballot[[labelnote:*]]With Gillett being elected after nine ballots and [=McCarthy=] after ''fifteen'' respectively, the record being the 133 ballots cast over a period of two months in 1855-56 that eventually elected Nathaniel P. Banks (A-MA) Speaker[[/labelnote]]. In both cases, the deadlock was broken by major concessions to the holdouts from the eventual Speaker.\\

** Trump would later be impeached a second time with more bipartisan support in January 2021 for inciting an attempted coup against Congress in his favor after months of contesting Biden's electoral victory, as well as for pressuring the Georgia Secretary of State to fabricate votes in his favor. Despite his acquittal, he holds the distinction of being the only president in US history to be impeached twice, as well as the first to have his trial occur after leaving office; Johnson, Clinton, and Trump's prior trials were held while they were still the incumbent.[[note]]Trump's second impeachment trial was held after he left because (A) his offenses occurred less than a month before the end of his term and Mitch [=McConnell=] refused to let the Senate hold the trial before he left office, and (B) because there was/is a very strong likelihood that he could run for the office again, which he himself has hinted at trying to do.[[/note]]

In short, this committee tries to make sense of the output of the other two committees. They have a tougher rule to follow, in that they cannot "tie" on an issue, no matter how much they try to (the [[DecidedByOneVote 5–4 Court vote]] is one of the most dreaded things in American politics). Since a justice might be absent from a case due to illness or he "recuses" (removes) himself because of a conflict of interest (it is up to the justice themselves to decide if they wish to recuse themselves) it is possible to have a 4–4 tie. Since almost every case before the court is an appeal, in case of a tie, the decision of the court below the Supreme Court is upheld. (And before you think that this is just an amusing little fact, realize that the already controversial ''Citizens United v. FEC'' decision has become even more controversial due to this.)\\

One major difference between the state and federal governments is that states hold a lot more elections. A state need not limit its elections to the legislature and the chief executive, as the federal government does; they can also hold elections for secretary of state, attorney general, comptroller, state supreme court judges, judges of lower courts, district attorneys, sheriffs, and/or dog catchers. Much of this will be specified in the state constitution, which is generally amended by popular vote as well. Many states also have a procedure where an elected official may be removed (recalled) from office in a special election if enough petitions are gathered. A significant example of this occurred in 2003, when California governor Gray Davis was successfully recalled and replaced by Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger in a special election that included 135 candidates[[note]]Among whom were several odd personalities, including Gary Coleman, the former Commissioner of UsefulNotes/MajorLeagueBaseball, and a porn star.[[/note]] for the office. In 2012, an attempt to recall Wisconsin governor Scott Walker was defeated, making Gov. Walker the first governor in American history to survive a recall attempt (and only the third to be recalled). In 2021, California governor Gavin Newsom became the second one to defeat a recall attempt by a ''hefty margin''.\\

Forty-eight of the 50 states are divided into counties. The exceptions: Louisiana is divided into "parishes" owing to its unique legal descendance from French civil law, which are identical to counties in all but name. Alaska is divided into "boroughs", which ''are'' a bit different from counties, but not enough so to matter for our purposes. County governments are usually headed by a "Board of Supervisors" or "Board of Commissioners" or the like, and may have a "County Executive" overseeing the executive departments.\\

Size doesn't matter, nor does population. The least populous county is in the second largest state, Loving County, Texas, and at last count had 69 people. UsefulNotes/LosAngeles County in California, the most populous in the country, has nearly 10 million people, making it more populous than all but eight entire states in the U.S. Number doesn't matter: Texas has 254 counties, Delaware has three. Some states have laws that set minimum sizes on counties, or prohibit adding more counties. The smallest county is Arlington County, Virginia at 26 square miles; the smallest county-equivalent unit by area is the city of Falls Church, Virginia, at a hair over two square miles. The largest (aside from the [[UsefulNotes/Alaska Alaskan]] boroughs) is California's San Bernardino County, which is bigger than each of the nine smallest states (Maryland, UsefulNotes/{{Hawaii}}, UsefulNotes/{{Massachusetts}}, UsefulNotes/{{Vermont}}, New Hampshire, UsefulNotes/NewJersey, Connecticut, Delaware, UsefulNotes/RhodeIsland).\\

Cities can be combined with a county (like UsefulNotes/{{Denver}} and UsefulNotes/SanFrancisco), cross county lines (like [[UsefulNotes/DFWMetroplex Dallas, in five different counties]]), exist outside any county (like Baltimore, St. Louis, and all 38 'cities' in Virginia), or take up entire counties and merge with the county governments (UsefulNotes/{{Nashville}}, Tennessee with Davidson County; Louisville, Kentucky with Jefferson County; and Carson City, Nevada with the former Ormsby County).[[note]]UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity's five boroughs are five separate counties, none of which has an independent government.[[/note]] Many metropolitan areas cross state boundaries, but cities are always in the same state (UsefulNotes/KansasCity, Missouri/Kansas is actually two separate cities, and UsefulNotes/{{Portland}}, Oregon forms a coterminous metropolitan area with Vancouver, Washington).\\

America uses a first-past-the-post voting system -- in any election, one vote is cast and the candidate/option with the most votes is the winner, even if a majority did not vote for it. Quick example: In an election between A, B, and C, A gets 45%, B gets 35%, and C gets 20%. A wins, even though 55% of the electorate voted against them. If it seems to you that the B and C supporters should have teamed up and pooled their votes rather than splitting them, congratulations -- you've just discovered why America has only two major political parties. Using political science, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duverger%27s_law it can be shown]] that plurality elections tend to lead to two-party systems, which is exactly what happened in America. This has led to calls for the implementation of alternative voting systems, such as the single transferable vote or instant-runoff voting, to break the monopoly of the two major parties.[[note]]Ironically, the Electoral College actually ''does'' require a majority vote when they vote for the president, though the fact their votes are decided by state-level plurality elections means this doesn't come up; even when Ross Perot won one-fifth of the popular vote in 1992 on a third party platform, he didn't win even a single state. The one time it ''did'' happen was in 1824, when four Democratic-Republicans all ran against each other, the subsequent vote went to the House, and the scenario presented above essentially happened; one candidate threw in with another, and the candidate who won the plurality lost out.[[/note]]\\

* The '''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Party_(United_States) Democratic Party]]''' is the oldest political party in the world. It's typically viewed as being center-left, although in most Western countries, they would be considered centrist or tepidly social-democratic. Somewhat socially liberal and fiscally left-wing (although they have a small fiscally conservative contingent, most famously represented by UsefulNotes/BillClinton, as well as a more progressive faction represented today by people like UsefulNotes/BernieSanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez). Strongest in urban areas, towns anchored by major universities, the Northeast, and the West Coast, and among minorities, youth, and poor to working-class voters. As of the 2018 midterms, they control the House of Representatives, and as of the 2020 elections they also hold the presidency and the Senate (albeit the latter by a margin of ''only the vice president'').
* The '''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republican_Party_(United_States) Republican Party]]''', or the GOP ('''G'''rand '''O'''ld '''P'''arty, despite being younger than the Democrats), is the right-wing party in American politics. United by fiscal conservatism, and many (but not all) of them are social conservatives. Strongest in rural areas and the South, and among evangelical Protestants and middle-class to affluent voters (though the very wealthiest voters have swung dramatically to the Democrats in this century). Reports of its imminent demise have been tossed around for decades now and are (probably) greatly exaggerated; while Republicans have only won the popular vote for the presidency ''once'' in the last three decades and are currently (just barely) minorities in Congress, the federal system more than balances the scales in their favor, as they control the vast majority of state legislatures.

Interestingly, unlike in parliamentary systems, the Speaker does not legally need to be a sitting representative or ever have been a representative at all, they just need to be any person that 50% + 1 of the House's members want to be speaker. In practice, though, no Congress has ever taken advantage of this potentially fun {{loophole|Abuse}}, and instead the Speaker is always some sort of party leader.[[note]]After Speaker John Boehner resigned in 2015, using this loophole was floated about; ultimately, though, Wisconsin Representative Paul Ryan got the job.[[/note]] The Speaker is chosen at the beginning of each new Congress by a simple majority vote -- this vote is largely a formality, as any opposition is usually handled behind closed party doors between the election and the beginning of the new Congress. For the century (1923-2023) between the drawnout contests of Frederick H. Gillett (R-MA) and Kevin [=McCarthy=] (R-CA) the Speaker had been elected in a single ballot[[labelnote:*]]With Gillett being elected after nine ballots and [=McCarthy=] after ''fifteen'' respectively, the record being the 133 ballots cast over a period of two months in 1855-56 that eventually elected Nathaniel P. Banks (A-MA) Speaker[[/labelnote]]. In both cases, the deadlock was broken by major concessions to the holdouts from the eventual Speaker.\\

Interestingly, unlike in parliamentary systems, the Speaker does not legally need to be a sitting representative or ever have been a representative at all, they just need to be any person that 50% + 1 of the House's members want to be speaker. In practice, though, no Congress has ever taken advantage of this potentially fun {{loophole|Abuse}}, and instead the Speaker is always some sort of party leader.[[note]]After Speaker John Boehner resigned in 2015, using this loophole was floated about; ultimately, though, Wisconsin Representative Paul Ryan got the job.[[/note]] The Speaker is chosen at the beginning of each new Congress by a simple majority vote -- this vote is largely a formality, as any opposition is usually handled behind closed party doors between the election and the beginning of the new Congress. For the century (1923-2023) between the drawnout contests of Frederick H. Gillett (R-MA) and Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) the Speaker had been elected in a single ballot[[labelnote:*]]With Gillett being elected after nine ballots and McCarthy after ''fifteen'' respectively, the record being the 133 ballots cast over a period of two months in 1855-56 that eventually elected Nathaniel P. Banks (A-MA) Speaker[[/labelnote]]. In both cases, the deadlock was broken by major concessions to the holdouts from the eventual Speaker.\\

Interestingly, unlike in parliamentary systems, the Speaker does not legally need to be a sitting representative or ever have been a representative at all, they just need to be any person that 50% + 1 of the House's members want to be speaker. In practice, though, no Congress has ever taken advantage of this potentially fun {{loophole|Abuse}}, and instead the Speaker is always some sort of party leader.[[note]]After Speaker John Boehner resigned in 2015, using this loophole was floated about; ultimately, though, Wisconsin Representative Paul Ryan got the job.[[/note]] The Speaker is chosen at the beginning of each new Congress by a simple majority vote -- this vote is largely a formality, but don't tell the representatives that: they can incur ''huge'' penalties like losing chairmanship positions for not voting for their party's pick.\\

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 is ''debatably'' true, since a republic and a democracy are technically two different forms of government, but a republic can still use democratic processes. So ask the person saying this what they mean before nodding sagely. The essential issue here is that the founders thought direct democracy (à la, say, [[UsefulNotes/AncientGreece ancient Athens]]) was a generally bad idea. For example, UsefulNotes/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."'' More colloquially: "Democracy is three wolves and a sheep voting on dinner." That said, direct democracy does in fact exist on smaller levels in the United States, namely the "town meeting" form of government often practiced in the New England states, in which citizens may show up to vote directly on town laws and ordinances, as well as poll-style voting utilized in some states to vote on specific laws (signs reading "Vote YES/NO on Prop. 47" or something similar will often be ubiquitous in such states come election season). The debate over to what extent the government should engage in majority-ruled democracy or function as a democratic republic, or whether ultimate authority should rest with a strong centralized government (federalism) or with the individual state (anti-federalism/confederacy) predates the existence of the country itself, and is still debated today, with citizens, politicians, and pundits alike jumping from one side to the other (depending on which would result in their side of an issue winning).\\

The legislative branch of government consists of two houses -- the House of Representatives (often simply "the House") and the Senate. The House members were elected directly by the populace of each state, while the senators of each state were appointed by the state assemblies. The basic idea was one of tension between the two houses, the better to represent the rights of individual people ''and'' those of the states alike. However, since the ratification of the 17th Amendment, representatives and senators alike are now directly elected by popular vote within each state, turning the Senate into just another 100 congressmembers.[[note]]They could be called at-large congressmembers -- not to be confused with the people who've sat as the only House member for a state with so few people it merits only one congressional district, or with the historical at-large House members that many states once had, a practice that tailed off in the early-mid 20th century.[[/note]]Still, the Senate does continue to represent the state's interest in a different way: every state gets two senators, so each state, no matter how large or how small, has the same amount of representation in the Senate.\\

The legislative branch of government consists of two houses -- the House of Representatives (often simply "the House") and the Senate. The House members were elected directly by the populace of each state, while the senators of each state were appointed by the state assemblies. The basic idea was one of tension between the two houses, the better to represent the rights of individual people ''and'' those of the states alike. However, since the ratification of the 17th Amendment, representatives and senators alike are now directly elected by popular vote within each state, turning the Senate into just another 100 congressmembers.[[note]]They could be called at-large congressmembers -- not to be confused with the people who've sat as the only House member for a state with so few people it merits only one congressional district, or with the historical at-large House members that many states once had, a practice that tailed off in the early-mid 20th century.[[/note]]Still, the senate does still represent the states interest in a differnt way: every state gets two senators, so each state, no matter how large or how small, has the same amount of representation in the Senate.\\

The legislative branch of government consists of two houses -- the House of Representatives (often simply "the House") and the Senate. The House members were elected directly by the populace of each state, while the senators of each state were appointed by the state assemblies. The basic idea was one of tension between the two houses, the better to represent the rights of individual people ''and'' those of the states alike. However, since the ratification of the 17th Amendment, representatives and senators alike are now directly elected by popular vote within each state, turning the Senate into just another 100 congressmembers.[[note]]They could be called at-large congressmembers -- not to be confused with the people who've sat as the only House member for a state with so few people it merits only one congressional district, or with the historical at-large House members that many states once had, a practice that tailed off in the early-mid 20th century.[[/note]]\\

The majority of elections for office are a competition between two major candidates, one Republican and one Democrat. How each party picks their candidate is totally up to them (except in the few states that use "jungle" primary rules -- notably Louisiana, California, and Washington. In "jungle" primaries, candidates from all parties run against each other in a general election, and if no candidate achieves a majority, the top two contenders face each other in a run-off.) Every state has laws which regulate this practice, but [[ScrewTheRulesIMakeThem the parties themselves write the laws, so they can choose whatever they want]].\\

Both major parties tend to have their own core of rich and elite constituencies and support from industries that provide much of the financial backing for each, though each party also usually exaggerates the degree to which its opponent is the "party of [insert your {{Acceptable Target|s}} industry of choice here]." The Republicans tend to garner support from small- to medium-sized business owners, oil/gas and manufacturing corporations, construction and contracting businesses, and most of the financial sector--groups that generally benefit from lower taxes and fewer regulations. The Democrats, meanwhile, are supported by lawyers and law firms, entertainment and technology companies (i.e., Hollywood and Silicon Valley), [[UsefulNotes/AmericanEducationalSystem higher education]], K–12 public school teachers, labor unions, and a smaller share of the financial industry--groups that tend to benefit from greater government aid and contracting. These interests are by no means exclusive, however, and most major industries and corporations tend to spread campaign contributions around, typically to incumbents, because they want to avoid angering either side and thus curry favor with whoever might be in office at the time. The influence of campaign money in politics is a very controversial issue in the United States, especially after the 2010 ''Citizens United v. FEC'' Supreme Court decision.\\

The majority of elections for office are a competition between two major candidates, one Republican and one Democrat. How each party picks their candidate is totally up to them (except in California, where the state has a blanket primary in place). Every state has laws which regulate this practice, but [[ScrewTheRulesIMakeThem the parties themselves write the laws, so they can choose whatever they want]].\\

These definitions apply to the current time; the ideologies of both parties have been extremely fluid and really only coalesced into firmly partisan lines in the latter half of the twentieth century. The original iterations of the parties are almost completely unrecognizable from today's versions; an astute observer of American politics in 1920 would probably be dumbfounded by the elections of 2020. For example, Vermont is, historically, one of the most reliably Republican states in the country, to the extent ''Film/WhiteChristmas'' even joked about it. It's now arguably the bluest state in the country and votes for Democrats by massive margins. West Virginia and Kentucky used to be redoubts of blue collar Democratic strength, and now Democrats are persona non grata in those two states ([[Herunless you happen to be named "Beshear" or "Manchin"). Historically, the nation's rich, well-educated suburbs were Republican strongholds -- Orange County, California was basically the birthplace of American conservatism; Johnson County, Kansas was once called "The Most Republican Place in America"; and the suburbs north of Atlanta produced Newt Gingrich, the arch-conservative Speaker of the House. Fast forward to 2020, and Democrat Joe Biden won all three locations by significant margins. All of which is a long way of saying that nothing about American politics is etched in stone -- political coalitions shift and evolve, and you can't take for granted that in 20 years the electoral map (or even the parties themselves) will look the same as it does today.\\

Unlike many other nations, the US has had precisely one written constitution since independence in 1776,[[note]]Kind of. The Constitution was ratified in 1789; the [[UsefulNotes/TheAmericanRevolution Articles of Confederation]] were a wash and [[CanonDiscontinuity don't count]].[[/note]] which is referred to simply as "the Constitution". This makes it the second oldest written national constitution still in effect,[[note]]The oldest, the constitution of UsefulNotes/SanMarino, went into effect in 1600.[[/note]] and the third oldest still in effect overall.[[note]]The Constitution of Massachusetts, drafted by UsefulNotes/JohnAdams, Samuel Adams, and James Bowdoin, went into effect in 1780 and had significant influence on the federal one.[[/note]] The Constitution defines itself as "the supreme law of the land", and all other statutes and acts of government must defer to it or be rendered null and void. Since its drafting, the US Constitution has served as an inspiration for many other written constitutions around the globe. Indeed, it was the USA that [[TropeCodifier popularized]] the codified constitution -- of the nations of the world, only the UsefulNotes/UnitedKingdom, UsefulNotes/NewZealand, and UsefulNotes/{{Israel}} have uncodified constitutions, something which law students from those countries continue to lament bitterly come finals time.\\

* The first kind has become increasingly common since UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, particularly when the president is a highly-electable populistic type and ''most'' particularly when the president is basically new to Washington. This sort of VP is effectively chosen to be a Secretary without Portfolio, providing advice on anything and everything and/or bringing political muscle and Washington connections to the administration. Indeed, the only major-party vice-presidential candidates since 1948 (the first postwar presidential election) who had neither served in Congress nor held high-level executive-branch positions have been three Republican governors: UsefulNotes/SarahPalin (of UsefulNotes/{{Alaska}}, 2008), UsefulNotes/SpiroAgnew (of Maryland, 1968), and Earl Warren (of UsefulNotes/{{California}}, 1948). Almost all the rest have been sitting members of Congress (usually senators); the exceptions are Sargent Shriver,[[note]]He held several appointed executive positions and was in private legal practice in D.C. when nominated by the Democrats in 1972; also brother-in-law of Democratic icon UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy.[[/note]] UsefulNotes/GeorgeHWBush,[[note]]He was a former congressman from Texas, ambassador to the UsefulNotes/UnitedNations, "ambassador" to the [[RedChina People's Republic of China]] (technically, he was "Chief of the Liaison Office", but this was during the transition period from full US recognition of [[UsefulNotes/{{Taiwan}} the ROC]] to full US recognition of the PRC under Nixon, Ford, and Carter), and [[UsefulNotes/{{CIA}} Director of Central Intelligence]], and was in private business and academia when nominated by the Republicans in 1980.[[/note]] and UsefulNotes/DickCheney.[[note]]He had been the congressman from Wyoming and House Minority Whip, White House Chief of Staff under Ford, and Secretary of Defense under Papa Bush, and was running Halliburton when nominated by the Republicans in 2000.[[/note]]

** Another classic example occurred in 1864, when Republican UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln chose War Democrat UsefulNotes/AndrewJohnson from Tennessee as his running mate, when the Republican Party temporarily changed its name to the National Union Party, hoping to preserve the Union by gaining support from War Democrats and border states. Of course, this resulted in Johnson taking office for nearly a full term, placing a de facto Democrat in the White House and warning all future candidates against taking this strategy too far.

UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan, notably, broke the curse. He was elected in 1980, then was shot and badly wounded in 1981 but survived the attack, and the Twenty-Year Curse seems to have ended, as UsefulNotes/GeorgeWBush got elected in 2000 and served (and survived) two full terms. This doesn't mean there weren't assassination attempts made on other presidents; thankfully, however, none has been killed.\\

You ''can'' sue City Hall. You can sue the IRS too, but no suit filed against it will be decided in your lifetime, nor that of your great-grandchildren, for that matter. And if you hit a really sensitive spot, like demanding in court to know what goes on at either that {{Area 51}} in the Nevada desert or [[Series/StargateSG1 that underground base outside of Colorado Springs]], the government can always invoke the infamous ''State Secrets Privilege'', which effectively shuts down litigation.

Senate seniority, by the way, is a funny thing. There are two types: seniority in the general body, and seniority in terms of a state. Seniority is decided by length of tenure in the Senate, so a senator can be quite senior and still be the "junior senator" of a particular state. And yes, the senior senator of one state can be junior to the junior senator of another state. The most senior "junior senator" is Maria Cantwell of UsefulNotes/{{Washington|State}}, who took office in 2001; the most junior "senior senator" is Jon Ossoff of Georgia, who took office in 2021 on the same day as his state’s junior senator Raphael Warnock, after they won runoff elections for both of the state's Senate seats held on the same day. Seniority among an incoming class -- i.e. a group of newly elected senators sworn in on the same day -- is determined by former service in order as senator, vice president, House member, cabinet secretary, governor, by state population as of the most recent census, and finally by the length of the term they were first elected to. So, if two senators from the same state were sworn in on the same day, neither with any prior governmental service, the senator elected to a full six-year term would be senior to the senator elected to finish a predecessor's term.[[note]]This is why Ossoff is senior to Warnock -- the former ran for a seat that was due to be contested, while the latter ran in a special election. The Democratic Party in Congress ranks Ossoff as senior to Warnock because of the comparative alphabetical positions of their names.[[/note]] Whew!\\

Of some interest is that the vast majority of Supreme Court cases are, well, rather boring: to take from three cases in the 2010 term, one case involved whether one state agency could sue another in federal court, another involved whether an employment benefits package summary or the detailed document governed when the two significantly disagreed, and a third involved whether Wyoming violated a water rights compact with Montana by using more efficient irrigation methods. Most fictional works ignore this rather mundane fact.

There are, at present, 50 states in the Union. Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and UsefulNotes/{{Virginia}} are called Commonwealths in their full names, but are still states. There are also the Commonwealth of UsefulNotes/PuertoRico and the Commonwealth of the UsefulNotes/NorthernMarianaIslands, which are possessions of the United States and not states at all. Clear as mud so far? Good, because it gets muddier and more interesting as we go along.\\

Each state is required by the U.S. Constitution to guarantee its citizens a "Republican form of government". That basically means that they are bound by the Constitution to provide a system based on laws, with elected officials serving as management, not rulers. It probably also means that states are forbidden from having democratic constitutional monarchies, but no state has ever tried that issue. Most state governments are identical in their structure and function to the federal government, just on a smaller scale. Nebraska has a single-house legislature; the other 49 mimic the federal government, although some states have a Senate and an Assembly instead of a House of Representatives (and due to unique circumstances of history, Virginia, West Virginia, and Maryland each have a House of ''Delegates''). The chief executive of a state is called a governor, whose resemblance to the president also varies;[[note]]For example, until 1996, the governor of North Carolina did not have the power to veto laws (pre-Revolutionary North Carolina had some mildly traumatizing royal governors).[[/note]] their deputy, who may or may not be elected on the same ticket, is called a lieutenant governor. This does not, however, apply to UsefulNotes/{{Arizona}}, Wyoming, and UsefulNotes/{{Oregon}}, which have no lieutenant governor. There, when the governor has either resigned or been impeached, the elected official who is technically the chief clerk of the state, the Secretary of State, becomes governor.\\

In addition to these, four states have so-called "independent cities", which are cities that do not have a county government at all and deal directly with their state government. These can be found in Maryland (UsefulNotes/{{Baltimore}}), Missouri (UsefulNotes/StLouis), UsefulNotes/{{Nevada}} (Carson City), and Virginia (a total of 38). Under Virginia's constitution, any community that is incorporated as a "city" is completely separate from any county—even though a fair number of these communities also serve as county seats, as they were chosen as seats before seceding from the county.[[note]]For example, Charlottesville, home to the University of Virginia, is both an independent city and the seat of surrounding Albemarle County, located ''within'' and surrounded by the county, but not belonging to it.[[/note]] Several communities in the South Hampton Roads metro area of southeast Virginia are independent cities formed from former counties; Virginia Beach and Norfolk were formerly located in Princess Anne and Norfolk counties until the voters approved referendums with the independent city of Virginia Beach emerging from its consolidation with Princess Anne County, while Norfolk County became the independent cities of Norfolk and Chesapeake. This differs from cases such as UsefulNotes/NewOrleans, UsefulNotes/{{Philadelphia}}, and UsefulNotes/SanFrancisco, in which the city and county (or, in the case of New Orleans, parish) both nominally exist even though the governments are merged.\\

Size doesn't matter, nor does population. The least populous county is in the second largest state, Loving County, Texas, and at last count had 69 people. UsefulNotes/LosAngeles County in California, the most populous in the country, has nearly 10 million people, making it more populous than all but eight entire states in the U.S. Number doesn't matter: Texas has 254 counties, Delaware has three. Some states have laws that set minimum sizes on counties, or prohibit adding more counties. The smallest county is Arlington County, Virginia at 26 square miles; the smallest county-equivalent unit by area is the city of Falls Church, Virginia, at a hair over two square miles. The largest (aside from the Alaskan boroughs) is California's San Bernardino County, which is bigger than each of the nine smallest states (Maryland, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware, Rhode Island).\\

For an example of comparisons, the states of Iowa (56 thousand square miles/2.9 million people), Kansas (82k/2.6m), UsefulNotes/{{Oklahoma|USA}} (69k/3.5m), Nebraska (77k/1.7m), UsefulNotes/{{Minnesota}} (87k/4.9m), and Colorado (104k/4.3m) as a region have over 476,000 square miles and 19.9 million people. But this entire region obviously deserves considerably less attention and less resources than UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity, which has 468 square miles and 18.8 million people, even though New York has 1/1000 of the area and fewer people.\\

Separate from the states are several US territories, including Puerto Rico, UsefulNotes/{{Guam}}, and the Virgin Islands, the Northern Mariana Islands, and American Samoa, that are also under American sovereignty. Thirty-one states were territories (or part of a territory) at one point, but these in particular have for various reasons never received statehood -- Puerto Rico in particular has had several referenda on the matter, all of which have been voted down by its citizens until the 2012 election, where a 61% majority voted in favor of statehood. Their citizens also receive United States citizenship, meaning that if they choose to "emigrate" to any state, they have no legal problems, with the exception of American Samoa who are considered "American Nationals". Unlike states, territories do not have voting representation in Congress; however, they also pay fewer federal taxes, so many would argue they got the better deal.

These definitions apply to the current time; the ideologies of both parties have been extremely fluid and really only coalesced into firmly partisan lines in the latter half of the twentieth century. The original iterations of the parties are almost completely unrecognizable from today's versions; an astute observer of American politics in 1920 would probably be dumbfounded by the elections of 2020. For example, Vermont is, historically, one of the most reliably Republican states in the country, to the extent ''Film/WhiteChristmas'' even joked about it. It's now arguably the bluest state in the country and votes for Democrats by massive margins. West Virginia and Kentucky used to be redoubts of blue collar Democratic strength, and now Democrats are persona non grata in those two states (unless you happen to be named "Beshear" or "Manchin"). Historically, the nation's rich, well-educated suburbs were Republican strongholds -- Orange County, California was basically the birthplace of American conservatism; Johnson County, Kansas was once called "The Most Republican Place in America"; and the suburbs north of Atlanta produced Newt Gingrich, the arch-conservative Speaker of the House. Fast forward to 2020, and Democrat Joe Biden won all three locations by significant margins. All of which is a long way of saying that nothing about American politics is etched in stone -- political coalitions shift and evolve, and you can't take for granted that in 20 years the electoral map (or even the parties themselves) will look the same as it does today.\\

Geography is ''very'' important for understanding party lines as they currently stand. The South tends to be conservative, the Northeast and Pacific West liberal, and the Rocky Mountain West and the Midwest somewhere in the middle. Today, and especially before about 1964, a Maine Republican might be expected to be more liberal than a Mississippi Democrat. Region even helps explain the parties' ideological realignment, as best seen in the political history of the American South described above that explains how the "party of Lincoln" now has its strongest regional base in the South. On a more local level, one of the quickest ways to determine how someone likely votes is whether they live in an urban or rural environment: cities tend to attract and employ those who are most likely to align with liberal causes while rural communities tend to align more with conservatives. Once again, these are all ''broad'' generalizations, but they are useful heuristics for explaining (a) why land-based electoral maps often appear overwhelmingly red even when Democrats win majorities,[[note]]Rural land dominated by conservatives takes up much more physical space despite being sparsely populated.[[/note]] (b) why Republicans do so much better in state and local elections,[[note]]The representatives of said sparsely populated states/districts often have equal voting power to those representing more populous urban regions.[[/note]] and (c) why suburbs are so hotly contested as electoral battlegrounds.\\

* The '''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Soil_Party Free Soil Party]]''' was a short-lived single-issue coalition party first formed for the 1848 presidential election when neither the Democrats nor Whigs put forward candidates who pledged not to extend slavery into Mexico. Anti-slavery members of both parties supported former Democratic president UsefulNotes/MartinVanBuren as a candidate, and though he failed to win a single state, the party collected over 10% of the popular vote, proving the growing importance of opposition to slavery in American politics. Several Free Soilers were elected to Congress before the coalition merged with the Republican Party in 1854, which likewise centered opposition to slavery as its core policy issue.
* The '''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Know_Nothing Know Nothings]]''' were a political party that existed under the names '''Native American Party''' (nothing to do with actual Native Americans) 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 UsefulNotes/{{Germany}}), which they blamed for crime in the cities, and Catholicism, which they felt was a foreign plot to subvert and overthrow American democracy. Consequently, they were also major contributors to UsefulNotes/TheIrishDiaspora, especially the enactment of anti-Irish legislation in America at a time when the Irish were considered nonwhite. 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. After a few years in relative obscurity, they enjoyed massive success in the mid-1850s thanks to the collapse of the Whig Party and the two-party system, winning state and congressional elections across the country, but they soon splintered and fell apart over the issue of slavery. In 1856, the Know Nothings nominated former president UsefulNotes/MillardFillmore as their presidential candidate, but Fillmore only won Maryland and the party's national influence quickly waned. The term "Know Nothing" would go on to be used as a derogatory term for a nativist for decades to come.

** Trump would later be impeached a second time with more bipartisan support in January 2021 for inciting an attempted coup against Congress in his favor after months of contesting Biden's electoral victory, as well as for pressuring the Georgia Secretary of State to fabricate votes in his favor. Despite his acquittal, he holds the distinction of being the only president in US history to be impeached twice, as well as the first to have his trial occur after leaving office; Johnson, Clinton, and Trump's prior trials were held while they were still the incumbent.[[note]]Trump's second impeachment trial was held after he left because (A) his offenses occurred less than a month before the end of his term and Mitch McConnell refused letting the Senate hold the trail before he left office, and (B) because there was/is a very strong likelihood that he could run for the office again, which he himself has hinted at trying to do.[[/note]]

** Trump would later be impeached a second time with more bipartisan support in January 2021 for inciting an attempted coup against Congress in his favor after months of contesting Biden's electoral victory, as well as for pressuring the Georgia Secretary of State to fabricate votes in his favor. Despite his acquittal, he holds the distinction of being the only president in US history to be impeached twice, as well as the first to have his trial occur after leaving office; Johnson, Clinton, and Trump's prior trials were held while they were still the incumbent.[[note]]Trump's second impeachment trial was held after he left because (A) his offenses occurred less than a month before the end of his term, and (B) because there was/is a very strong likelihood that he could run for the office again, which he himself has hinted at trying to do.[[/note]]

The vice president officially chairs the Senate, but in practice they seldom do except on particularly auspicious occasions, and may not speak or vote except in case of an exact tie (which was the case for the first few months of 2001, when the Senate was divided 50 to 50 between Democrats and Republicans, with Dick Cheney as the tiebreaking vote, and became the case again after Kamala Harris was inaugurated as VP in 2021 with another 50-to-50 tie). Instead, the Senate is officially chaired by the ''president pro tempore'' (pronounced "pro tem"), the senior-most senator of the majority caucus, though ''that'' senator typically defers that job to a junior senator as well, because the pres. pro tem tends to be at least an octogenarian with little stamina to run the assembly. The person chairing the Senate is always referred to as "Mr./Madam President" during sessions, regardless of actual rank. Informally, the reins of power in the Senate are wielded by the "Majority Leader" -- i.e., the senator who chairs the majority party's caucus -- typically a senior senator, though not quite as senior as the pro tem.\\

These definitions apply to the current time; the ideologies of both parties have been extremely fluid and really only coalesced into firmly partisan lines in the latter half of the twentieth century. The original iterations of the parties are almost completely unrecognizable from today's versions; an astute observer of American politics in 1920 would probably be dumbfounded by the elections of 2020. For example, Vermont is, historically, one of the most reliably Republican states in the country, to the extent ''Film/WhiteChristmas'' even joked about it. It's now arguably the bluest state in the country and votes for Democrats by massive margins. West Virginia and Kentucky used to be redoubts of blue collar Democratic strength, and now Democrats are persona non grata in those two states (unless you happen to be named "Beshear" or "Manchin"). Historically, the nation's rich, well-educated suburbs were Republican strongholds -- Orange County, California was basically the birthplace of American conservatism; Johnson County, Kansas was once called "The Most Republican Place in America"; and the suburbs north of Atlanta produced Newt Gingrich, the arch-conservative Speaker of the House. Fast forward to 2020, and Democrat Joe Biden won all three locations by significant margins. All of which is a long way of saying that nothing about American politics is etched in stone, and you can't take for granted that in 20 years the electoral map (or even the parties themselves) will look the same as it does today.\\

These definitions apply to the current time; the ideologies of both parties have been extremely fluid and really only coalesced into firmly partisan lines in the latter half of the twentieth century. The original iterations of the party are almost completely unrecognizable from today's versions; an astute observer of American politics in 1920 would probably be dumbfounded by the elections of 2020. For example, Vermont is, historically, one of the most reliably Republican states in the country, to the extent ''Film/WhiteChristmas'' even joked about it. It's now arguably the bluest state in the country and votes for Democrats by massive margins. West Virginia and Kentucky used to be redoubts of blue collar Democratic strength and now Democrats are persona non grata in those two states (unless you happen to be named "Beshear" or "Manchin"). Historically, the nation's rich, well-educated suburbs were Republican strongholds -- Orange County, California was basically the birthplace of American conservatism; Johnson County, Kansas was once called "The Most Republican Place in America"; and the suburbs north of Atlanta produced Newt Gingrich, the arch-conservative Speaker of the House. Fast forward to 2020, and Democrat Joe Biden won all three locations by significant margins. All of which is a long way of saying that nothing about American politics is etched in stone, and you can't take for granted that in 20 years the electoral map (or even the parties themselves) will look the same as it does today.\\

A total history of the complexities of realignment is beyond the scope of this page, but we'll do the best to sum it up briefly. The Democrats started out in 1828 as followers of UsefulNotes/AndrewJackson and generally aligned themselves as supporters of states' rights, a smaller federal government with a strong executive, and slavery, because those aligned with his agenda; these are essentially the exact ''opposite'' of modern Democrat principles, and you would be hard pressed to find a Democrat today who sees Jackson in a good light. The Republicans came along in 1854 as a coalition of various groups whose only real uniting factor was opposition to slavery, which means Republicans today are much less shy about claiming credit for their past. From the Civil War until shortly before UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, both parties were a hodgepodge of different groups and ideologies and had left and right wings. The Republicans were established from the remains of the mildly leftish Whig Party and were originally a coalition between industrial interests, left-wing moral reformers, and black Southerners who viewed the GOP as the "party of [[UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln Lincoln]]", while the Democrats used to be a coalition between Northern labor and white ethnic communities on one hand and white landowners and former slaveholders in the South on the other, the latter ''also'' [[StillFightingTheCivilWar viewing the GOP as the "party of Lincoln"]]. During the Civil War and Reconstruction, the Democrats were further split into War Democrats and Peace Democrats ("Copperheads"), while the Radical Republicans were a faction that opposed Lincoln and the moderate Republicans, favoring strong punitive measures against the rebellious Southern states and pushing for immediate abolition of slavery as opposed to Lincoln and company's cautious approach.\\

UsefulNotes/FranklinDRoosevelt's "New Deal coalition" during TheGreatDepression helped to pull progressives into the Democratic fold and also saw the party start making inroads into the African American community, culminating in the party putting civil rights as one of its platforms in TheSixties and passing several Civil Rights Acts. This led to Democrats losing much of their pro-segregation white Southern support -- and several legislators, who briefly [[StartMyOwn started their own parties]] before joining the Republicans. Nixon and Reagan both campaigned with at least an eye to picking up disillusioned Southern voters, though the Democrats established a virtual lock on the African American vote because ''they'' were disillusioned by the Republican "Southern Strategy". The ideology-based party layout described above largely crystallized by TheEighties, though just ''how'' progressive or conservative individual members of either party are can vary and still lead to some party infighting and occasional aisle-crossing.\\

These definitions apply to the current time; the ideologies of both parties have been extremely fluid and really only coalesced into firmly partisan lines in the latter half of the twentieth century. The original iterations of the party are almost completely unrecognizable from today's versions. The Democrats started out in 1828 as followers of UsefulNotes/AndrewJackson and generally aligned themselves as supporters of states' rights, a smaller federal government with a strong executive, and slavery, because those aligned with his agenda; these are essentially the exact ''opposite'' of modern Democrat principles, and you would be hard pressed to find a Democrat today who sees Jackson in a good light. The Republicans came along in 1854 as a coalition of various groups whose only real uniting factor was opposition to slavery, which means Republicans today are much less shy about claiming credit for their past.\\

From the Civil War until shortly before UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, both parties were a hodgepodge of different groups and ideologies and had left and right wings. The Republicans were established from the remains of the mildly leftish Whig Party and were originally a coalition between industrial interests, left-wing moral reformers, and black Southerners who viewed the GOP as the "party of [[UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln Lincoln]]", while the Democrats used to be a coalition between Northern labor and white ethnic communities on one hand and white landowners and former slaveholders in the South on the other, the latter ''also'' [[StillFightingTheCivilWar viewing the GOP as the "party of Lincoln"]]. During the Civil War and Reconstruction, the Democrats were further split into War Democrats and Peace Democrats ("Copperheads"), while the Radical Republicans were a faction that opposed Lincoln and the moderate Republicans, with the Radicals favoring strong punitive measures against the rebellious Southern states and pushing for immediate abolition of slavery as opposed to Lincoln and company's cautious approach.\\

UsefulNotes/FranklinDRoosevelt's "New Deal coalition" during TheGreatDepression helped to pull progressives into the Democratic fold and also saw the party start making inroads into the African American community, culminating in the party putting civil rights as one of its platforms in TheSixties and passing several Civil Rights Acts. This led to Democrats losing much of their white Southern support -- and several legislators -- and Nixon and Reagan both campaigned with at least an eye to picking up disillusioned Southern voters, though the Democrats established a virtual lock on the African-American vote because ''they'' were disillusioned by the Republican "Southern Strategy". The ideology-based party layout described above largely crystallized by TheEighties, though just ''how'' progressive or conservative individual members of either party are can vary and still lead to some party infighting and occasional aisle-crossing.\\

Political coalitions shift and evolve over time, and an astute observer of American politics in 1920 would probably be dumbfounded by the elections of 2020. For example, Vermont is, historically, one of the most reliably Republican states in the country, to the extent ''Film/WhiteChristmas'' even joked about it. It's now arguably the bluest state in the country and votes for Democrats by massive margins. West Virginia and Kentucky used to be redoubts of blue collar Democratic strength and now Democrats are persona non grata in those two states (unless you happen to be named "Beshear" or "Manchin"). Historically, the nation's rich, well-educated suburbs were Republican strongholds -- Orange County, California was basically the birthplace of American conservatism; Johnson County, Kansas was once called "The Most Republican Place in America"; and the suburbs north of Atlanta produced Newt Gingrich, the arch-conservative Speaker of the House. Fast forward to 2020, and Democrat Joe Biden won all three locations by significant margins. All of which is a long way of saying that nothing about American politics is etched in stone, and you can't take for granted that in 20 years the electoral map (or even the parties themselves) will look the same as it does today.\\

Geography is ''very'' important for understanding party lines as they currently stand. The South tends to be conservative, the Northeast and Pacific West liberal, and the Rocky Mountain West and the Midwest somewhere in the middle. Today, and especially before about 1964, a Maine Republican might be expected to be more liberal than a Mississippi Democrat. Region even helps explain the parties' ideological realignment, as best seen in the political history of the American South. Southern Democrats had long used rhetoric of small-government states rights to support the institution of slavery, and Northern Republicans under Lincoln ended slavery through federal action. The end of slavery made the parties (at least outside the South) somewhat less regional for several years, and by the 1960s, the Civil Rights Act was being championed by a Democratic administration with the support of progressives from both parties. However, desegregation met fierce resistance in the South, where conservative Democrats still held most offices. Many of them left the Democratic Party to [[StartMyOwn start their own]], and the GOP took advantage of this, incorporated states' rights into its platform and eventually absorbing many of those former Dems into the Republican fold; today, the Republicans have the strongest regional hold in the South.\\

On a more local level, one of the quickest ways to determine how someone likely votes is whether they live in an urban or rural environment: cities tend to attract and employ those who are most likely to align with liberal causes while rural communities tend to align more with conservatives. Once again, these are all ''broad'' generalizations, but they are useful heuristics for explaining (a) why land-based electoral maps often appear overwhelmingly red even when Democrats win majorities,[[note]]Rural land dominated by conservatives takes up much more physical space despite being sparsely populated.[[/note]] (b) why Republicans do so much better in state and local elections,[[note]]The representatives of said sparsely populated states/districts often have equal voting power to those representing more populous urban regions.[[/note]] and (c) why suburbs are so hotly contested as electoral battlegrounds.\\

It's important to note that the American definitions of 'liberal' and 'conservative' are rather different from how the terms are used in most of the rest of the world. In most societies, a liberal favors letting events take their course unimpeded by government control, while a conservative wants government to maintain the status quo through laws and regulations. In the US, however, these meanings are shifted, particularly on economic matters -- it is conservatives (Republicans) who favor less regulation, while liberals (Democrats) call for fair markets and consumer protection through federal action. (Again, these are ''huge'' generalizations.) On social and moral issues, it's even more complicated -- generally, extremists on ''both'' ends tend to favor government policies that enforce their values and restrict (or outright prohibit) behavior they disapprove of, while moderates, who make up the vast majority of the American populace, would rather they all just shut up about it.\\
\\
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 UsefulNotes/{{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 (though both their logos make use of both colors, said colors being a prominent part of Old Glory). The terms "red states" and "blue states" stem from this dichotomy, and was born during a confluence of coincidences during the 2000 presidential election.[[note]]If you really want the whole story: On Election Night, a map of the United States is displayed and as each state gets called for a winner, it is colored in. Since the colors of America are red, white, and blue, and the uncolored (and therefore blank) states work as white, red and blue were used to color in the states. Through the year 2000, the colors were distributed to the Republicans and Democrats almost entirely at random. It ''just so happened'' that in the 2000 elections, which were heavily disputed and the outcome of which remained in doubt for weeks, the Republicans had gotten red and the Democrats blue. Since that map was displayed so frequently and discussed so often, the colors were indelibly linked to each party in the public's mind.[[/note]]\\
\\

Geography is ''very'' important for understanding modern party lines. The South tends to be more conservative than the Northeast and Pacific West, and the Rocky Mountain West and the Midwest somewhere in the middle; unlike the parties themselves, this has stayed consistent for decades, most likely since the nation's inception. Today, and especially before about 1964, a Maine Republican might be more liberal than a Mississippi Democrat. Region even helps explain the parties' ideological realignment, as best seen in the political history of the American South: Southern Democrats had long used rhetoric of states rights to support the institution of slavery, and Northern Republicans under Lincoln ended slavery through federal action. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was championed by progressive Democrats and supported by progressives from both parties in most of the country, but it met fierce resistance in the South where conservative Democrats held most offices. Many of them left the Democrats, [[StartMyOwn started their own parties]], and eventually turned Republican when the GOP began to incorporate states' rights into its platform; today, the Republicans have the strongest regional hold in the South. In other words: the politicians' parties changed, but their politics generally did not. On a more local level, one of the quickest ways to determine how someone likely votes is whether they live in an urban or rural environment: cities tend to attract and employ those who are most likely to align with liberal causes while rural communities tend to align more with conservatives. Once again, these are all generalizations, but they are useful heuristics for explaining (a) why physical electoral maps often appear overwhelmingly red even when Democrats win majorities, (b) why Republicans do so much better in state and local elections, and (c) why suburbs are so hotly contested as electoral battlegrounds.\\

Political coalitions shift and evolve over time, and an astute observer of American politics in 1920 would probably be dumbfounded by the elections of 2020. For example, Vermont is, historically, one of the most reliably Republican states in the country, to the extent ''Film/WhiteChristmas'' even joked about it. It's now arguably the bluest state in the country and votes for Democrats by massive margins. West Virginia and Kentucky used to be redoubts of blue collar Democratic strength and now Democrats are persona non grata in those two states, unless you happen to be named "Beshear" or "Manchin." Historically, the nation's rich, well-educated suburbs were Republican strongholds -- Orange County, California was basically the birthplace of American conservatism, Johnson County, Kansas was once called "The Most Republican Place in America" and the suburbs north of Atlanta produced Newt Gingrich, the arch-conservative Speaker of the House. Fast forward to 2020, and Democrat Joe Biden won all three locations, and not by small margins. All of which is a long way of saying that nothing about American politics is etched in stone, and you can't take for granted that in 20 years the electoral map will look the same as it does today or that even the parties will look the same.\\

The executive branch of government comprises [[UsefulNotes/ThePresidents the President]], [[UsefulNotes/TheVicePresidentsOfTheUnitedStates Vice President]], and the Cabinet.\\

The executive branch of government comprises [[UsefulNotes/ThePresidents the President]], [[UsefulNotes/TheVicePresidents Vice President]], and the Cabinet.\\

The executive branch of government comprises the President, Vice President, and the Cabinet.\\

The Vice President, in contrast, has little authority and more often functions as a government spokesperson. The vice presidency might be the cushiest job in the world because it comes with ''absolutely nothing to do'' unless one of two things fails: the president's heartbeat or the Senate. To be more precise, they officially have two jobs. The first is basically to sit around and wait for the President of the United States to drop dead (or otherwise become incapable of carrying out the duties of the office of President); 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.\\

For an example of comparisons, the states of Iowa (56 thousand square miles/2.9 million people), Kansas (82k/2.6m), UsefulNotes/{{Oklahoma}} (69k/3.5m), Nebraska (77k/1.7m), UsefulNotes/{{Minnesota}} (87k/4.9m), and Colorado (104k/4.3m) as a region have over 476,000 square miles and 19.9 million people. But this entire region obviously deserves considerably less attention and less resources than UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity, which has 468 square miles and 18.8 million people, even though New York has 1/1000 of the area and fewer people.\\

Cities can be combined with a county (like UsefulNotes/{{Denver}} and UsefulNotes/SanFrancisco), cross county lines (like [[UsefulNotes/DFWMetroplex Dallas, in five different counties]]), exist outside any county (like Baltimore, St. Louis, and all 38 'cities' in Virginia), or take up entire counties and merge with the county governments (UsefulNotes/{{Nashville}}, Tennessee with Davidson County, Louisville, Kentucky with Jefferson County, and Carson City, Nevada with the former Ormsby County).[[note]]UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity's five boroughs are five separate counties, none of which has an independent government.[[/note]] Many metropolitan areas cross state boundaries, but cities are always in the same state (UsefulNotes/KansasCity, Missouri/Kansas is actually two separate cities, and UsefulNotes/{{Portland}}, Oregon forms a coterminous metropolitan area with Vancouver, Washington).\\

* The '''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Party_(United_States) Democratic Party]]''' is the oldest political party in the world. It's typically viewed as being center-left, although in most Western countries, they would be considered centrist or tepidly social-democratic. Somewhat socially liberal and fiscally left-wing (although they have a small fiscally conservative contingent, most famously represented by UsefulNotes/BillClinton, as well as a more progressive faction represented today by people like UsefulNotes/BernieSanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez). Strongest in urban areas, towns anchored by major universities, the Northeast, and the West Coast, and among minorities, youth, and poor to working-class voters. As of the 2018 midterms, they control the House of Representatives, and as of the 2020 elections they also hold the presidency and the Senate (albeit the latter by a margin of ''only the vice president'').
* The '''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republican_Party_(United_States) Republican Party]]''', or the GOP ('''G'''rand '''O'''ld '''P'''arty, despite being younger than the Democrats), is the right-wing party in American politics. United by fiscal conservatism, and many (but not all) of them are social conservatives. Strongest in rural areas and the South, and among evangelical Protestants and middle-class to affluent voters. Reports of its imminent demise have been tossed around for decades now and are (probably) greatly exaggerated; while Republicans have only won the popular vote for the presidency ''once'' in the last three decades and are currently (just barely) minorities in Congress, the federal system more than balances the scales in their favor, as they control the vast majority of state legislatures.

* The '''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Party_(United_States) Green Party]]''' is probably the most famous third party in the country, mainly thanks to the high-profile presidential run of Green Party candidate Ralph Nader in 2000. By any measure, they are quite leftist, supporting fair trade, pacifism, an end to the War on Drugs, local government, internationalism, very liberal views on civil liberties and social issues, opposition to the Patriot Act, and a strong welfare state -- in other words, not too far from other Green Parties worldwide and European-style social democrats. Their main focus, however, is environmentalism, as their name suggests. Supporters are often stereotyped as tree-hugging hippies and socialists. If you see a character in fiction who supports the Green Party, then he or she is probably a NewAgeRetroHippie or a GranolaGirl. From the late 2010s on, Green Party ideology has started to be adapted by Democrats and Democratic Party-adjacent people like Bernie Sanders.
* The '''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_Party_(United_States) Constitution Party]]''' is a "paleoconservative" party, which means that, while they have very right-wing views on taxes, spending, and social/cultural issues[[note]]They oppose immigration, welfare, and the income tax; support gun rights, states' rights, and anti-federalism; and take a generally fundamentalist Christian stance on issues like homosexuality, abortion, gambling, and pornography (read: strong opposition to all as "immoral"). Their anti-abortion position is a big enough issue that debates over whether to allow for abortions in the event of rape, incest and the health of the mother created a schism that saw several state affiliates break away.[[/note]] and an explicit rooting of their beliefs in Christianity, they also break from modern mainstream conservatism by opposing free trade in favor of a protectionist/mercantilist trade policy, as well as supporting a foreign policy of noninterventionism and a reduced role in world affairs, including repeal of the Patriot Act and withdrawal from the [[UsefulNotes/UnitedNations UN]], the World Bank and the IMF. Recently, Republicans have absorbed much of the Constitution Party's support.
* The '''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libertarian_Party_(United_States) Libertarian Party]]''' aims to be the leading party for libertarianism (though some libertarians do not agree with some of the LP's stances). It is America's third-largest political party according to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libertarian_Party_%28United_States%29#cite_note-1 these sources]] as of 2011. Libertarians tend to favor maximum individual liberty (pro-gun rights, pro-gay rights, pro-drug legalization, pro-legal abortion, anti-Patriot Act, anti-censorship), maximum economic liberty (loose environmental and labor laws, pro-free trade, anti-tax, anti-bailout), and very limited government involvement in social welfare. Libertarians do not identify themselves as 'left' or 'right' in the traditional sense -- most would argue for a biaxial system of political identification, with 'conservative' and 'liberal' on the economic axis and 'libertarian' and 'authoritarian' on the social axis.

* The '''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea_Party_movement Tea Party]]''', despite its name, was not a political party ''per se'', but rather was a right-wing populist movement centered in the Republican Party. It was primarily composed of conservative, Christian, nationalist, middle-class citizens, and it had its genesis in early 2009, when CNBC correspondent Rick Santelli went on [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zp-Jw-5Kx8k a rant]] on the floor of the UsefulNotes/{{Chicago}} Mercantile Exchange attacking UsefulNotes/BarackObama's bailout of homeowners facing foreclosure. Some would argue it started with UsefulNotes/RonPaul's presidential campaign in 2007–08, but although he had a faction in the Tea Party, the majority were closer to mainline conservative Republican ideology than the anti-interventionist, staunch libertarian Paul. Their name is a reference to the UsefulNotes/{{Boston}} Tea Party, one of many protests by colonial Americans against the Tea Act passed by the British Parliament in 1773.\\\

* The '''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Masonic_Party Anti-Masonic Party]]''', as its name suggests, was formed in 1828 in opposition to what they felt was the corrupting influence of Freemasonry, although it would eventually pursue a more general opposition to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacksonian_democracy Jacksonian democracy]]. It introduced such political traditions as party platforms and nominating conventions, setting an example of single-issue political party. At their height in 1832, their presidential candidate William Wirt (a former Mason himself) won 7.78% of the popular vote, with his greatest strength in Vermont (who gave them their only Electoral College victory) and in New York. The movement would fizzle out and be absorbed into the growing Whig Party by 1838 (Freemasonry no longer being that hot of an issue), although not before running future President UsefulNotes/WilliamHenryHarrison in the 1836 election.

* The '''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Know_Nothing Know Nothings]]''' were a political party that existed under the names '''Native American Party''' (nothing to do with actual Native Americans) 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 UsefulNotes/{{Germany}}), which they blamed for crime in the cities, and Catholicism, which they felt was a foreign plot to subvert and overthrow American democracy. Consequently, they were also major contributors to UsefulNotes/TheIrishDiaspora, especially the enactment of anti-Irish legislation in America at a time when the Irish were considered nonwhite. 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. After a few years in relative obscurity, they enjoyed massive success in the mid-1850s thanks to the collapse of the Whig Party and the two-party system, winning state and congressional elections across the country, but they soon splintered and fell apart over the issue of slavery. In 1856, the Know Nothings nominated former president UsefulNotes/MillardFillmore as their presidential candidate, but Fillmore only won Maryland and the party's national influence quickly waned. The term "Know Nothing" would go on to be used as a derogatory term for a nativist for decades to come.

* The '''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prohibition_Party Prohibition Party]]''' was founded in 1869 to call for the [[DryCrusader 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 2020 presidential election, it only earned 4,834 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, read their Wikipedia page and see where they held their conventions. Going down the list, it's kind of sad.

* There have been various groups that have been known as the '''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Populist_Party#United_States Populist Party]]''' over the decades, but the most famous one is the '''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People%27s_Party_(United_States) People's Party]]''', which existed from 1884 to 1908.[[note]]For those wondering, the other Populist Parties included [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People%27s_Party_(United_States,_1971) a left-wing anti-war party]] in TheSeventies that took influence from the People's Party, and [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Populist_Party_(United_States,_1984) a far-right party]] that ran from 1984 to 1996 which was chiefly a vehicle for white nationalists and militia types. Currently, there are two parties claiming the name, both with generally (though not doctrinaire) libertarian platforms. Bottom line, variants on "Populist Party" are, uh, popular with third parties across the political spectrum.[[/note]] The Populists were an agrarian movement born out of anger at falling crop prices and rising railroad rates, and called for economic action against the banks, the railroads and the merchants of the cities. A main plank in their platform was bringing an end to the gold standard and replacing it with the free coinage of silver currency, an issue that resonated among struggling farmers (rapid inflation would allow credit to flow more freely in rural areas and make it much easier to pay off debt). The Populists had their greatest success in 1892, when they won over a million votes and four western states. However, the 1896 campaign saw Democratic candidate UsefulNotes/WilliamJenningsBryan co-opting the Populists' support of free silver; they cross-endorsed him, but it was a stake through the heart for the movement. While the party withered into irrelevance after that, much of their platform, which included an eight-hour work day, civil service reforms, a graduated income tax, and direct election of senators, would be co-opted by the progressive movement in the early 20th century.
* There have been [[RuleOfThree three]] '''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_Party#North_America Progressive Parties]]''', of which the most-well known is the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_Party_(United_States,_1912) 1912 edition]], also known as the '''Bull Moose Party''', a vehicle for former President UsefulNotes/TheodoreRoosevelt's 1912 presidential run.[[note]]The other two were also candidate-driven; the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_Party_(United_States,_1924–34) 1924 edition]] was an electoral vehicle for Wisconsin senator Robert M. La Follette, and continued for some time afterwards, primarily in Wisconsin and the Great Plains. The [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_Party_(United_States,_1948) 1948 edition]], meanwhile, was created by Henry Wallace as a left-wing challenge to Democratic President UsefulNotes/HarrySTruman.[[/note]] The Progressive Party was the culmination of the progressive movement, which called for broad-reaching social reforms for America's working classes, including a pension system, income taxes, women's suffrage, farm relief, the right of labor to organize, and expanded access to health care. Despite its short life, the Progressive Party is notable for being the only third party to beat one of the major parties in a presidential election.
* The '''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialist_Party_of_America Socialist Party of America]]''' existed from 1901 until 1972, and enjoyed its greatest success in the early 20th century, proving that, no, socialism was ''not'' always a four-letter word in the US. In the elections of 1912 and 1920, the Socialists won over 900,000 votes with their candidate UsefulNotes/EugeneDebs (keeping in mind that, in the latter case, he was ''in prison'' for protesting America's involvement in UsefulNotes/WorldWarI). They had particular success in local government, electing several mayors; UsefulNotes/{{Milwaukee}} in particular elected three Socialist mayors over the course of fifty years, the last one only leaving office in 1960. They endorsed Progressive candidate Robert La Follette in 1924 and continued to build support in the 1920s, but their support was undercut by [[UsefulNotes/FranklinDRoosevelt FDR's]] New Deal during TheGreatDepression. After [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII the war]], [[RedScare anti-Communist fears]] caused the Socialist Party to fade away, and today, three groups claim the heritage of Debs' party: The Democratic Socialists of America and the Social Democrats USA agreed to focus on supporting the left wing of the Democratic Party rather than running their own candidates, but disagreed on UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar, while the Socialist Party USA continues to advance Socialist candidates outside of the two-party system.
* The '''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist_Party_USA Communist Party USA]]''' was a Stalinist political party that was influential from the 1920s through the 1940s. It supported the Soviet Union and sought to bring its economic system to the United States, and sought to unite American leftists during TheGreatDepression. It was crushed by the second Red Scare in TheFifties, and it was left out of the "New Left" of TheSixties due to its uncritical support of UsefulNotes/LeonidBrezhnev and Soviet militarism, which alienated liberals. It remains active to this day as a more democratic socialist third party (as opposed to its past militancy), but it has failed to regain its past influence.
* The '''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dixiecrat States' Rights Democratic Party]]''', or simply the '''Dixiecrats''', were a faction that broke off from the Democratic Party in 1948 in protest of the Democrats' support for UsefulNotes/{{civil rights|Movement}}. The Dixiecrats, running on a segregationist platform, nominated then-South Carolina Governor Strom Thurmond and managed to win over 1.1 million votes, 39 electoral votes, and four Southern states. The Dixiecrats faded away as a party after 1948, but the split between Northern and Southern Democrats continued to linger, leading to…
* The '''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Independent_Party American Independent Party]]''', another segregationist splinter from the Democrats, this time from 1968 and led by Alabama Governor George Wallace. The American Independents won 13.5% of the popular vote, 46 electoral votes and five Southern states. The success of Wallace's candidacy, combined with UsefulNotes/RichardNixon's "Southern strategy," marked the end of the once-Democratic "Solid South," which felt that the Democrats had betrayed the principles of white supremacy. To date, Wallace is the last third-party candidate to win any electoral votes by winning a plurality of any state's popular vote in a presidential election; however, the party's influence waned when Wallace rejoined the Democrats in 1972. While the AIP still exists, it does so solely as the California affiliate of the Constitution Party. The [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Party_(1969) American Party]] (full name American Party of the United States) is an offshoot of the American Independent Party; the AIP also nominated Republicans Donald Trump and Mike Pence in 2016.
* The '''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reform_Party_(United_States) Reform Party]]''' was a populist third party established in the wake of Texas billionaire Ross Perot's 1992 independent presidential run, which won 19% of the popular vote and became the first presidential campaign since 1912 that was seen as having been capable of winning an election. The Reform Party had its greatest success in 1998 when Wrestling/JesseVentura was elected governor of Minnesota, but it soon fell prey to infighting between three groups: the "old guard" Perot faction, the libertarian Ventura faction, and a Christian conservative wing led by former Republican candidate, Nixon, Ford and Reagan administration member, and pundit Pat Buchanan. The party collapsed in the wake of the 2000 election, where Buchanan won its nomination, and while there is still a national organization, the party no longer meaningfully exists as a national entity.