The Know Nothings: The American Party

Over the past three decades, the distance between parties has continued to grow steadily. As their distances increase it has become harder for presidents to receive votes from both parties.

The New American platform has mostly liberal views on domestic, economic and foreign policies. Therefore, it is forecasted to be most like Democratic parties versus the Republican parties. However, after we review and evaluate the three policies side by side, the final verdict will be made to which party is indeed more similar to the New American party.

The party was an evolved form of the Jeffersonian/republican and the democratic/republican (not that any republicans would wanna be apart of this mosh pit of lies though....). The party claimed to favor republicanism which supported a weak government, state rights, agrarian interests, ETC. (but now we see that that is the farthest from the truth)

Today there are several political parties that believe they have the best policies for America. Many Americans know about the most popular parties, Democratic and Republican. However, most of these people do not fully understand what the parties’ policies are. When trying to look up what the policies are, however, it was difficult to clearly see what the policies for the Republican and Democratic Parties are. On the other hand, the smaller parties had their policies easily available and people could see their stance on major issues. Based off what was stated, I believe that the America First Party has the best economic policies for America. However, enacting these policies could be difficult.

The American Party was a short-lived political party founded in the early 1840’s. Their platform focused mainly on immigration policy, which was influenced by the influx of German and Irish immigrants of the time. The American Party wanted to limit the number of immigrants coming from countries such as Ireland, because they were predominantly Catholic, as opposed to the mainly Protestant United States. It began as a secret society, in which members were not allowed to discuss their affiliation. When asked, they were told to respond with “I know nothing”, hence the party’s nickname: the Know-Nothings.

In Political Parties and Party Systems, Alan Ware summarizes the two main competing theories that attempt to explain party systems. First, the Sociological approach and then the Institutional approach. In order to comprehend his analysis it is necessary to realize that party systems are in a constant state of evolution, they do not remain stagnant. This evolution may, at times, be imperceptible and at others very noticeable, such as during a revolution; but the change is undoubtedly occurring. It is much easier to understand these theories if you view these two theories from a flexible standpoint as opposed to having a concrete beginning and end with exact delineations in between.

The Know-Nothing Party started on the east coast in 1854. This party was made up of people who wanted to reserve "political office for native- born Americans" also of those who were anti- Catholic (Foner, 490). When people of this organization were asked about it they had to respond with "I know nothing" that's how it got it's name (Foner 490). Many immigrants were losing their jobs because of this party.

As the 2016 US Presidential Election rapidly approaches, Americans continue to stand divided by party lines, with the moderates being tugged on both sides, with hopes that swaying them will put a candidate in office. However, in this critical moment that recurs every 4 years in the nation’s history, the dichotomy is drawn even deeper between the Republican and Democratic parties, with candidates on either side suggesting radically different solutions to the nation’s problems. Paul Krugman, a famous American economist, would support Hillary Clinton for the 2016 National Democratic Primary and the 2016 Presidential Election due to the unrealistic growth expectations Republicans are promising, the healthy economic policy liberals support, and

Members of this society believed in nativism, which is the favoring of native-born Americans over immigrants. Through the use of secret handshakes and passwords, the members were told to answer questions about their activities by saying “I know nothing.” After the Nativists formed the American Party in 1854, it shortly became known as the Know-Nothing Party. Because they were primarily middle-class Protestants, nativists were dismayed not only at the total number of new immigrants but also at the number of Catholics among them. They believed that Catholic immigrants who had flooded the country during the 1830s and 2840s were overly influenced by the Pope and could form a conspiracy to overthrow democracy. Nativists voted for Know-Nothing candidates while the Democratic Party courted immigrant voters. In the polls of 1854, The Know-Nothing Party did surprisingly well. However, the Know-Nothings split over the issue of slavery in the territories. Southern Know-Nothings looked for an alternative to the Democrats while Northern-Know Nothings began to edge towards the Republican

Competition for political power, rather than irrational prejudice and scapegoating, was the main factor behind the development of the most prominent American nativist organization of the 19th century, the Know-Nothing party; the 1855 Bloody Monday riot in Louisville, Kentucky serves as a case study of the politics of the Know-Nothing Party and represents the ideologies of the

For the record, I don't think either party should be doing this. However, it is very hypocritical of the Democrats to say that the Republicans are obstructionists when the Democrats advocated the same thing against an outgoing Republican President. The lack of maturity on both sides is mind-boggling. Good grief people! If you advocated one position and flipped on it later, then don't lie about it. Tell what your original position was and state why you were wrong at that time or why you changed your position. It is this type of behavior that makes people not trust politicians.

Generally speaking, anyone who lives in the United States of America knows that there are two main political parties—the Republicans and the Democrats. Having two main parties has its advantages and, of course, its disadvantages. For example, in By the People James E. Monroe and Rogan Kersh (301) point out having this type of system creates “predictability and stability.” However, they also declare (301) it can “lead to a gridlock.” This is not a new concept either as there has been a divide since the beginning of both parties. The two parties more often than not disagree on various issues, while rarely agreeing on what is best for the country.

There have been many different political parties since the beginning of the American political system. A political party is made up of a group of people that share common goals and ideals, and these people work together to help elect people to offices that share these goals to represent them. Political parties work to try to control the government and their ultimate goal is to win as many elections and to gain as many offices as possible.

Since the administration of George Washington two political parties have dominated the United States political system, but they have not always been the same two parties. The first two parties were the Federalists and Anti-Federalists. Federalists were those who supported a strong federal government and the Anti-Federalists were those who did not. The leaders of the Federalists were Alexander Hamilton and John Adams. Both were from the Northeast where the Federalist line of thinking was strongest. Thomas Jefferson became the leader of the Anti-Federalists. These two groups really did not considered themselves parties. The founders feared parties because they thought of them as factions.

Political parties are critical structures in the modern society and universal phenomena in most democracies. In fact, they form major objects of intensive study as they are usually the centre of political and social power. They engage in most activities that are of significant consequence in the lives of citizens and link the common populace to the government. Therefore, it is important to understand political parties fully from every perspective of political systems so obtain their real importance in democracies. A political party is basically a group of citizens who converge as voters, activists, electoral candidates and office holders with a common party label and seek to elect party members into public offices. While modern political