Types of Minor Parties in Types of Minor Parties in the United Statesthe United States

Ideological Parties

Bolter or “Factional” Parties

Farm-Labor Protest Parties

One-Issue Parties

1787: United States

Constitution is drafted in

Philadelphia, and makes no

mention of political parties.

1796: Worried that political factions will turn

into political parties, George Washington says "Let me warn you, in the

most solemn manner, against the baneful effects

of the spirit of party."

1854: In the North, anti-slavery activists from all

parties begin meeting. The Republican Party is born in

Ripon, Wisconsin, on March 20th, following a meeting of Whigs, Free Soilers, and Democrats.

1860: Lincoln wins the election with 39.9 percent of the

popular vote, the smallest percentage ever to propel a candidate into the White

House.

1890: Dozens of small parties spring up, each

with a program of change, including the Prohibition

Party, the Greenback Labor Party, the Union Labor Party, and the

Socialist Party.

1892: Farmers angry with the major parties launch

their own party, the People's Party, also called

the Populists. Their presidential candidate,

James B. Weaver, captures 9 percent of the vote.

Farm-Labor Parties Farm-Labor Parties “Economic Protest”“Economic Protest”

                                     

                                         

Bolter or “Factional” Parties

“Bolt” the Ticket and Bolt” the Ticket and Challenge Former PartyChallenge Former Party

“Friends, I shall ask you to be as quiet as possible. I don't know whether you fully

understand that I have just been shot; but it takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose. But fortunately I had my manuscript, so you see I was going to make a long speech, and there is

a bullet - there is where the bullet went through - and it probably saved me from it

going into my heart. The bullet is in me now, so that I cannot make a very long speech, but

I will try my best.”* Address at Milwaukee, Wis., October, 14, 1912.

“Bolt” the Ticket and Bolt” the Ticket and Challenge Former PartyChallenge Former Party

1912: With the Republican and Bull Moose

Party splitting the vote, Democrat Woodrow

Wilson is elected president with 42 percent. A fourth

candidate, Socialist Eugene Debs, gets 6

percent.

Ideological Protest PartiesIdeological Protest Parties

Ideological Parties care less about winning and more about principle! Hence, they tend to endure.

• “As soon as a child is less than half matured he is given a job and thrust out into the world to help make a living for the family, the father of which is not paid enough to support it properly,” Debs said — nay, shouted. “Then, too, child labor is cheapest of the cheap and so the capitalists favor it. We now have 2,000,000 children in our industrial dungeons. Their flesh is fed to Mammon. They are the victims of insatiate monsters, and they are dwarfed, stunted, and deformed.”

-Canton, OH (1910)

During the Great War, Debs was a highly

visible and vocal pacifist. On June 16 of 1918 he delivered a famous antiwar speech in Canton, Ohio. He protested against the

Great War, which was raging in Europe. He was arrested because of the speech and

convicted in a federal court in Cleveland, OH under the wartime Espionage Act. He was sentenced to serve 10 years in prison and

disenfranchised for life.

• “We are fighting a Wall Street war, the master class throughout history has declared wars and the subject class has fought them. When Wall Street cries war, every pulpit in the country cries war; when Wall Street cries peace, every pulpit cries peace.”

-Canton, OH (June 16, 1918)

“While there is a lower class I am in it; while

there is a criminal

element I am of it; while there is a soul in prison,

I am not free”

                                  

“Rising Tide of Socialism”

• 1910- Victor Berger, 1st Socialist elected to Congress

• 1911- 73 Socialist Mayors elected

• 1911- 1,200 elections won by Socialists in 340 cities

1948: three presidential candidates with roots in the Democratic Party face just one Republican, Thomas

Dewey. Truman carries the day with 49.6 percent of the

popular vote.

One-Issue PartiesOne-Issue PartiesFormed to promote one principle. The Free-Soil Party for example.

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