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Compare And Contrast Essay On American Culture

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Politics make up a great part of American culture. In the present, there are two major political parties in the United States and those are the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. Most Americans are either Democrats or Republicans. The Democrats are known to be liberal and left-leaning. They believe that the government serves the society best when it has an expanded role. The Republicans are known to be conservative and right-leaning. They believe that the government should have a smaller role and minimal power. Out of all the presidents the United States has had, 15 have been part of the Democratic Party and 18 have been part of the Republican Party. Republicans and Democrats typically have opposing viewpoints on issues. There are also …show more content…

In fact, the Democratic Party is the oldest political party in the United States. The start of the party dates back to 1792 when Thomas Jefferson’s followers called themselves Republicans or Jeffersonian Republicans. The Republican Party believed that the government should not be centralized and should have a limited amount of powers. Jefferson’s group was originally made up of Anti-Federalists who disagreed with Alexander Hamilton’s beliefs. Alexander Hamilton’s faction, the Federalist Party, believed in a strong central government. The Federalist Party called Thomas Jefferson’s group the Democratic-Republican Party as a way to show they were similar to the “radical democrats” who were a part of the French Revolution. In 1798, John Adams was elected as the first and only Federalist president. During his presidency, the Republican Party became the first opposition party of the United States and adopted the Democratic-Republican title as its official name. The Democratic-Republican Party did not adopt its current name, the Democratic Party, until January of 1828 during the presidency of Andrew Jackson. During Jackson’s presidential campaign, his opponents referred to him as a jackass and that surprisingly amused Andrew Jackson so he included an image of a donkey on many of his campaign posters and that is how the donkey became the animal symbol of the Democratic party. Insert good transition/concluding

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