The United States of America: That’s our name, but I’m not sure how true it rings these days. Regardless of which candidate you want in office (if you even want one of them in office) I’m pretty sure everyone can agree that this election season has been a hot mess. It has been full of finger-pointing, ridiculous attempts at one-upping, and snide remarks between candidates. Commercials, and even a recent debate, have been nothing but ploys to highlight the flaws in each candidate. I've been appalled at the immaturity prevalent in these two candidates and the lies and statements they are bold enough to make. Democrats and Republicans have always sort of been “at war”, but this election has shown that both parties have hit a low I never knew was possible. There’s no class left in this competition. Just cheap shots and empty promises. This election season feels like a giant game of middle school dodgeball, with Trump and Clinton as the bratty team captains, and the American people as the way-too-willing-to-play-along, petty teammates. As I’ve watched the crap hit the fan, and seen this country retreat further onto our opposing sides of the Divided States of America, I haven’t been able to help but wonder whether or not political parties are actually a good thing, or if they’ve only given us even more of an excuse not to try to come together as a nation.

Our two main political parties have evolved a lot over the years. The very first political party was called the Federalists, and it was brought about by Alexander Hamilton and his symapthizers during George Washington’s presidency. Washington, our first president, remained nonpartisan. Pretty soon, Thomas Jefferson created an opposing political party, called the Anti-Federalists (clever), or the Democratic-Republicans. The two parties had opposing views on how their brand-new country should be run. When Washington was preparing to retire from the presidency after his first-term, both Hamilton and Jefferson wanted him to return for another term. He was re-elected in February of 1793 and remained nonpartisan throughout his second term, as he had his first. Though there is more to it, the differences between the two parties generally can be summarized as those that wanted a stronger federal government (Federalists) and those that wanted a stronger state and local government (Anti-Federalists). Washington watched the fallout between the two parties during his second-term as president, and by the end of it, decided he would not serve a third term. He put together a Farewell Address, and in it, expressed his heavy distaste for political parties. Part of the address is as follows:

“The disorders and miseries which result gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of public liberty.

Without looking forward to an extremity of this kind (which nevertheless ought not to be entirely out of sight), the common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it.

It serves always to distract the public councils and enfeeble the public administration. It agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection. It opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, which finds a facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of party passions. Thus the policy and the will of one country are subjected to the policy and will of another.”

Washington knew that political parties would cause unnecessary division in the country (they already had), and cause America to lose sight of its goals. We would become a nation divided.

Of course, political parties have evolved since then, and the country’s two main parties are now the Democratic party and the Republican party. The Democratic party has evolved since the days of the Democratic-Republicans, and rather than opposing a strong central government, the party now favors heavier government involvement, especially when it comes to people in need. The Republican party was created in 1854 when people who heavily opposed slavery pulled together to form their own faction. They later adopted firm stances on other issues, and evolved as a party. Today, Republicans tend to oppose heavy government involvement in people’s lives, and advocate less spending on social programs.

This election season, Washington’s predictions about the effects of parties are heavy on my mind. Regardless of your opinions about what’s most important, and which party you ascribe to, I wonder, had we never formed political parties, would America be any less volatile and divided? Would this election season be less nasty? Did the heavy division between the two major political parties contribute to people like Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton making it onto the ballot for President of the United States? Were American political parties just bound to form due to human nature, and the nature of our government? The American two-party political system is all I am used to, so I don’t know what the alternative would have been, but one thing’s for sure: people tend to group with those they agree with the most. And if left unchecked, our desires for “our people” or “our opinions” to reign supreme can overtake our desire for unity. I wonder how much more united the United States could have been had we refrained from finding different ways, like political parties, to divide ourselves. Part of me believes that greater than our desire to be united, is our desire to be unique and influential, and that maybe political parties are an outcome of that human desire.

Regardless, I hope that the political parties can eventually stop focusing so much on everything that divides us and makes us different, and start looking at what it is we can all agree on, and what our common goals are, as Americans, and as people. I'm ready for this nightmare of a presidential election to be over. I'm sure you are too. For now, I'll leave you with this little gem: