Partisanship in America

American politics has been shaped by an abundance of influential factors during its proud 200+ year history. War, taxation, suffrage, and racism have all dominated the American political climate. To represent the multifaceted nature of these and other topics, America has turned to political parties to help determine where they stand. Although the majority of Americans hold a rather “centrist” point of view, most have some bias, be it for either traditional or social reasons, for the conservative right or the liberal left. This bias for one faction or another is known as “partisanship.”

As the year 1776 drew closer, the American colonies were, to say the least, divided. Each colony had been bred as an independent nation-state. Each had a separate economy, government, and citizens that felt loyal only to their individual colony. America needed common grievances to bind the nation together in resistance of imperial England. Grievances such as “taxation without represent...