Assignment task: Please listen to the following podcast from Backstory on the history of American political parties and then answer the questions below:
1. Why were political parties despised during the Early Republic? Why did Americans' view of political parties change?
2. Disagreements within parties have shifted the terms of debate, forced new agendas onto the political stage, even birthed new parties altogether. How did the Dixiecrats reshape the agenda of the Democratic Party? How did the Dixiecrats pave the way for the realignment of the southern states with the Republican Party?