“Were parties here divided merely by a greediness for office,...to take a part with either would be unworthy of a reasonable or moral man.”

Hmm, I guess that leaves us with 2 immoral parties to choose from -- that is democracy for you.

Awesome! I've never heard this one before but it is rather telling of our current two party system. I no longer wish to be identified with either of the two major parties in America (formerly the United States). I wish to be called a little "R" republican.

The 2 party system always gives 2 sides to a story - making a good guy and a bad guy. Truth, law, order, liberty, prosperity, justice, inalienable right and individual sovereign status exists outside the communist / fascist dynamic.

Why I've been voting Libertarian since 1996.

Cal, me too. Voting for a republican or democrat is voting for the lesser of the evils.

Thomas Jefferson formed the democratic Republican party. In opposition to the federalist party. This federalist party was not the same as that of the 1780's Federalist pro- constitution. Those that drafted the Constitution. Washington disdained factions within parties. Suits vs people of the soil. Though some suspect Washington was a federalist, that is not proven, but if so, it was to the original federalist pro-constitution, the federal structure. The split coming over new issues. Power and greed. What a time to have lived in, the birth of a new nation ! To much power in the hands of a few. The enemy within the ranks right off the bat ! Washington's farewell address sums it up. Beware of those that will rise through party to plunder and steal the riches and rights of the people.

Somewhere between 1789 (the ratification of the Constitution) and 2012, the chains that were to bind our Government became loose, I suspect both parties are to blame and that it was incremental. I think I read somewhere it started the day the document was signed.