ABSTRACT
An older couple in Wisconsin has managed their partisan differences for years. He is a retired business manager who loves Fox News. The link between each party and certain social or demographic groups is central to understanding party politics. The groups most inclined to favor a party’s candidates at a particular time make up what is called that party’s coalition. The United States (US) has experienced at least six different electoral eras or party systems. Farmers and the less well-off, living in the southern and mid-Atlantic states, suspected that the Federalists’ proposals would hurt them financially; farmers would pay taxes but businesses and speculators would reap more of the benefits. The regional division was so clear that the Democratic Party’s only real strongholds in the North were in the cities controlled by Democratic machines and areas settled by southerners.
