Party politics in the CSA and USA

Is the new CSA presidential election in 1866 or 1867?

Here's the Confederate Electoral College:

Alabama: 11
Arkansas: 6
Florida: 4
Georgia: 12
Kentucky*: 14
Louisiana: 8
Mississippi: 9
Missouri*: 9
North Carolina: 13
South Carolina: 8
Tennessee: 13
Texas: 8
Virginia*: 18
Total: 133

*Obviously Missouri and Kentucky are in dispute and part of Virginia was trying to secede from the state. These are just the starting numbers.
 
While I generally agree with this, I have to comment on the whole Whigs=Federalist thing. Yes, the Whigs were just the Federalists under another name, which is why one of their most prominent leaders was lifelong Federalist... Henry Clay.

They had some similar interests, but ultimately, Whigs were Whigs...

Simply because some Whigs did not come from the Federalists did not mean the Whig Party was not essentially the Federalist Party. I can name drop Daniel Webster. Some Federalists joined the Jacksonian Democrats instead. So what? All political parties are coalitions of various interest groups. Sometimes those coalitions changes as the interests of those groups change and the political enviroment changes.

The Federalists declined and disappeared because of various political mistakes and bad luck. But there were a core to their policies and we can compare them to the Whigs.

The Federalists are best known for being defined as 1) supporting a strong central government, 2) supporting internal improvements to boost industry and commerce, 3) favored a national bank, 4) was aligned with the nation's financial interests, and 5) while not anti-slavery, was suspicious of slavepower.

The Whigs are best known for being defined as 1) supporting a strong central government, 2) supporting internal improvements to boost industry and commerce, 3) favored a national bank, 4) was aligned with the nation's financial interests, and 5) while not anti-slavery, was suspicious of slavepower.

There were differences of course, reflecting the general change in the country as a whole from the 1790s to 1820s and beyond. And some Whig policies would have been considered Jeffersonian Democrats policies in the times of the 1790s. But those issues had been decided in the interim (just as Jefferson accepted a lot of Federalist policies).

The only major difference is that the Whigs were strongly against the "tyrannical" presidency of Andrew Jackson who was the first executive to strongly wield the veto and expanded the power of the executive branch. This was not an issue that existed before Andrew Jackson, and neither the Federalists nor Democratic-Republicans argued about it.

In contrast, we can line up the defining core ideas of the Jeffersonian Democrats with the Jacksonian Democrats, and we are going to see a lot of similarities there. They supported states' rights, were against internal improvements, were against a national bank, were suspicious of commerce and industry, and were much more supportive of slavery.

Anyone who studies American history from 1790-1860 will basically see these two forces fighting it out under various names and personalities.
 
Could the war break the two-party system in the US if the South won? Its almost definite the Republicans are going to get slapped silly in the 1864 election, but I don't think that they'll stay down forever. In the meantime, though, while he GOP is down, I don't think that the Democrats in the north are going to make all of the factions (business, labor, and worker for example, though you could group labor and worker together) happy. This could set the stage for a multi-party system (Though I feel that once the GOP gets back on its feet, all of the weaker parties will just merge into the bigger ones, which might go back into a two-party system) in the US.

As for the South, I don't think that there is any question that there will be a temporary Democratic iron grip over Confederate politics, though afer a while, a Whig-style party will probably form.
 
I think at lest in the first 20-30 years the CSA will be split into two parties, the re-formed Democratic Party favoring more federal government, also lower numbers of voters that'd be the upper-class old names of the south, being supported in the East Coast states (VA, NC, SC, GA) the other would be a more states rights party, trying to kill the federal government and lower property requirements to vote, I see them being popular in the deep south and with the middle class and newer rich, you'd likely see some kind of populist party in the 1890s, a pan White farmers movement looking for universal male suffrage and more federal aid to farmers and general white power kicking of blacks, jews and Catholics.
 
If the CSA achieves independence, its probably because a Democrat won the election in 1864 and was willing to negotiate independence. Republicans and Democrats will blame each other for the loss of the south. I expect both parties to survive, though the Republicans won't dominate the rest of the 1800s like they did in OTL.

A lot of CSA politics was based on personalities. Many men were anti-Davis, but they never coalesced into something resembling an opposition party. Short term, they will be dominated by the Democratic party and may remain a single-party state. The Fire Eaters, former Whigs, and Reconstructionists may be forced to work within the Democratic Party.
 
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