Voting Essentials: Political Parties 101

Our Voting Essentials: Political Parties 101 course offers a quick overview on the history of America’s two main political parties - Democrats and Republicans. This course begins by explaining the first presidential election. From there, we will describe the differing political ideologies of the Republican and Democratic parties and explain why our current political system makes it difficult for third parties to win elections. We’ll also talk about your third party options and how to research political platforms to discover which party best aligns with your views.

Part of our Voting Essentials series, this course includes a video presentation, downloadable supplementary material and a short quiz to assess your knowledge.