Problem
Michael Barone's , How America's Political Parties Change (and How They Don't).
1) What is this book about?
2) How does the author explain the persistence of the Democratic Party (which dates to 1832 and the election of the Hero of the War of 1812 General Andrew Jackson from Tennessee) and the Republican Party (which dates back to 1854 with opposition to the Kansas-Nebraska Act which repealed the 1820 Missouri Compromise and instead now allowed for the possibility of slavery in federal territories being organized as states to decide for themselves whether to allow slavery or not)?
3) How does the author regard or view both the Democratic Party and also the Republican Party? Over time how have both changed and why, including how and why few conservatives now exist in the Democratic Party and how and why few liberals exist in the Republican Party? Also, discuss how the South and Midwest have changed politically.
4) What explains periods in American history when one political party was dominant, whether in terms of controlling the White House, the Congress, and/or the state governments?