Political parties and the Constitution

We the People

National Constitution Center

History, News Commentary, News

4.6 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 14 July 2016

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

James Ceaser of the University of Virginia and Luis Fuentes-Rohwer of Indiana University discuss the role of parties in the American constitutional system. This episode is the first part of a three-part series on political parties and the Constitution. Get the latest constitutional news, and continue the conversation, on our Facebook page and Twitter feed. We want to know what you think of the podcast! Email us at [email protected]. Please subscribe to We the People on iTunes. While you’re in the iTunes Store, leave us a rating and review; it helps other people discover what we do. Please also subscribe to Live at America’s Town Hall, featuring conversations and debates presented at the Center, across from Independence Hall in beautiful Philadelphia. We the People is a member of Slate’s Panoply network. Check out all of our sibling podcasts at iTunes.com/Panoply. Despite our congressional charter, the National Constitution Center is a private nonprofit; we receive little government support, and we rely on the generosity of people around the country who are inspired by our nonpartisan mission of constitutional debate and education. Please consider becoming a member to support our work, including this podcast. Visit constitutioncenter.org to learn more. This show was engineered by Jason Gregory and produced by Nicandro Iannacci. Research was provided by Josh Waimberg and Tom Donnelly. The host of We the People is Jeffrey Rosen.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	I'm Jeffrey Rosen, president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, and welcome to
0:08.1	We The People, a weekly show of constitutional debate.
0:12.2	That fetching background music was called Bebop Blues and we hope
0:16.0	you'll agree that it has a nicely constitutional air. On today's show we begin a three-part
0:22.0	series on political parties and the Constitution.
0:25.0	Later this month the Republican Party will gather in Cleveland to hold its national convention
0:30.0	and confirm its presumptive presidential nominee.
0:34.0	Just days later, the Democratic Party will gather here in Philadelphia for its own convention.
0:39.0	In the coming weeks, we will explore the constitutional history of both parties, what they stand for, In to the text of the Constitution and to American history to understand the role of the
0:55.2	parties in our constitutional system at the beginning and up to today.
1:00.3	Joining me to discuss this absolutely fascinating and extremely important topic are two of America's leading experts on American election law and politics.
1:10.0	James Caesar is professor of politics at the University of Virginia and a member of the National
1:14.8	Constitution Center's Coalition of Freedom Advisory Board.
1:19.2	And Louise Fuentes Roar is Professor of Law and Harry T Ice faculty fellow at the Indiana University,
1:27.0	Maurs School of Law. James, Louise, thank you so much for being here.
1:31.0	Thank you. Thank you.
1:33.0	Thank you for having me.
1:34.0	Wonderful.
1:35.0	James, let's begin with you.
1:37.0	What was the founder's opinion of political parties and did it evolve?
1:44.0	Well the founders were antagonistic to political parties.
1:48.0	They hoped they would never exist.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from National Constitution Center, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of National Constitution Center and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.