“The founders were very worried that if parties developed in America, you might have something like the modern Italian system, where you have 20 different parties that divide Congress and the country and can't govern.”
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Oftentimes during the period in which conventions really did business, you had situations where the delegates were divided and you would have ballot after ballot before there was a final nominee.
Michael Beschloss 
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The founders were very worried that if parties developed in America, you might have something like the modern Italian system, where you have 20 different parties that divide Congress and the country and can't govern.
Michael Beschloss
58% of people like this quote
So the result was that as one approached a political convention for most of the 19th century and for most of the 20th century until the 1960's, part of the drama was the fact that you didn't know ultimately who was going to be the nominee at the end of that convention week.
Michael Beschloss
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To people who remember JFK's assassination, JFK Jr. will probably always be that boy saluting his father's coffin.
Michael Beschloss
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The Founding Fathers would be sorry to see that America had become so divided and factionalized.
Michael Beschloss
53% of people like this quote