They must be competitive in an enormous variety of venues. It promotes a politics of inclusion. Because of the electoral college, no party intent on victory can afford to pour scorn on the Jews of New York, the Mormons of Utah, the Muslims of Michigan, the Catholics of Illinois, the Armenians of Massachusetts, or the evangelical Protestants of Oklahoma. No one can ignore the concerns of hyphenated Americans who trace their ancestry to Mexico, sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, or the Middle East. In normal times, the manner in which the electoral college structures our national contests gives rise to an exceedingly fluid two-party system built upon tenuous compromises between ideological factions and special interests which are forced at every turn to moderate their claims.
Third parties emerge and then disappear if they fail to dislodge one of the two major parties.
For a time, they give voice to those who feel excluded, and they exercise influence by forcing one or both of the major parties to bid for their supporters. If the electoral college does not eliminate partisanship, it certainly shapes it and reduces its ferocity. None of this prevents watershed elections. From time to time, despite the moderating influence of the electoral college, matters have come to a head, and our polity has generated great tidal waves of popular opinion. The election of Thomas Jefferson in 1800, of Andrew Jackson in 1828, of Abraham Lincoln in 1860, of Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1932, and of Ronald Reagan in 1980 have reflected or occasioned great political shifts.