For and Against

David Letterman and Jay Leno rely on political parties and political candidates to provide material for their nightly monologues. Throughout America's history, parties have been derided because of what they stood "for" and "against". This 1914 vaudeville act takes potshots at the ideologies and behavior of political parties from our nation's past including the Prohibitionists, the Suffragists and the Bull Moose Party

Comedians had only two parties to pick on until 1827, when the Anti-Masons organized the first third party in America. As you might suspect, this party's ideology was to prevent FreeMasons from influencing government offices. While the Anti-Masons lasted only eleven years as a separate party (they joined the Whigs in 1838), they did set a precedent by holding the first party convention that nominated candidates.