What are the two major political parties in the United States?

Why this is the answer

The answer is the Democratic Party and the Republican Party, and you need both names, because the question asks for two. This question carries an asterisk on the official list, so it is also among the questions that applicants who are 65 or older and have been legal permanent residents for 20 years or more may study instead of the full list. The Constitution did not set up political parties, and President George Washington specifically warned the country against them. James Madison looked at the same worry from another side in Federalist No. 10. He thought the causes of faction were "sown in the nature of man," and that people would always divide over religion, government and leaders. One way to remove those causes, he argued, would be to destroy liberty itself, a cure worse than the disease, so the realistic goal was to control their effects. Two political groups took shape early in the nation's history anyway, the Federalists and the Democratic-Republicans. Andrew Jackson later built the Democratic Party out of the Democratic-Republicans, and in the 1860s the Republican Party replaced the Whigs as a major party, with Abraham Lincoln as its first President. Smaller parties have played their own roles over the years, among them the Know-Nothing (or American) Party, the Bull-Moose (or Progressive) Party, and the Reform and Green parties. Today, a person who runs for President is nominated by a political party. Parties are groups of people who organize to promote their candidates and their views on public policy, and membership in one is voluntary. Watch for two wrong turns: history, and stopping halfway. "Federalist and Whig" names two real parties that are no longer the major ones, and pairing one of today's majors with a smaller party, such as the Greens, gets only half the answer. The study guide offers a picture worth borrowing: a donkey stands for the Democrats and an elephant for the Republicans. See the two animals side by side, and say both names.