I did not mean to equate "camps" just with the republican and democratic parties of today. I meant camps to describe groups of people with similar opinions at t

I did not mean to equate "camps" just with the republican and democratic parties of today. I meant camps to describe groups of people with similar opinions at the same time in history. For example in the civil war era you had northern opinions which wanted tariffs, more navy power, etc. and saw plantations as rentiers on "property" they should not have ever owned. In the other camp you had southerners who opposed federal restrictions on trade and were very conscience of the competition between global powers, with England wanting cotton yet also outlawing the gulf stream slave trade. And I should have been more articulate: I am not refuting the parent post about when perhaps the current camps formed. Just that the formation of such camps is not unusual in American history.