The Pros And Cons Of Political Parties

I do not necessarily feel that political parties are either good or bad. I do understand both the positive and negative aspects of them, though. The Founding Fathers thought of political parties, or what they liked to call them "factions," a bad thing. Even George Washington was against creating parties. James Madison describes factions in Federalist Papers #10 as "damaging." He said that factions would destroy liberty or would create a society with the citizens sharing the same ideology. However, a democracy is all about the majority of people having a say. How can people do this? There are ways to protect the rights of those people through a series of checks and balances in the government, as discussed by James Madison in Federalist Papers