http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2014/04/sudan-bans-political-party-meetings-201441595653225806.html

While this article doesn't directly involve the United States, it is extremely important to the concept of political parties worldwide

            On April 6, the President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan decreed that it was forbidden for any political parties to meet, unless they first got permission from "relevent authorities." This is due to al-Bashir allowing a national dialogue about potentially ending his 25 year reign in the office. Unfortunately for him, the various parties were all in agreement that he held the office for too long, so he prevented meetings and jailed the leader of the Reform Now party's student wing.

           This kind of action, though clearly extreme, poses two questions to me-how much power should the government have over parties, and how much power should parties have over the government? For example, though they shouldn't be able to prevent meetings between members of political parties, there should probably be some way to limit the incredible amount of clout the Democrats and Republicans have in our country. People generally pay more attention to the words of partisan candidates than they do to those of judges who have already been appointed, for example.