Can I use political parties or newspapers?

Another recent thread reminded me to ask, I'm writing contemporary fantasy/alternative reality. It is clearly fiction but it is close enough to true reality that all the country names and so forth are the same, car makers, gun makers, so on... I would like to even use the names of political parties or a newspaper but I wonder if that is going to far. In the case of the newspaper the reference would be possibly flattering, possibly neutral. In the case of the political parties the reference would be somewhat negative, implying that both major US parties are in cahoots with the villains. At least, I'm not nice to either of them. I can just say "the more liberal US party" and "the more conservative US party". It seems a bit awkward but given that there is only one reference to it, I could get away with it if I had to. Do I have to?