"Let me now take a more comprehensive view, and warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the Spirit of Party generally. . . . A fire not to be quenched, it demands a uniform vigilance to prevent its bursting into a flame, lest, instead of warming, it should consume."
George Washington
1796 - Farewell Address
Reference: George Washington: A Collection, W.B. Allen, ed. (519-20)
"bane" noun [usu. in sing. ] (baneful)
a cause of great distress or annoyance• archaic, something, typically poison, that causes death.
Today, people are literally fighting to see that their party's candidate gets elected in November. No mention of qualification, issues, world views, loyalties or biases.
VOTE DEMOCRAT! WIN!
VOTE REPUBLICAN! WIN!
That's the only thing that's important. Both organizations are run by the same people and we have been allowed the perception of change every four years to assuage our fear of losing control.
Ron Paul got it right when he said,
"Since the change of the political party in charge has not made a difference, who’s really in charge? If the particular party in power makes little difference, whose policy is it that permits expanded government programs, increased spending, huge deficits, nation building and the pervasive invasion of our privacy, with fewer Fourth Amendment protections than ever before?"
Something to think about.
1 comment:
"Men by their constitutions are naturally divided into two parties: 1. Those who fear and distrust the people and wish to draw all powers from them into the hands of the higher classes. 2. Those who identify themselves with the people, have confidence in them.... In every country these two parties exist.... Call them, therefore, liberals and serviles, Jacobins and Ultras, Whigs and Tories, republicans and federalists, aristocrats and democrats, or by whatever name you please, they are the same party still and pursue the same object."
Thomas Jefferson, 1743-1826
3rd President of the United States (Democratic Republican, VA)
Letter to Henry Lee, 1824
How long are we doomed (?) to repeat history? Has anything ever really changed? Have me moved forward or stepped back? We are a nation of those who have not grown for we still judge where we are going by where we have been, and therefore cannot go.
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