The Founders Would Gag at Today’s Republicans --- The cult of Trump has embraced values and beliefs that Jefferson, Washington and Lincoln abhorred.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Kids in cages and tanks for the tyrant. After that dictator-friendly Fourth of July, it's time for all true patriots to conduct a political gut check.
Like many people, I'm worried about the Democrats. A majority of Americans are desperate for someone to dislodge the despot from the White House. And yet some Democrats are pushing policy positions -- such as taking away private health insurance from more than 150 million people -- that are deeply unpopular.
The smarter candidates will rethink this, and soon, or otherwise ensure that an awful American aberration is more than a one-off.
But as troubled as I am by the Democrats, I'm terrified of the Republicans. In numerous surveys of a party that has adopted the worst pathologies of President Trump, Republicans have shown themselves to be explicitly anti-American. The Founders would gag. So would Abraham Lincoln.
Consider the Republicans' view of the First Amendment, the most sacred of the freedoms embedded in this country's governing blueprint. Just under half of Republicans now believe government should be able to shut down "biased or inaccurate media." And close to half of Republicans have adopted Trump's authoritarian view that the news media is "the enemy of the people."
I don't expect Republicans to know Thomas Jefferson's words by heart -- that if he were forced to choose between "a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter." This from a man who was subject to a lifetime of biased and inaccurate press.
But what part of "Congress shall make no law" abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, do these citizens not understand?
Regarding the other foundational liberty in the First Amendment, restricting an "establishment of religion" by the state, the cult of Trump would throw that under a steamroller of bigotry as well.
A majority of Republicans think Christianity should be the established national religion. And half of all Southerners -- the deepest, most anti-American part of Trump's base, with the DNA of Civil War traitors still coursing through the region -- believe the United States was founded as an "explicitly Christian" nation.
George Washington made clear it was otherwise in a letter to a Jewish congregation in 1790 celebrating religious tolerance and diversity. "The citizens of the United States have a right to applaud themselves for having given to mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy," he wrote.
Jefferson expressed a similar feeling, touting a homeland for "the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and the Mahometan, the Hindoo, and infidel of every denomination."
So, quick summary: Republicans of today would not approve of the First Amendment as written. They would give Big Government free rein to quash dissenting voices in the press, and would prefer a merging of church and state.
Another founder, the immigrant Alexander Hamilton, would get the boot from Trump's Republicans. He distrusted populists who disdain the rule of law, so there's no place for him, a due process enthusiast, among the "lock her up" crowd. And he believed that immigrants were a source of greatness and renewal -- a sentiment still shared by a majority of Americans.
But as they have picked up Trump's hatreds as their own, Republicans have turned a cold shoulder to the wretched masses yearning to breathe free. Less than 40 percent of Republicans, in three recent polls, now believe immigrants are a benefit to the country. This could be because of ignorance: Even though the vast majority, 77 percent, of immigrants in this country are legal, a plurality of Republicans believe they are not.
Trump has compared himself to Abraham Lincoln, which is like comparing a noxious weed to a redwood tree. When the anti-immigrant Know Nothing party was at its height in the 1850s, Lincoln had this to say: "I am not a Know-Nothing. That is certain. How could I be?" He continued, "As a nation, we began by declaring that 'all men are created equal.' We now practically read it, 'all men are created equal, except negroes.' When the Know Nothings get control, it will read 'all men are created equal except negroes, and foreigners, and catholics."'
The modern-day Know-Nothings are the pink-faced mobs calling for a wall at Trump rallies. They are the architects of a government policy that puts children in filthy cages and forces them to drink fetid water, that sees helpless and newly orphaned babies as subhuman -- all while laughing at the cruelty.
You can see why Republicans with a sense of history and fealty to the great sweep of their party's finer principles describe themselves as politically homeless in 2019.
And when Trump rolls out weapons of war to celebrate the birth of a nation that never even had much of a standing army until the 20th century, you can see why passionate pride in this country is at its lowest point since Gallup started measuring this sentiment in the modern era.
Democracy is not mentioned in the Constitution nor in the Declaration of Independence, as the historian Virginia Anderson recently noted. It's a human construct, more fragile than any of us believed until now. But when it's gone, no one should be surprised.
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And just what makes you think the Founding Fathers would be any happier with the progressive liberal left of today John? Sorry, but your seed is a real stretch there.
ParadeTalkers!
Oddly those kids weren't in cages when they lived in their country of origin. So, why were those kids brought here against their will?
The United States was not established as a democracy. That's why democracy isn't mentioned in the founding documents. In many ways democracy is antithetical to the concept of liberty. The United States does conduct democratic elections based on the idea of one citizen, one vote. But that is where the comparison to democracy ends.
Every democracy has failed just as every socialist government has failed. Europe continues to try to make both democracy and socialism work. But Europe has finally resorted to a very authoritarian confederacy to counteract the flaws of democracy and socialism. Trying to transform the United States into a democracy will require a very authoritarian central government; democracy requires despots to govern effectively. Democracy is something to be avoided, not desired.
Apparently the main gripe against Republicans is that they do not support democracy. But that's actually a good thing. The founding documents for the United States intended to establish barriers and obstacles to prevent the United States becoming a democracy. While it's true modern Republicans have seriously eroded the national sovereignty of the United States and have done little to protect liberty as was intended, Republicans have not embraced the idea of democracy to the extent that Democrats have.
If Democrats succeed in transforming the United States into a democracy then the United States will fail as has every other democracy.
Who is your choice for king? I have seen you show some sympathy for Trump, so maybe him?
The Democratic Party is trying to revive its antebellum legacy. The Democratic Party divided the country and we fought a Civil War. That's what today's Democratic Party is attempting to do. A Democratic despot would be far, far worse than anything Trump could even imagine.
Trump is closer to Teddy Roosevelt (a real progressive) than to Bill Clinton (a southern antebellum Democrat). I may not like Trump as a person but I can tolerate Trump as a President. A Dixiecrat like Hillary Clinton would be intolerable.
Democrats were the party of slavery and they are trying to revive that legacy. Slavery seems to be the only political language that Democrats understand. Every issue, from race relations to income inequality, utilizes the antebellum language of slavery to divide the country. Even Democrat's pursuit of gun control uses the same scare tactics that Democrats used to prohibit slaves from having guns. Democrats are reviving the patronizing patriarchal politics of the antebellum south and we don't need that.
George Wallace was a Democrat. Strom Thurman was a Democrat. It wasn't Democrats of Clinton's ilk that drove them out of the Democratic Party. Why have Democrats turned their backs on real progressives? Where does Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Hubert Humphrey, and Walter Mondale fit into today's Democratic Party?
The Republican Party was the first progressive party but Republicans forsake their progressive legacy long ago. Modern Republicans have done much to erode the national sovereignty of the United States and certainly have done little to protect liberty as the founding documents of the United States intended. Republicans became Democrats when Ronald Reagan (an anti-FDR conservative Democrat) led them south. We don't need two political parties that are stuck in the antebellum south.
There were only 11 states in the southern Confederacy, led by Democrats. There weren't any Republican Confederates. Republicans kicked the southern Democrat's asses. It's long overdue to put that Democratic butt hurt behind us and pay more attention to the other 39 states. Democrats aren't going to win the Civil War no matter how hard they try.
Why are Democrats allowing the party to revive the patronizing patriarchal politics of the antebellum south? Those antebellum Democratic slave masters provided everything; food, clothing, shelter, medical care. Slaves didn't have to pay anything, the slave masters took all the money and paid for everything. The only requirement imposed on slaves was unwavering subservience and unquestioning obedience enforced by the strictest regulation of speech, behavior, and social standards.
Antebellum Democrats invented political correctness and enforced it with the whip.
Why on God's green earth would anyone support a patronizing antebellum Democrat instead of Trump? Trump may be a buffoon that can't read and can't string more than three words together but he ain't evil. The Democratic Party is drifting towards evil.
Antebellum southern Democrats were staunch defenders and protectors of free trade. Antebellum Democratic slave masters made a lot of money exporting cotton. The south did not manufacture very much, so was also dependent upon imports. Antebellum Democrats opposed tariffs and any sort of regulation on free trade because free trade sustained the south's slave economy. Controlling trade allowed antebellum Democrats to maintain authoritarian control over southern society.
Free trade benefits slave masters.
Why on God's green earth would anyone claiming to be a progressive support free trade? Free trade is a tool of slavery.
I have seen you voice strong support for Hillary Clinton. To be honest, I don't understand the appeal.
Was it Clinton's patronizing attitude? Was it Clinton's patriarchal approach to governing? Was it Clinton's dismissal of industrial work? Was it Clinton's zealous support for free trade? Was it Clinton's willingness to use the whip against anyone that challenged her?
It couldn't have been Clinton's southern charm because her transition to Arkansas didn't soften her northeastern belligerency. But make no mistake, Clinton is a southern Democrat.
I don't get it. Trump may be a bumbling bamboozler but he is still closer to a real progressive than Clinton. Is slavery really that appealing?
Most eloquently stated Tex. Thanks.
Depending on one's source, we are either a Constitutional Republic or a Democratic Republic. not a whole lot of difference between the two. But we are certainly no Democracy.