I’m always completely amazed at the incredible foresight the Founding Fathers had and, even though it occurred through much dissension, often anger and always debate, finally formed the governing bodies of the United States in three separate functions - the Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches.
What a perfectly amazing understanding of human behavior, philosophical foresight and perspective these people held in their minds! That there are some human beings who could possess the philosophical genius and debate adroitness they grasped is extremely inspiring to me. What it must be like to have such capabilities!!!
With a few exceptions, these were men who would, and absolutely should, be ashamed by all who hold positions within the Executive and Legislative branches of government today.
I will no doubt, at the very least, annoy some of my fiends and family, some of whom are devout members of either the Democrat or Republican Parties with this statement.
However; if you simply take a few moments to think; to truly consider the nation’s needs outside the confines of your respective commitments to partisanship for a moment, and even take an hour or so to read some of the links I provide throughout this post, I honestly think you will realize just how detrimental; to the nation, to you, to me, and even to the entire planet, partisan politics is and has been for centuries.
Partisanship is a leach upon the Republican form of government the Founding Fathers envisioned. In fact; the scourge the Founding Fathers sought to avoid completely, is destroying the nation from within. And, due to the sheer momentum of human behavior, that plague is being inhaled, not only willingly, but with the vigor and intensity with which thirsty horses seek a distant pond.
But, that pond is rank with with disease and contamination, brought to us shortly after the formation of the Constitution, by Alexander Hamilton; a very member of those Founding Fathers who knew just how quickly it would garner power for himself.
In George Washington’s farewell address, he warned us of the real dangers political parties posed; “The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism.”
The rantings of all history’s seers; from the Bible’s “Revelations”; Platos “Oracle”; or Nostradamus, are nowhere near as clear as those of George Washington’s warning.
The warning that, given today’s political environment, were beyond crystal clear as they’re being played out today in such clarity, in “full, living color”, his words could very well have been spoken this morning.
To make my case, by the current numbers: The 115th Congress is comprised of 54 Republicans, 46 Democrats and 2 “Independents” in the Senate. And 241 Republicans and 194 Democrats in the House of Representatives.
Now let’s really stretch the imagination and make a claim that not one single citizen in the United States, outside our elected officials, is either bigoted, racist, authoritarian, warmongers, or hold any other negative human trait; that we’re all, to very last soul humanitarian, loving and live by their professed code of honor; you know, all that bullshit like “love thy neighbor as thyself”, etc.; I’m the ultimate humanitarian and all my efforts are pure and wholesome.
Now that we’ve established our perfection, and keeping this in mind, consider two vitally important questions;
1. How many of today’s partisan politicians absolutely (without exception) epitomize those very same positive human traits you hold dear?
2. How many of those partisan politicians have supported YOU and truly fought for YOUR efforts to advance humanity above themselves, just as you do, in other words precisely what a “republican government” is to do?
If you’re even slightly honest with yourself, that answer will be, unequivocally ZERO.And two last questions;
1. Considering that all of you are now striving to be the best you can be; how many of you, simply in order to vote for someone they SAY will support those human traits you hold dear, have had to commit to a specific political party, just to take part in a process the nation is founded upon - to elect one’s own government?
2. And; how many of you truly believe that those political parties actually embody that character trait and have given you an individual who will fight as hard as possible to maintain that embodiment in their elected positions?
Remember, we’re being honest with ourselves, so I’m willing to say that that number is still ZERO.
The reason for this? You know as well as I do; it is that they fight for the party’s stance, the partisanship they, themselves, had to commit to, just so they, in turn, could, ostensibly, take your commitment to humanity to their seat in government.
Certainly it’s literally impossible, back here in reality, to unequivocally represent 100% of every person in 100% of their human perspectives. But, that isn’t the point. My point is, that partisan politics restrain every United States citizen to two and only two positions, when there are literally unquantifiable numbers of perspectives.
TWO! Just two parties who claim to be THE representative government for that the vast majority of U.S. citizens; partisans who, you know as well as I do, are so utterly corrupt and self-serving, they’re beyond anything any of us remotely consider valid representation.
Be you a conservative, or a liberal individual or any one of millions of in between, these “entities” are neither capable, nor even interested in standing up for you and/or me.
Partisan politics has overridden the very Republic the Founding Fathers created and, despite Washington’s warnings, the nation has done precisely what he warned against.
Immaterial to whether you’re a Democrat or a Republican, the very definition of “Republic” and the Constitution by which our government is bound, tells us that the power is to lie with the people. There’s absolutely no mention, in either the definition of, or the wording of the Constitution of the United States, that political parties determine who we vote for.
Yet; that’s exactly what we have today. Through deceit and power garnered by the few, the political parties represent theirs and only their political views.
Consider the constraints of a two-party system. The single most important aspect of which limits us to two choices, Republican or Democrat. Partisanship in which the majority of states REQUIRE submission to in order to participate in “government by the people”.
The primaries of these two parties; where two individuals are singled out, courted, and financed and in every sense of the word “limits” our choices to who THEY select. And if you doubt that, try running for an elected office without “joining” one of the political parties.
Bernie Sanders is a prime example of this. A very well known and very qualified Senator from Vermont, had to abandon his lifetime commitment to being independent of political parties to run as a candidate in the Democrat Party. Yet; the Democrat elite turned their backs on him when he was, arguably, the better candidate between he and Clinton.
This is a perfect example of the iron grip partisanship has on the Republic.
Extremely limited, if not impossible, opportunity for any non-affiliated potential candidates to speak to the electorate; extremely limited choices for you and me to hear those alternative perspectives. And the very distasteful, limited outcomes as a result of and created for that very reason.
Limits placed upon us to control, both by whom and how we’re governed. This does not, in any manner whatsoever, define the republic from of government. In fact; it’s inarguably the precise opposite of republican government.
Aside from outright coup and dictatorship, it is the ultimate power scam. A scam in which government by the rich and powerful, is literally forced upon the rest of us. The very idea of partisan politics is nothing more than manipulation of you and me to obtain and hold the power to govern, as we are fooled in to abandoning the very conceptualization and definition of The Republic in which we live.
But the flame of democracy is still burning, in every state in the nation, as people are beginning to wake up to the deception perpetrated by partisan politics and the leach that is partisan politics is losing its slimy grip on our skin.
In record numbers, the electorate is choosing to opt out of partisanship as the numbers of non-affiliated voters rise rapidly, stripping the two main political parties of their grip on the nation.
Non-affiliated voters now outnumber both the Democrat and republican parties in substantial numbers: Independent (non-affiliated) = 39% of the electorate while the Democrat and Republican numbers shrink to 32% and 23% respectively. In some states, such as Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut, Idaho, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, and Rhode Island non-affiliated voters are either in the majority or very, very close to being so.
It’s long past time that we ALL stand up in opposition to partisan politics and return us to the Republic we were intended to be.
The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries which result gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of public liberty. George Washington in his Farewell Speech
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