I have collected some graphics on political alignments over the years and thought they might get the thinking going because in my opinion ‘it ain’t always what it seems’. This first one is my own. It is designed to make you think and potentially open your eyes to other possibilities.
One person’s take on how this fits in today’s rhetoric and presidential candidate world is below. You don’t have to agree with the placements to get the general idea. Try making your own and see how it plays out for you.
Here’s what Bob Donohoo shared on facebook not long ago and very much aligns with my thinking on the dominant parties these days.
However, I would inject one more category in all of these graphics that would seem to muddy the waters a bit, and that would be ‘globalists’. By definition, these would be people who put other countries above our own. One has only to consider the depth of the monetary problems facing our country and the continued foreign aid and military ventures around the world to understand much of the anger seething from the middle class (aka slave labor) in this country these days. You only have to look at the votes approving giving money away while we go broke to see how broadly this sickness pervades or Congress and the presidency.
Now that we are all thinking about alignments, let’s talk about parties and examine what our founding fathers had to say on the topic.
In an article on Freedom Outpost, Derek Howell writes this on topic.
George Washington warned us against party politics. He referred to political parties as factions, and he explained in his farewell address that:
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.
In similar fashion, John Adams warned us against political parties as well. He said:
There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties, each arranged under its leader, and concerting measures in opposition to each other. This, in my humble apprehension, is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our Constitution.
There you have it. Our Founders dreaded political parties. They feared that political parties would “lead to formal and permanent despotism” and serve as the greatest “political evil under our Constitution.” They clearly warned us that the “disorders and miseries” which result from a system of political parties would cause us to seek peace and security in the absolute power of an individual.
Read more on Freedom Outost here.
Reference George Washington’s farewell address
Reference John Adams bio and quotes (some)
Take another look at the Federalist Papers if you want to do more research on topic.
My personal bottom line: I am considering changing my party designation on my voter registration to Independent. To Be Continued…
For Life and Liberty,
Sandra Crosnoe
Finding Gems and Sharing Them 