After following US politics for over 50 years, I hope I come to the table with a little bit of knowledge and wisdom. The two major parties are very different in most respects but they share one thing for sure.They are both self serving. The party comes first before the people who vote for them or the people who live in this country. As with all politicians power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Never forget that. Therefore giving too much power to any individual or group just leads to more abuse and corruption.
The corruption is rampant in both parties. At worst large corporation serves the public more honestly than our elected officials. The corporation’s products and services are voted on minute by minute and they face competition minute by minute whereas our politicians are only judged periodically and only face competition from the other party. By the way what percentage of the seats in congress are safe seats? Too many I think.
In the next sections I will present my views of the democratic then the republican party.
Democratic Party
The democratic party is now under the control of collectivists who range from those who recognize problems and inequities in our society and believe that government can address and solve these problems, to outright communists who believe that owning private property is a mortal sin and having more and doing better than your neighbor cannot be tolerated.
Most people who call themselves democrats either have parents who were democrats, or went to college where they were brainwashed by the left wing faculty and left wing books. I teach part time at the college level and cannot believe what stuff is in the books we are forced to use.
I am a registered democrat but the party no longer represents my view of the world and have been captured by the left wing of the party. I am a libertarian but realize we need government but not this much government. I vote republican about 90% of the time.
The party of Truman, Kennedy and Lieberman no longer exists.
My first real exposure to politics was the nomination of Harry Truman over openly communistic Henry Wallace for vice president. Roosevelt was a left wing, egotistical progressive and had no reservations about going around our constitution. His concept of government has been kept alive by Johnson, Carter and of Course Obama.
As they state, and as I see it, they are trying to radically change our country and turn it into a collectivist society with a weak foreign policy. The Democratic party is a real danger to our country and their primary backers the Unions, the trial Lawyers and the greenies(really the reds) have agendas that will, and have, negatively affected the poor and the senior populations of this country.
The democrats very often recognize problems and inequities but their only method of addressing issues is worse then the problems themselves. If anyone takes the time to see the ramifications of their policies they would realize that following their philosophy will only lead to exacerbating the problems.
Most everyday democrats are good, well meaning people who do not take the time to try to understand the consequences of their party’s policies.
The Republican Party
Not the party of Lincoln. The Republican party can be looked at as being composed of three groups with of course some belonging to one or more of the groups. The first is the old guard republicans who for the most part are WASPs, well established in their communities, whose major concern is their own well being and their families well being. Not a bad thing in of itself. They are hardworking, much more successful than the average citizen and cherish their independence but have little understanding of what problems others face and really do not care. The the elite monied and socially positioned among them have run the party for many years.
The second group are the religiously oriented who may or may not be part of the old guard. Their primary driving force has been to counter the left wing atheistic influence and to attempt to put into place many of their religious concepts, specifically about abortion, but they never would deny anyone the right or ability to follow their own religion. This group tends to be single issue driven.
The third group are fiscal conservatives whose major concern is a sound fiscal policy, a market driven economy with as little government involvement as possible. They believe that the less there is of government interaction and control the better off all of us will be and that our economy and our individual freedoms will expand and be secure.
My opinion is that the Republican Party is incompetent, the first two groups are out of touch and the party can only be saved by the Tea party and the Fiscal Conservatives.
The Republican party is completely out of touch with lower income people, ethnic groups, and what small business must go through to survive. Initially they were isolationists and now have become the leading interventionists which is counter to being fiscally conservative. Ask Ron Paul about this.
Where do I stand? Because of my roots, my education and my life experiences I vote Republican most of the time because they are less dangerous and I agree in many ways with the fiscal conservative Republicans. I do not relate to the religious right, or the old guard republicans. I am definitely opposed to the democratic party as it is now composed and believe their leaders are immoral, purposely lie without any shame, and really, down deep, do not believe in our country, its constitution or its moral basis. I do believe in decriminalization of pot, prostitution and free speech.
I believe that the Republican party will either disappear because they are not relevant or they will be taken over by the Tea party. Who will be the driving force to wrest the power from the Old Guard. The fiscal conservatives will go along happily as will the religious right but there will be some conflict over the abortion issue, drugs and pornography and other social issues.
I believe that since we live in a complex society government should provide accurate information to the public and the public should decide what is best for themselves at an individual level not some unelected far removed hack.
I believe that our society, as it has done so well in past, must provide the environment where an individual’s dreams can be realized and where there are few barriers to realizing our own potential if we put our energy and soul into it. Our country has been so unique in providing just that. More so than probably any country in history.
I believe that a group’s culture is a major driving force in our lives. Many of our problems come from a culture gap. This is too often ignored. If what is the standard of conduct, and what is valued in a culture does not translate into a value and skill set needed to participate in 21st century society, then large portions of that culture group will fail. Until we understand this we can make all of the excuses, blame all of the outside influences and spend huge amounts of capital with very little to show for it. Like I point out in other sections of the website. To positively address a problem you have to properly identify the root causes.
The battle will be collectivism and loss of individual freedom and responsibility versus what this country has been all about, individual freedom, innovation, capitalism, and blending of cultures.
The battle will be between those that do things that make them feel good versus those that do things that have good consequences.
All men should be born equal under the law but all men(and women of course) are born and raised as unique individuals and therefore as they take their random walk through life, will come out with different results. It is not government’s function to try to make the results the same for everyone.