Give Us Liberty

Republicans and Democrats – Thoroughly Poisoned

by Paul R. Hollrah

At a time when the terms Republican and Democrat, liberal and conservative, have become sources of confusion in the minds of many, it’s time we understood what is it that drives men and women to adopt one political party over another. 

In an 1824 letter to Henry Lee, a half-brother of Robert E. Lee, Thomas Jefferson discussed the substance of political parties.  He said, “Men, by their constitutions, are naturally divided into two parties: One (consisting of) those who fear and distrust the people, and wish to draw all powers from them into the hands of the higher classes, and two, those who identify themselves with the people, have confidence in them, cherish and consider them as the most honest and safe, although not the most wise depository of the public interests.”

And although Republican leaders appear to be blissfully unaware of who they are and who Democrats are, there is little doubt which party can honestly lay claim to each of Jefferson’s generic parties.  It is the Republican Party which identifies with the people, has confidence in them, cherishes them, and considers them to be the most honest and safe, if not the wisest, depository of the public interest.  It is what defines the Republican Party, and always has. 

On the other hand, it is the Democratic Party that “fears and distrusts” the people, that regularly and consistently attempts to “draw all power away from the people and into the hands of a powerful ruling elite,” an elite who insist that, whatever the problem or the issue, they know what’s best.  The contrasts between the two parties is such that it should not be difficult to draw distinctions between the parties that even the most politically disinterested citizen can recognize. 

But to create that understanding in the hearts and minds of the people requires leadership.  For the average American to grasp the vast differences between the two parties requires leaders with the courage to say what needs to be said, no matter what political correctness might dictate.  But what we find at this point in our nation’s history is that the leaders of the Republican Party, the party that is absolutely essential to this great experiment in self-government, give the opposition party a complete pass on issues that are imperative to our continued freedoms.

No one can doubt that the political waters in America are thoroughly poisoned.  The left is so fearful of permanently losing its hold on the central government that what the Founding Fathers viewed as the senate’s role to “advise and consent,” has become, under Harry Reid’s leadership, synonymous with “rule or ruin.”  There was a time when American liberals masqueraded as harmless populists, declaring their allegiance to the “common man” and the “general welfare,” but that mask has been slowly, but surely, torn from their faces.

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