Dixie - In Memoriam
New member
Since the founding of the nation, there has been a debate about the functions and principles of government, as well as the Constitution. Madison and Hamilton argued vigorously over some of the very same issues the left and right debate today, and much more detailed and compelling arguments were presented on both sides. The point is, we have always been a left/right nation who fundamentally disagree with the role of government. The left believing the government should be proactive in our lives and compelled to make them better, and the right believing the government should be limited in power and confined solely to the perfunctory duties outlined in the Constitution.
From these two distinct philosophies, emerge the left and right in American politics. Through the years, they have taken different forms, supported different parties, held various positions on the issues of the day, and at the end of the day, lived with what The People decided at the ballot box. Some will argue that we've never been more divided as a nation, but I have to disagree, the founding fathers were sharply divided. Before the Constitution could even be ratified, they had to adopt the first 10 changes to it, because the arguments were just as divisive and heated. No sooner than than the Constitution and Bill of Rights became law of the land, we had even more debate on what that meant, what kind of power did this new government have, what could they do, and what could they not do? Many questions took many years to answer, and in one case, it even took Civil War.
Through the Great Depression, we had the same kind of left-right debate as we see today with the struggling economy, those who thought more government was the solution, and those who thought more capitalism was the answer. None of these arguments were ever settled, we simply voted FDR into power and took the leftist road. Arguments persist to this day over whether that was a good thing or bad thing. We've seen an era of social progressiveness, reforms and changes to how our government recognizes religion or respects religious tradition. But this sort of thing didn't start with DOMA, it's been ongoing, through most of our history. None of the arguments we are having today are really new. In fact, the issue of church and state is very robust in the archives of our founding fathers. It was arguably the main issue of the time, and was heavily debated back and forth. It's important to note, we did not simply form an Atheist government devoid of any respect for religion, we established a very "pro-religion" government who guaranteed religious freedom from persecution.
We spring forward to 2013, where we have a nation of illiterates, who simply don't have the educational wherewithal to study things like the Federalist Papers, or our founding history, and instead rely on 'talking points' from their party leaders, or worse, pop culture icons. They have no idea of why things are not constitutional, and frankly, they don't really care. We're dealing with the Fruit Loop Generation... (they were raised in front of the TV with a box of Fruit Loops!) They want what they want, NOW! Whether it's free cell phones, free health care, free condoms, free drugs... just get the Fat Cats to pay for it and give it to us, dammit! Rich people have too much money! It doesn't matter that our Constitution and founding principles explicitly prohibit segregation by class, unlike many of our European counterparts, we HAVE to make it about class so the 'Eurotrash Socialism' rhetoric will be effective. We've been doing this same thing for over 200 years.
The only difference I see today, is the ignorance factor.
From these two distinct philosophies, emerge the left and right in American politics. Through the years, they have taken different forms, supported different parties, held various positions on the issues of the day, and at the end of the day, lived with what The People decided at the ballot box. Some will argue that we've never been more divided as a nation, but I have to disagree, the founding fathers were sharply divided. Before the Constitution could even be ratified, they had to adopt the first 10 changes to it, because the arguments were just as divisive and heated. No sooner than than the Constitution and Bill of Rights became law of the land, we had even more debate on what that meant, what kind of power did this new government have, what could they do, and what could they not do? Many questions took many years to answer, and in one case, it even took Civil War.
Through the Great Depression, we had the same kind of left-right debate as we see today with the struggling economy, those who thought more government was the solution, and those who thought more capitalism was the answer. None of these arguments were ever settled, we simply voted FDR into power and took the leftist road. Arguments persist to this day over whether that was a good thing or bad thing. We've seen an era of social progressiveness, reforms and changes to how our government recognizes religion or respects religious tradition. But this sort of thing didn't start with DOMA, it's been ongoing, through most of our history. None of the arguments we are having today are really new. In fact, the issue of church and state is very robust in the archives of our founding fathers. It was arguably the main issue of the time, and was heavily debated back and forth. It's important to note, we did not simply form an Atheist government devoid of any respect for religion, we established a very "pro-religion" government who guaranteed religious freedom from persecution.
We spring forward to 2013, where we have a nation of illiterates, who simply don't have the educational wherewithal to study things like the Federalist Papers, or our founding history, and instead rely on 'talking points' from their party leaders, or worse, pop culture icons. They have no idea of why things are not constitutional, and frankly, they don't really care. We're dealing with the Fruit Loop Generation... (they were raised in front of the TV with a box of Fruit Loops!) They want what they want, NOW! Whether it's free cell phones, free health care, free condoms, free drugs... just get the Fat Cats to pay for it and give it to us, dammit! Rich people have too much money! It doesn't matter that our Constitution and founding principles explicitly prohibit segregation by class, unlike many of our European counterparts, we HAVE to make it about class so the 'Eurotrash Socialism' rhetoric will be effective. We've been doing this same thing for over 200 years.
The only difference I see today, is the ignorance factor.