By Edwin Cooney
It's both right and traditional to say good things about George Washington, our "Founding Father," who was first so designated by President Warren Harding. However, like the rest of us, Papa George had a flaw or two. One, according to sources, was a monumental temper when provoked. The other, misjudgment, common to all of us, can be found in his "farewell address" which, rather than a speech, was a letter in the Philadelphia American Daily Advertiser of Monday, September 19th, 1796. In that letter, Washington issued a warning to avoid party politics, but without the suggestion of a practical alternative.
His warning was to avoid involvement in political parties and to rely strictly on the passage of constitutional amendments rather than narrowly focused laws for the solution of ongoing conflicts. History demonstrates that as close as Washington was to both Thomas Jefferson, his original Secretary of State, and Alexander Hamilton, his personal friend, aide-de-camp during the revolution and Secretary of the Treasury during the first part of his presidency, he apparently couldn't convince either man to alter his desire to create political parties. Thus, by warning against the formation of political parties, Washington tainted them by reputation even before they could taint themselves through pettiness and self-serving statements of purposeful achievement and grandeur. As a result of a famous warning minus a creditable solution, we find ourselves 223 years after Washington's famous letter in a hell of an emotional and spiritual quagmire. Here's the fundamental problem.
Since political parties are traditionally tainted, only the most dedicated politically-oriented citizens consider them relevant and worthy of joining, let alone taking them seriously. The rest of us, to the extent we accept politics as a "necessary evil," identify with individual candidates. Saying "I vote for the man, not the party!” has become the most traditional and popular admonition of political principle throughout American history. As I see it, that particular assertion misses the mark as to what voting is all about. After all, we're supposedly a government of laws and not of people.
The value of any political party is what it stands for. The Democratic Party founded by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison stood for decentralized or state government providing for the people’s needs over the use of the federal or central government. Federalists — later Whigs and Republicans — stood for the central government over state government. The reason for that was because its constituency, the American system of business, had to cross state lines in order to function, let alone prosper. Business and commerce were simply too big and potentially profitable to be effectively regulated by any individual state government.
Today's Democratic Party stands for active service on behalf of a broad spectrum of a socially oriented constituency, even with their differing and often conflicting social and political objectives. The purpose of government, Democrats insist, is that of improving the "general welfare" of the people as a whole.
Today's Republican Party is about supporting and sustaining business and commerce which they regard as the two most vital engines of our economy. As Calvin Coolidge once put it: economy reaches everywhere.
So, you ask, when did central or "big government" become bad for business but a benefactor for the people? The answer is during the Depression when big business was championed by the central government, but ultimately defrauded and economically broke the American people. FDR's New Deal took over the central government and employed and increased the purchasing power of John and Suzie Q. Citizen. However, when Lyndon Johnson signed the 1964 Civil Rights Bill, the old Dixie wing of the Democratic Party, fearing association with and (even worse) obligation to blacks, married the business wing of the Republican Party even though during pre Civil War days the South trumpeted the human “benefits” of its system of slavery over the profit-oriented motive of both the Whig and Republican parties. After all, slaves were taken care of from cradle to grave. Northern capitalism used people and, when it wasn't profitable to pay them, let them starve. Conservative southerners in 1964 swapped their traditional cradle to grave concern for blacks and signed on to the profit motivation of the old northern industrialism even though it had once defeated and humiliated their beloved confederacy.
As for today's parties, conservatism, nativism, and religious fundamentalism dominate the Republican Party. Liberalism, environmentalism and social welfare are on the agenda of today's Democratic Party. Today's Democratic Party is the direct managing tool of government. Today's Republican Party uses business and commerce as legitimate tools for managing the government.
As for "the best candidate," although it's only natural to endorse the person who is simpatico with our general approach to things, we can be better served if at times we're a little uncomfortable with the direction of an individual. That's when an individual is providing leadership.
What separates Donald Trump from other legitimate activist presidents isn't his conservatism, but rather his overall adolescence. He thinks and acts like a rebellious adolescent. Even when he gives someone the benefit of the doubt, it is to bolster himself politically.
I wish we weren't impeaching President Trump, because I fear it's to his advantage. Still, since I believe he sought to bribe the President of Ukraine, and since bribery is clearly an impeachable offense according to Article II of the Constitution as well as almost a violation of historical rules that conduct our relations with other countries, I'd vote to convict. No, this impeachment effort may not be practical, but it is far from a “hoax.”
As I read American history of the four presidential impeachments, only President Andrew Johnson's was actually a hoax! Andrew Johnson's sin was defiance of the “Tenure of Office Act.” It was passed by Congress, vetoed by Johnson, passed over Johnson's veto, and eventually declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of the United States. No president, not even President Donald Trump, should be impeached for merely defying Congress. After all, Harry Truman gave Congress “hell” all the time!
Whether the American political system is principle or hoax, as sad as it is to say this, sometimes it is both!
As for President Washington's "flaw" referred to above, all must be forgiven. After all, not even George Washington was as flawless as President Trump, was he?!
RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,
EDWIN COONEY
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