The Wonderfulness of a Two Party System
Republicans support “the flag of the United States of America and … the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
Democrats support We-The-People, for whom the Republic was established just as the Declaration of Independence says.
Both political parties support the republic and the people. Both political parties have good intentions. Most members of both parties have good intentions, too, but there is a problem: all of us are fallible human beings. We, you and I and the people who live way across the country, sometimes make mistakes. Sometimes you are just wrong-headed and sometimes I just get it into my thick skull that I deserve some of your stuff. Problems arise.
If we, you and I and everyone else in the country, were not fallible we humans would have no need of governments. Your person and your property and those you love would be safe from thieves and thugs. As would mine and everyone else’s. But we are fallible human beings who need protection from thieves and thugs. Especially from thieves and thugs who say, perhaps with good intentions, “I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”
The fallible human beings who argued and raged and fussed and fumed and finally drafted the US Constitution knew all that. Maybe I could have drafted a Constitution that I like better and maybe you could have drafted one that you like better. You probably would have been too stubborn to ratify my wonderful draft and too ignorant to see the flaws in your own stupid draft but neither you nor I were there, elected by our peers to draft a governmental rule book that would work for us all.
But the people who were there did the job about as well as any collection of folks could. They even figured out that some things that were obvious to them should be specified in a Bill of Rights attached as Amendments; they knew that they had better make it possible for people, later on, to add Amendments; they were wise enough to make amending the Constitution difficult by requiring any amendment to be ratified by a majority of the states.
The Founders knew that throughout history whenever too much power fell into anyone’s hands the power was abused. The checks and balances in the constitution are intended to prevent power from being accumulated in one place and used to harm We-The-People.
Republicans and Democrats alike find all those checks and balances vexing. “We should help …” say helpful politicians with good intentions. “And how will we pay for …” say politicians with an eye toward sustainability. That is just what the Founders intended. Checks and balances are at the center of most political debates. Vexing. Unavoidable. That is the nature of fallible human beings living together in a society.
The Essence of a Political Debate:
- Brilliant Argument For Federal Program: If we could just set up the right government program to assure that human nature is perfected …
- Shoddy Argument Against Program: If wishes were horses then beggars would ride.
- Sheesh! Maybe you and I should be more accepting of one another’s views. You’d still be wrong and I’d still be right but maybe we could at least have an intelligent disagreement.