Chase's Chasm

The two party system does not represent the American people. The majority of the people must make compromises in their beliefs to find a party with which to align themselves. Any potential candidate must compromise his or her own beliefs to gain the nomination of one party or the other for without the support of either the Democratic or Republican Party any candidate, with few exceptions, is condemned to obscurity.

Our nation’s founding fathers put little faith in political parties. George Washington refused allegiance to any political party during his Presidency. Benjamin Franklin believed that parties provoke confusion. And Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay warned against the evils to the general public that a “spirit of faction” would cause. But despite these warnings, by as early as the end of the 1700’s two opposing factions emerged representing different opinions about the role of the federal government. The Federalist wanted a strong central government that would dominate the states, thus ensuring national unity. The Republicans held that the individual states should have more power. While the members of these two opposing parties disagreed over the distribution of power, they agreed on most moral, economic, social, and foreign policy issues such as slavery, domestic trade, the family, and isolationism.

During the 1800’s the chasm between the parties widened, especially over the issue of slavery. The Federalist became the Republicans and opposed slavery and the secession of the South, and the Republicans became the Democratic-Republicans, or the Democratic Party and declared support for slavery and secession.

I think it can be safely said that the two party system of the mid to late 1800’s literally divided our nation. The question that needs to be answered now is, are we going to allow history to repeat itself? We need to learn to be Americans first and to place the importance of “towing the party line” a far distant second. We need to learn to form our opinion on each individual negotiable matter through a careful review of all the relevant facts. We need to find moral common ground on the issues at hand.

How long will we put up with dishonest and corrupt two party system? We need to let it be known that we will no longer tolerate candidates lacking integrity and whose records show the corruption that pervades so deeply the representation we have come to accept and sadly expect. Every American needs to ask him or herself if they trust our government. If the answer is “no”, then we have been duped and it is time we take our government back from the interlopers who now occupy the offices of those who are suppose to do our bidding.