Over the years the Republican and Democratic parties have battled relentlessly, but not for control of the House, Senate, or even the presidency. The real battle has been for the title of the "Party of Hypocrisy." The fight has been underway ever since the Grand Old Party was just a not-so-grand new party.
Recently the Republican Party has made amazing strides to secure the title. In last seven years the party of small government has overseen one of the largest expansions in government spending in history. Earmarks have ballooned under their watchful leadership. And the Republican Party oversaw the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, the largest new bureaucracy in decades. The Republicans also care so much about states' rights that they have fought tooth and nail to make the definition of marriage a federal matter. And after attempting to crucify Bill Clinton for lying about a sexual liaison, they all now seem to develop collective amnesia whenever they hear the phrase "weapons of mass destruction."
Of course, the Democrats refuse to sit idly by while their opponents try to secure the title. In 2006, the Democratic Party was swept to power by rallying against opponents mired in corruption. They ran on a platform of cleaning up Washington. Yet Congressman William J. Jefferson (who was caught with roughly a hundred thousand dollars in a freezer and has been charged with multiple felonies) is still a proud member of the House Democratic Caucus. It's OK-- the Democrats have only had about three years to take serious action against William J. Jefferson. I'm sure they will get around it eventually.
While the Republican Party currently still has a good hold on being the most hypocritical party, the Democrats are contemplating a bold move to steal the title. The Democratic Party has recently enveloped itself in ideals and language of the late 19th-early 20th century progressive movement. For those of you who don't know, one of the key platforms of the progressive movement at the turn of the century was direct elections. They successfully fought for the direct election of U.S. Senators and campaigned vigorously for direct primaries.
The Progressives believed that candidates should be selected based on the votes of the people and not by party bosses. Yet the Democratic Party (the party of progressive values) is poised to select their presidential nominee not based on the will of the people, but on the vote of the 795 super delegates (i.e. party bosses). The time to act is now! The Democratic Party has an amazing opportunity to win the title of the "Party of Hypocrisy."
1 comment:
Nice sarcasm. I will be disgusted if the party bosses steal the election from the rightful party nominee.
You mentioned states' rights. The parties have switched on who defends states' rights. The Republicans, champions of states' rights during our lifetime, trampled them when passing the No Child Left Behind bill. I believe they have also passed federal laws pre-empting state consumer protection or environmental laws. Democrats, who relied on federal power for sixty years, have turned to states' rights for equal rights of gays, minimum wage, and environmental legislation.
As you know, when our country was founded, the Federalists were for a strong central government, but the Jeffersonian Republicans felt the power should lie with the states. They fought viciously about this. Things changed, however, when Jefferson won the presidency and his party captured the Congress. They stopped complaining about federal power and started using it for their own ends. Further, the Federalists, having lost power, became the new champions of states' rights.
The moral of the story is that whoever controls the federal government wants to use that power; whoever is in opposition becomes the new champion of states' rights.
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