A couple of the things that I read or watched yesterday got me to wondering about the nature of our (US) politics.
Firstly, by way of groundwork, I've always been aware that traditionally (maybe outside the prelude to Civil War)
America's two parties are really (or were) basically the same, one coin two sides, and each merely serve as
counterbalances to each other as a prevention to excess (radicalism in today's parlance) and corruption.
The first bit of information was from an article I read about how firebrands, upstarts and third parties
always rise up from time-to-time to goad and provoke the staid old parties from their lethargy,
but that the energies and passions of these movements are fairly quickly tamped down
by the momentum of the establishment and the population at large.
There are many examples of this, the 70s radicals, Perot,
The Tea Party, Trump and now, maybe "The Squad."
Then I saw a piece on the noisy box that was talking about the death of the Blue Dogs,
and for those of you a bit younger, what that refers to is the conservative,
one might even say traditional, Democrat, the norm not too long ago.
It was positing that there were possibly but a couple left
and that the Party had been taken over by its more
radical elements, i.e., the aforementioned "Squad."
Now, like Trump before them, will they be swept away by the forces of moderation,
(and that was one of the components of the first part, that Trump has passed)
and the party returned to a more normative state in order to
remain viable to the American People or,
are we now, truly that divided
and different?
I don't think so, even with the passion of partisanship for our "home teams,"
but what do you think? Still amicably united or irrevocably divided?
__________________________________________
Democrat born. Democrat bred. Libertarian led (by Democrats).
Firstly, by way of groundwork, I've always been aware that traditionally (maybe outside the prelude to Civil War)
America's two parties are really (or were) basically the same, one coin two sides, and each merely serve as
counterbalances to each other as a prevention to excess (radicalism in today's parlance) and corruption.
The first bit of information was from an article I read about how firebrands, upstarts and third parties
always rise up from time-to-time to goad and provoke the staid old parties from their lethargy,
but that the energies and passions of these movements are fairly quickly tamped down
by the momentum of the establishment and the population at large.
There are many examples of this, the 70s radicals, Perot,
The Tea Party, Trump and now, maybe "The Squad."
Then I saw a piece on the noisy box that was talking about the death of the Blue Dogs,
and for those of you a bit younger, what that refers to is the conservative,
one might even say traditional, Democrat, the norm not too long ago.
It was positing that there were possibly but a couple left
and that the Party had been taken over by its more
radical elements, i.e., the aforementioned "Squad."
Now, like Trump before them, will they be swept away by the forces of moderation,
(and that was one of the components of the first part, that Trump has passed)
and the party returned to a more normative state in order to
remain viable to the American People or,
are we now, truly that divided
and different?
I don't think so, even with the passion of partisanship for our "home teams,"
but what do you think? Still amicably united or irrevocably divided?
__________________________________________
Democrat born. Democrat bred. Libertarian led (by Democrats).
