American two party system: basic tenants

John Adams once said: “There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties, each arranged under its leader, and concerting measures in opposition to each other. This, in my humble apprehension, is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our Constitution.” George Washington agreed as well, as can be found in his farewell speech.

These men and their opinions serve as a stark reminder that where we are now is explicitly against what our venerated Founding Fathers wanted for this country, and by extension, what the founding Americans wanted. Yet, we find ourselves in a country that is almost exactly what the Founding Fathers feared. Last week, I spoke about making sure that individuals do their research before aligning themselves with anything, let alone their party. I still stand by that, and would like to aid peoples research. So in this article I want to outline some quick basics about each party and assert my opinion that parties are bad for America in General.

Republicans

Governmentally: Small Republicans tend to favor minimal government regulations and involvement. “States’ rights” or federalism tend to be a major tenant of republicanism in that republicans tend to place an emphasis on states rights and their strength in negotiating with the federal government

Economically: Republicans generally lean towards free market capitalism as their preferred economic system. “Political Freedom and economic freedom are indivisible”. Republicans tend to favor the privatization of public service and other social and infrastructure services. Republicans tend to prefer supply-side economics, which states that lower taxes produces more economic growth.

Socially: Republicans are normally socially conservative, opposing things like legal marijuana, same-sex marriage, abortion and illegal immigration reform. They tend to believe strongly in the power of the individual to survive and thrive with minimal assistance from the state. Most republicans tend to strongly support gun rights.

Military: Most Republicans tend to be very supportive of the military, both in spending and in taking action worldwide.

Democrats

Governmentally: LargeDemocrats normally favor higher government regulations and involvement. Democrats tend to place more emphasis on the power of the federal government.

Economically: Democrats tend to lean towards a more regulated economy, with the government placing restrictions and or stimulations on the economy in order to make it more successful or fair. They tend to oppose privation of public service or other services. They prefer to have higher taxes in order to provide the Government with more funding to continue its larger presence.

Socially: Democrats tend to be socially liberal, supporting things like legal drugs, samesex marriage, finding options for illegal immigrants and supporting gun control. They tend to believe in the obligation of the state to ensure fair workplaces and quality of life, and so support unions and other social and financial support systems. Military: Democrats tend to be less supportive of increased military spending and action worldwide.

This is a wildly abbreviated overview, but the differences are clear. Both have the best interests of America in mind, but both are increasingly more concerned with stopping the other than bettering America. If John Adams and George Washington were to visit America today, they would be faced with the realization of some of their greatest fears. Indeed, they would likely not even recognize the governmental system they put into place. One only needs to look at the constant gridlock in congress to begin to understand how this two party system is crippling us. Instead of doing what’s best for America, we increasingly seem to be doing what’s worse for our opposing political party.