Democrats have lost their way
Biden's weak leadership doesn't help
The Democratic Party in the United States has a colorful history. At the time of independence and the Civil War, the Democrats were the party of slavery and did everything possible to prevent abolition, including the enacting of Jim Crow laws by Southern state legislatures under largely Democratic Party rule. Over time, when the mood of the country shifted towards respect for its Constitution and the freedoms and rights of all Americans regardless of race, religion or sexual orientation, the Democrats rewrote their history to blame Republicans for their own sins. Voting legislation passed by Republicans in Texas and Georgia is now labeled the new “Jim Crow” laws by Democrats.
As the American Republic evolved, the Democrats became for a period the party of liberty, equality, and freedom for all. They were the party of small government and individual rights until about 1860, while the Republican party was extending government power and economic intervention, building the transcontinental railway, the university system, and promoting the homesteading of the West while the Democrats opposed such large government initiatives. Sometime between 1860 and 1936, the parties shifted platforms and the Democrats became the party of big government and the Republicans took on the role of defender of freedoms.
These oddities in American history confuse many scholars and are either unknown or misunderstood by students of American history today. Modern political hacks define states as Red states or Blue states without giving any thought to the historical differences between the parties and how they changed over time. But we should be clear - Biden’s Democratic Party is all about government intervention in all aspects of the economy; regulation and contol over individuals at the expense of their historic freedoms; and, a far left wing drive to make America into an authoritarian socialist state. The divide between Democrats and Republicans could not be more absolute than it is today.
The unique feature of the American Republic, and possibly the major reason for its 345 year economic success, is its Constitution and political system with three co-equal branches of government - Congress (comprising the Senate and House of Representatives) to enact laws; the Executive Branch, led by the President, to enforce those laws; and, the Judiciary to interpret the laws when any dispute arises. This system of checks and balances was designed by the founding fathers to protect the people from their government, as opposed to systems in other countries which were designed to protect those in power from the people they represent. In England, the Monarchy had absolute power, as did its equivalents in France, Spain, Germany and Russia, and the military was controlled by the monarchs to suppress any resistance from the population. Power was inherited, not earned.
Revolutions in Europe and Russia changed those regimes but did not always lead to systems that put power in the hands of the people. On one extreme, the Marxist Leninist revolution of Russia put power in the hands of the Communist Party and imposed tyrannical rule on the population. On the other extreme, the French revolution created a society whose watchwords were “Liberty Equality Fraternity” but not until after a series of tyrannical rulers were overthrown including Napoleon Boneaparte. In the middle, the Parliamentary Democracies of England and its commonwealth paid lip service to the monarchy while creating a government elected by the people but protected from the people by the evolution of political parties where elected representatives lost their ability to “vote their conscience” by a system of “party whips” and “cabinet solidarity” that effectively gave their Prime Ministers absolute power but for the institution of a regular need to face the electorate in periodic elections where power could be lost overnight.
American economic success derived from the ability of an individual to create wealth an keep it - the Horatio Alger legend. The real Horatio Alger was not a “rags to riches” success but the author of stories of such successes that became the folklore of American history. People came to America believing that hard work, persistence and luck could make them rich, and for many it did. That spirit of American entrepreneurship saw many such success stories - Henry Ford, J.P. Morgan, the Rockefellers and many others of yore, and more recently Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg. The modern day Republican party seeks to keep alive the “American Dream”, while under Joe Biden the modern day Democratic Party seeks to destroy it.
The rift between left and right in America is exacerbated by the decay of mainstream media from a source of “all the news that’s fit to print” - for many years the effective logo of the New York Times - or “the most trusted name in news” which characterized CNN under Ted Turner’s ownership, to a number of propaganda machines you can no longer rely on for truth. Anchors like Don Lemon, Anderson Cooper or Chris Cuomo seem to make up the news or at least color it be their preferred left wing ideology and are apparently impervious to facts or contrary opinions, while Fox News reports every story with a right wing spin.
We should be thankful that ordinary citizens have the common sense to ignore the rhetoric and shuck off such obvious spin as the recent claims by the Biden Administration that the $4 trillion spending spree will neither fuel higher inflation nor add “one penny” to the U.S. deficit. The reality is so obvious that neither side can give it enough spin to hide the truth - and the truth is that America is threatened by rising inflation, energy shortages, out of control immigration, and, profligate spending which will inevitably cause economic pain.
The policies the Democrats are following are well-intentioned, aimed at narrowing income inequality and rebuilding American infrastructure with a robust social safety net. However, they will have the opposite effect. Inflation is a tax on the poorest in society and social transfers that exceed legitimate need lead to a shortage of labor and drain resources from capital expansion.
Under Biden, U.S. inflation is now out of control and despite the Administration’s protestations to the contrary, deficits matter. The Democrats have lost their way and weak leadership by Biden isn’t helping matters.