With the election on the horizon I'm sure everyone is sick of political posts that attack one party or the other, or that go after a candidate and make up a bunch of false rumors about each side getting mad at them for doing something they already did. So I, in honor of my favorite President, have decided to make a slightly different kind of political post.
For anyone who doesn't know, my favorite President is George Washington. Yup, the first. The only man to EVER be elected by a unanimous electoral college vote. No other president has done this, not even James Monroe, who ran unopposed. Now George Washington had a very specific view of the two party system. (For those who don't know, that is the system we use)
He believed it would tear this country apart.
Now most people would hear this and think that he was referring to the disagreements and arguments that lead to a great deal of animosity between the two parties. I tend to disagree. I think what he meant was that blind devotion to a political party (Something I find very common) will lead to people electing the wrong leader just because he is on that parties ticket.
That is a HUGE problem. The way that democracy works best is when people think for themselves. When they have opinions and are informed. But when you have political parties (I don't mean liberals and conservatives, I specifically mean Republicans and Democrats) people simply align with one and keep voting for it. This blind devotion leads to parties being able to take advantage of their supporters and use them to "advance party agendas" that really just give them more money or power. Then they attack their opponents for doing the exact same thing. I'm not going to say which side I support, though if you know me, you know which side that is, because in truth, both sides are guilty of this at one time or another. It is a sad fact.
Don't get me wrong here, I'm not saying people shouldn't vote or anything like that. I'm saying that the system we have isn't perfect. Do I have a better one, of course not. I'm not a politician, I didn't study political Science of Government. I only state what I see. Our system has issues, but if we become truly informed voters and look beyond how a matter only affects us into how it affects the country, then maybe, just maybe, you'll see people start to turn less towards what the party says is right towards what they believe to be right.
So there ya have it. A political post where I don't yell at either side. I yell at both.
BTW, here is the quote that inspired this:
"The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by
the spirit of revenge natural to party dissention, which in different
ages & countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is
itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal
and permanent despotism. The disorders & miseries, which result,
gradually incline the minds of men to seek security & repose in the
absolute power of an Individual: and sooner or later the chief of some
prevailing faction more able or more fortunate than his competitors,
turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the
ruins of Public Liberty." — George Washington, September 19, 1796
