As I got older and started to become more aware of things
(not just in politics, but life in general), I started to lean toward the
Republican Party. Jimmy Carter and
Ronald Reagan were the reason for that.
Carter was not a very good president and the nation was not doing well
under his and the Democrat Party’s leadership.
So even though I did like Jimmy Carter, I didn’t think he should remain
in office.
I first learned about Ronald Reagan when I was a senior in
high school, and to be honest I didn’t think that he would be any better a
president than Jimmy Carter. What a
difference four years makes. By the time
it came to re-elect Reagan I was a firm believer in him. The country recovered from the Carter
doldrums and young people like me (at the time) found out it was OK to be proud
to be an American.But I still wouldn’t call myself a Republican … but I didn’t call myself a Democrat either. I liked to refer to myself as an independent. I didn’t even consider myself to be conservative … I called myself a “moderate”. Looking back, I don’t think I ever really was all that moderate … I just didn’t know who conservatives actually were and what they stood for.
Then came the first Gulf War and talk radio was introduced
into my life …and NPR (National Public Radio).
NPR lead me to local news talk radio and then ….. Rush Limbaugh! I’ll admit I didn’t like Rush at first, but
it did not take me long to change my opinion of him. Listening to him lead me to research history
and government on my own. Why is that?
For one reason, after listening to his show I’d want to check things out for
myself. Rush would always talk about the
“Federalist Papers”. I’d never heard of
them. I began looking for them, so much
so that one Christmas my wife, Lisa, surprised me with a copy of them!
From there I began reading Washington, Jefferson, Adams, and
so on. I read Abraham Lincoln; I read
all I can on American government and the Constitution. I won’t go into all that I’ve read; I will
only say this: our system of government, if used as originally intended, is
foundationally strong. What weakens it,
and has sent this country down the road to disaster, is the two-party system.The founders warned against political factions. They foresaw the troubles that excessive partisanship would bring to a nation. Unfortunately, those we have elected are not as astute as the founders were. I’ve just completed reading a book Dr. Ben Carson has written about the U.S. Constitution. The Constitution was written without party politics in mind. There aren’t any party rules in it or any party leadership offices listed. The Constitution makes it perfectly clear that all power comes from the people, not from Congress, or the courts, or from Washington DC. Power doesn’t even come from the President of the United States … and especially not from political parties. We the People are the rulers, we’re not the ruled!
If this latest political season hasn’t revealed to us that
the same old politics is the root cause of our malfunctioning government what
will? Attacks of our constitutional
rights and the document itself are meant to distract us from the true reason
our government is malfunctioning. The
reason why our government does not work for us is the fact that government has
not adhered to its constitutional responsibilities for nearly one hundred
years! Party over country rules the day
in Washington DC, and for that matter, in state capitals, and city halls, etc.
The founders said that our country would function best with
an educated population. I believe by
“educated” they were speaking of an informed population ( as most Colonial
Americans were not formally educated).
Colonialist took part and engaged in their government. They learned and
knew how it worked. We should too. The two-party system is obsolete. The founders would not believe that the U.S.
population living in the information age
would still be relying on it. History has placed “We the people” in the position of defending our Constitution from
those we’ve elected to uphold it … in order keep and hold “a more perfect union”.
There you have it,
Eddie
