OPINION: Can America's political system survive the deep divide?
John H. Rallis | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 9 years, 3 months AGO
With regards to Mr. Ed Berry’s recent letters, they are biased and confrontational.
His op-ed article claiming that “very conservative evangelical” Republicans control the state Legislature is pure hyperbole with no basis in fact. He goes on to attack the House majority leader, Mr. Keith Regier, and Montana GOP chairman, Mr. Dan Happel, purposely stirring up negative emotions against evangelicals, Republicans and conservatives like myself who believe conservatism is the best way for America.
Republicans come in differed genders, colors, and ideologies. Mr. Berry states he is a Republican. However, he shows his true colors in the last part of the next-to-last paragraph of his op-ed article, and I quote, “We cannot live with the destruction VCEs will cause if they remain the majority of Montana’s Republican legislature.” It also illustrates his religious bias although the first Americans and Founding Fathers were Christians.
Mr. Berry uses standard Democratic scare tactics of “if you vote Republican, you are doomed. But vote Democratic, you will be saved.” Another election tactic is to claim to be a Republican and then attacking fellow Republicans to create mistrust and disunity in the Republican Party.
His second letter continues his verbal assault on Mr. Regier. He also severely chastises Mr. Regier for not supporting the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes’ water compact. I have not read the Indian water compact nor spent 200 hours reading it for a reason. All federal legislation and policies are written by bureaucrats in legalese language containing caveats, assumptions and the U.S. court system interpretations of legislation, and any changes they may require.
However, I want to address the real differences between the Democratic and Republican parties and why it is germane to the Ed Berry articles and the response found in Mr. Mark Agather’s Guest Opinion. It will also explain Mr. Berry’s vitriolic attacks on the VCEs and Republicans and shows that by his actions, he is a wolf (Democrat) in sheep’s (Republican) clothing.
The Democratic Party has evolved over the last five decades from a party that put America and the working man first to the following dogma:
1. Keep political power by separating blacks, Hispanics and Caucasians into blocs, giving Democratic candidates their votes using government handouts.
2. Truly believe Big Government is the only one that can provide personal security, equal outcomes in wealth, education etc., making the people reliant on government.
3. Do not allow any interjection of religion in the political dialogue.
4. Increase taxes on the middle class and user fees on the low income to pay for benefits and handouts to get votes.
5. Insist members never speak ill of each other and support the party’s agenda above all else. Example is former Sen. Max Baucus, being a true Democrat, pushing Obama’s Affordable Care Act through Congress although a majority of the American people opposed it. Once enacted he made the statement “the Affordable Care Act was a train wreck waiting to happen.” He then retired, becoming U.S. ambassador to China.
6. The wealthy have not earned their wealth so to be fair, they must give back a majority of their wealth to government, unless they are wealthy Democratic Party donors such as the Clintons, Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, etc.
7. Believe in open borders, especially Mexico. The reality is Third World countries will dump their human problems, leaving the U.S. taxpayer to pick up the costs of their health care, education, adequate housing and jobs. Not the United States nor any other industrialized nation can absorb an unlimited number of migrants from the Third World without the nation dissolving into chaos and anarchy.
8. People who achieve great things or enrich themselves must be ridiculed and marginalized so those that do not have the self-motivation to achieve things or enrich themselves will not feel life is unfair.
9. Being accountable for your actions is not required, although your friends in the Democratic Party and government understand it is not your fault.
The sad reality is the Democratic Party is attractive to those uncomfortable with Christianity in the political arena, want no responsibility for their actions and lack the self-motivation to improve their lives. To quote Sigmund Freud, “Most people do not want freedom, because freedom involves responsibility, and most people are frightened of responsibility.” The Democratic Party is their refuge.
Conservative Republicans believe that:
1. Government must be limited and the Constitution, Bill of Rights (the first 10 amendments) must be adhered to as written by the Founding Fathers using the Federalist Papers as a guide post.
2. In making public policy America comes first, then state and then Republican Party.
3. Americans are entitled to keep as much of their earnings and not have their income usurped by excessive taxes and user fees levied by the federal government.
4. Individuals are accountable for their actions and given a speedy trial and proper punishment.
5. Believe in a proactive immigration enforcement policy, fenced southern border and illegal immigrants immediately returned to their country.
6. Believe in rewarding achievers.
7. Expect the president of the United States and the people’s representatives at national and state levels to honor and protect America’s Judeo-Christian roots and beliefs that America was founded on and its Western culture.
The Founding Fathers created a republic with checks and balances to limit the federal government’s power and to protect and preserve the people’s liberties inscribed in the first 10 amendments (Bill of Rights). Today, the U.S. government limits people’s freedom with a morass of laws and regulations creating a citizenry that is losing confidence in their government.
However, the reason for this crisis of confidence rests squarely on the American people. Whether Americans like or dislike politics and the political process it does not affect their daily lives and their children’s future.
When a discussion on or about politics comes up, too many Americans stick their head in the sand. Yet when they are directly affected by a law, regulation or by American soldiers being sent to a foreign country to fight and die, they scratch their heads because they haven’t a clue. Americans who disregard politics do it at their peril. Read American history and profiles of the Founding Fathers, also the Greek philosopher Plato’s “Republic.”
This quote from Mr. Samuel Taylor Coleridge is appropriate: “If men could learn from history, what lessons it might teach us! But passion and party blind our eyes, and the light which experience gives is a lantern on the stern, which shines only on the waves behind us.” Read and learn.
Rallis is a resident of Columbia Falls.
ARTICLES BY JOHN H. RALLIS
OPINION: True reform vs. the false security of gun control
OPINION: Energy policy or social engineering?
Clean Power Plan = De-industrialization in disguise
OPINION: Does America really have two political parties?
The Republican and Democratic parties say their political philosophies are different. But are they? This was true for the most part up to the 1930s.