Op Ed
Will the Republican Party Go the Way
of the Whigs?
The Whig Party was a major political
party which was active between 1834-54. They brought together a loose coalition
of groups such as the National Republican Party (no affiliation to the modern
Republican Party), disaffected democrats and anti-Masonic Party. They were
united in opposition to what the party considered the Tyranny of King Andrew
(Andrew Jackson). They took the name from the British Party who was opposed to
royal prerogative. Between 1828 and 1832 Jackson won several victories against
the National Republican Party. They elected four presidents between 1830 and
1850 before breaking up into several factions and parties.
The Party was formed in opposition
to the policies of Andrew Jackson who represented the Democratic Party. The
Democrats favored a society which was based on egalitarian agriculturalism.
Their party based consisted of large farmers and the working poor. The Whig
Party was based in the northeastern states. Their base consisted of the
professional business classes, doctors, lawyers, bankers, and store owners.
Since the democrat’s favored slavery, they feared the pro-industrialization
policies of the Whigs which advocated a program of modernization and economic
protectionism.
The Whig Party was never able to
develop a consistent party program. They were bogged down w sectional
divisions regarding slavery. The Northern Wigs were anti-slavery while the
southern Whigs were more pro-slavery. In 1850 Lincoln and others left the Whig
Party and formed the new Republican Party which is often referred to as the GOP
(short for “Grand Old Party”) Today, the Republican Party is one of the two
major political parties in the United States.
Divisions in the Republican
Party
Three dominate political trends exit
in the Republican Party today: The Tea Party, The Libertarian Party, and the
moderate conservatives. The Tea Party advocates balancing the federal budget,
eliminating most of the New Deal Programs and no new taxes. They advocate for
an isolationist policy, cuts to all government programs, personal
responsibility, and individual liberty. The modern Republicans claim to be
fiscal hawks. They want to cut domestic spending and maintain a strong defense
force around the world.
The Tea party does not have a
centralized based. Some factions want to concentrate on economic issues while
others want to emphasize social issues such as abortion, immigration etc.,
while more extremist elements want to dismantle and rebuild government based on
what they claim are constitutional principles. The organizations are funded by
billionaires like the Koch brothers and other wealthy donors. Many extremist
groups have joined the ranks of the Tea Party, thus pulling many chapters
further to the right.
Libertarian Party: libertarianism is
a set of political philosophies that advocate freedom as the highest form of
political order which include voluntary association, individual responsibility.
Many Conservative Libertarians share many of the same views as the Tea Party
concerning the government’s role in society. They advocate limited government
and more personal responsibility. Ran Paul and his son Randal Howard Paul are
members of the Libertarian Party. They advocate for an Isolationist Policy.
They want the government to refuse getting involve in proxy’s wars around the
world and stop all aid to foreign countries.
Modern Republicans also considers
themselves as fiscal Conservatives. They want to maintain the US position in
the world. They support a strong military present around the world. Military
hawks like John McCain and Lindsey Graham have clashed with the Tea Party and
libertarians who want the US to abdicate its position in the world, but do
support their efforts to limit the role of the federal government in people’s
lives.
States’ Rights
States Right has once again become a
battle cry of the far-right extremist. They were against many of the policies
coming out of the Obama Administration. Governor Rick Perry of Texas has even
floated the idea of succession once again. Most of the battle have centered
around the Affordable Care Act (HR 3962) of 2009 which the Republican Party was
opposed to. Over 26 states took the federal government to court claiming the
ACA violated the commerce Clause because it violates states’ rights to control
commerce. The Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 decision that ACA was a tax and did
not violate the commerce clause.
Ted Cruz, Dividing the Party on
Ideological Lines
Senator Ted Cruz has been one of
leading components against ACA. His effort to shut down the government angered
many modern Republicans. He is openly running campaigns against all moderates
who did not vote to shut the government down. These tactics are pushing the
party further and further to the right because many of these republicans are
afraid of primary challenges from the right. Modern Republican such as Mitch
McConnell and Lindsey Graham have Tea Party extremist currently running against
them. Some political analysis predicts that if Cruz keeps pushing his purity
test, it will increase factionalism in the party, thus making it harder for
Republican candidates to win national elections.
President Obama vs. Tea Party
Republicans
Many members of the Republican and
Tea Party movement claim that Obama is trying to destroy the Republican Party.
This claim is a bit absurd when most of the disagreement against him has
focused on his race and citizenship, rather than his political policies. President
Obama received 93% of the African American vote, 71% of the Hispanic vote, 75%
of the Asian and 39% of the White vote. People within these voting blocs did
not vote for Obama because they think he was a nice guy. They voted for him
because he was addressing issues which affected their lives. Why would
minorities want to vote for a Republican candidate who refuses to criticize the
racism coming from the Tea Party, while cutting vital social programs which
were designed to protect middle income and disadvantage Americans from the
excesses of capitalism?
The playbook is the same, but the
actors are different. Andrew Jackson wanted to protect the Southern Aristocracy
against what they feared as federal encroachments against the system of
slavery. Tea Party Republicans want to maintain the Banana Style Economy in the
Southern states. They want to keep trade unions out to maintain low wage jobs.
They also want to dismantle all the programs and laws which came out of the New
Deal. President Obama wanted to use stimulus money to rescue our ailing
infrastructure and put people back to work. About 50 to 60 Tea Party extremist
in the House of Representatives have obstructed and killed all the legislation
designed to pull the country out of recession. Demographers claim that by the
next century, black and brown people will make up the majority in society. If
the Republican Party continue their racist crusade against minorities and
continue to obstruct legislation designed to put people back to work, they will
surely go the way of the Whigs.
Sources:
Wikipedia
Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845) was the seventh President of the United States (1829–1837). Based in frontier Tennessee, Jackson was a politician and army general who defeated the Creek Indians at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend (1814), and the British at the Battle of New Orleans (1815). A polarizing figure who dominated the Second Party System in the 1820s and 1830s, as president he dismantled the Second Bank of the United States and initiated forced relocation and resettlement of Native American tribes from the Southeast to west of the Mississippi River. His enthusiastic followers created the modern Democratic Party. The 1830–1850 became known as the era of Jacksonian democracy.[1]
Wikipedia
Fiscal conservatism is a politicoeconomic philosophy with regards towards fiscal policy and the advocating of fiscal responsibility. Fiscal conservatives advocate and often consider avoiding deficit spending and the reduction of overall government spending and national debt as well as ensuring balanced budget of paramount importance. Fiscal conservatives would also support pay-as-you-go financial policies. Free trade, deregulation of the economy, lower taxes, and other conservative policies are also often, but not necessarily, affiliated with fiscal conservatism.
Wikipedia
The Tea Party movement is an American political movement that is primarily known for advocating a reduction in the U.S. national debt and federal budget deficit by reducing U.S. government spending and taxes. The movement has been called partly conservative, partly libertarian, and partly populist. It has sponsored protests and supported political candidates since 2009.
The name is derived from the Boston Tea Party of 1773, an iconic event in American history. Anti-tax protesters in the United States have often referred to the original Boston Tea Party for inspiration. References to the Boston Tea Party were part of Tax Day protests held throughout the 1990s and earlier. By 2001, a custom had developed among some conservative activists of mailing tea bags to legislators and other officials as a symbolic act.
Wikipedia
Isolationism is a broad foreign affairs doctrine held by people who believe that their own nation is best served by holding the affairs of other nations at a distance. Most Isolationists believe that limiting international involvement keeps their country from being drawn into dangerous and otherwise undesirable conflicts. Some strict Isolationists believe that their country is best served by even avoiding international trade agreements or other mutual assistance pacts.
Two other terms often associated with Isolationism, but not necessarily the same as Isolationism, are:
1. Non-interventionism – is the belief that political rulers should avoid entangling alliances with other nations and avoid all wars not related to direct territorial differences (self-defense). However, most non-interventionists are supporters of free trade, travel, and support certain international agreements, and therefore differ from isolationists.
2. Protectionism – Relates more often to economics, its proponents believe that there should be legal barriers in order to control trade and cultural exchange with people in other states.
States' rights in U.S. politics refers to political powers reserved for the U.S. state governments rather than the federal government according to the United States Constitution, reflecting especially the enumerated powers of Congress and the Tenth Amendment
The balance of federal powers and those powers held by the states as defined in the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution was first addressed in the case of McCulloch v. Maryland (1819). The Court's decision by Chief Justice John Marshall asserted that the laws adopted by the federal government, when exercising its constitutional powers, are generally paramount over any conflicting laws adopted by state governments. After McCulloch, the primary legal issues in this area concerned the scope of Congress' constitutional powers, and whether the states possess certain powers to the exclusion of the federal government, even if the Constitution does not explicitly limit them to the states
Wikipedia
The Affordable Health Care for America Act (or HR 3962) was a bill that was crafted by the United States House of Representatives in November 2009. At the encouragement of the Obama administration, the 111th Congress devoted much of its time to enacting reform of the United States' health care system. Known as the "House bill," it was the House of Representative's chief legislative proposal during the health reform debate, but the Affordable Health Care for America Act as originally drafted never became law.
On December 24, 2009, the Senate passed an alternative health care bill, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (H.R. 3590).[2] In 2010, the House abandoned its reform bill in favor of amending the Senate bill (via the reconciliation process) in the form of the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010.
Huffington Post
The individual health insurance mandate is constitutional, the Supreme Court ruled Thursday, upholding the central provision of President Barack Obama's signature Affordable Care Act.
The 5-4 majority opinion, written by Chief Justice John Roberts, upheld the mandate as a tax, although concluded it was not valid as an exercise of Congress' commerce clause power. Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Brayer, Sonia Soto mayor and Elena Kagan joined in the majority.
Andrew Jackson
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Jackson
Whig Party (United States)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whig_Party_(United_States)
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