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This is an excerpt from The Liberty Voice newspaper feature article, "George Washington Speaks from and Rolls in his Grave" available at your local library. To download any of the three issues or to have The Liberty Voice delivered, go to www.TheLibertyVoice.com
An excerpt out of George Washington's farewell address in 1779:
"Let me now ... warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the spirit of party generally. ... The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. ...
"The disorders and miseries which result gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and 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. Without looking forward to an extremity of this kind (which nevertheless ought not to be entirely out of sight), [we must recognize] the common and continual mischiefs of the evils of party.
"The spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it. It serves always to distract the public councils. ... It opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, which finds a facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of party passions. Thus the policy and the will of one country are subjected to the policy and will of another. ...
"A just estimate of that love of power, and proneness to abuse it, which predominates in the human heart, is sufficient to satisfy us of the truth of this position. The necessity of reciprocal checks in the exercise of political power, by dividing and distributing it into different depositories, and constituting each the guardian of the public weal against invasions by the others, has been evinced by experiments ancient and modern; some of them in our country and under our own eyes. To preserve them must be as necessary as to institute them.
"If, in the opinion of the people, the distribution or modification of the constitutional powers be in any particular wrong, let it be corrected by an amendment in the way which the Constitution designates. But let there be no change by usurpation; for though this, in one instance, may be the instrument of good, it is the customary weapon by which free governments are destroyed. The precedent must always greatly overbalance in permanent evil any partial or transient benefit, which the use can at any time yield."
There have never been amendments to the Constitution to institute the two-party evil that Washington envisioned, which as we can witness in the current environment of "Impeachment's off the table," has usurped the Constitution.
Washington's advise in combination with this modern example, should serve to caution us all from taking one side or another based on party rhetoric.
Let us choose sides based on right and wrong --as determined by our Constitution, rather than right and left --based on party preference.
This post was dedicated to those who defend their party in preference to their Constitution: May they heed the advise of the Father of our Country.
Dedicated to Doug and those who defend their party over their Constitution.
You are wrong Liberty Belle. Did you bother to read what I have written previously? I posted that, "we need at LEAST two strong Parties."
And that, "I favor multiple political Parties. We'll need instant run-off elections and popular political mavericks that are willing to buck the Dems and Repubs to make that work though."
I'll be the first to admit that some Dems have have not properly defended the Constitution.
Why are you so hesitant to defend or clarify Ron Paul's record? Doesn't it bother you that he voted for Tom DeLay and John Boehner several times to be Majority Leader?
Again, I think it is heartening that a handful of Republicans are working to take back their Party and Ron Paul is speaking out about defending the Constitution and the lunacy of the Bush Doctrine of first-strike war.
But, Ron Paul's hands are not clean.
You seem to view me as a Republican, with your repeated statements of "taking back your party" but I am in fact a Libertarian. More importantly, I really don't affiliate with any one party. I only believe in the Constitution--in more individual liberty --not less.
You repeatedly point at the speck in Paul's eye, while not recognizing the log in Edward's. Has Edwards ever given public support to the impeachment articles against Cheney?
Again, you're either part of the solution or you're part of the problem...Edwards must be held accountable with his actions toward revitalizing the Constitution.
Link
Obama and Clinton have basically hinted that they will let by-gones be by-gones concerning crimes committed by Bush and Co. Edwards would let the judicial process play out. It's taken decades but Pinochet is facing the music.