Dear Editor,
I recently reread Friends Divided by Gordon Wood, the story of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, their strong friendship and falling out over politics. It’s a most fascinating story and more than a little timely today.
Adams wanted a strong federal government with the states more subordinate to the central government and business/industry and technology developed. Jefferson felt America should remain most agrarian with a relatively weak federal government, leaving most laws and public concerns left primarily to the states, e.g., infrastructure, education, taxes. Neither man believed that the majority of common men should have the franchise; voting was reserved for individuals with a vested interest in the affairs of government as evidenced with property ownership, some degree of capital, and being freeborn.
These two strongly dissimilar views of what America should become were the basis of the first political parties. Before, during, and for a period following the revolution, Adams and Jefferson kept a strong, personal friendship until the breach which lasted many years.
We have today a similar breach on the national scale: half of the country is traditional and conservative; the other half radically liberal (or illiberal) in their visions of what America is and should be. The differences and the stakes are more serious and much more dangerous than those facing the two revolutionary friends.
Republican sentiment in mostly heartland America espouses traditional values: self-reliance, patriotism, work, marriage/family, duty, individual identity, fairness, and basic freedoms.
Democratic (progressive is an oxymoron) sentiment has created identity politics which bases all issues on race. The population is defined as either “oppressors” or “victims” and that a massive redistribution in wealth is in order. Critical Race Theory is their bedrock, stating that the American colonies and later the first American government were based on slavery and that the policies of the national government have perpetuated and capitalized on it. These positions wilt in the face of facts: abolitionist movements, the Civil War, emancipation, 14th Amendment, etc. Nowhere in the world are people of color remotely as well off as in America today.
The proof of the pudding is easy to see: large cities across the country mostly suffer from democratic administrations: high taxes, high crime rates, high cost of living, broken infrastructure, failing school systems due to teachers’ unions, and shrinking populations [see California].
This system is what the current congress keeps trying to impose on the entire nation. This legislative crime must not be allowed. If next year’s congressional results correct this deeply flawed course, we should be all right. If not, the country could very well see what Adams, Jefferson, Washington, and Franklin experienced in 1775. Let us hope for the best and
God bless America!
El Sellers
Fairfield, Texas
