"However combinations or associations of the above description
[factions or today what we call a political party] may now and then answer
popular ends, they are likely, in the course of time and things, to become
potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be
enabled to subvert the power of the people, and to usurp for themselves the
reins of government; destroying afterwards the very engines, which have lifted
them to unjust dominion."
George Washington,
Farewell Address 1796
Read that quote by George Washington closely. Now
answer me if his concerns are valid compared to today’s political environment?
With a Facebook post I shared on one of Dr. Ben
Carson’s group pages dealing with Dr. Carson answering if he was a Republican,
I received a very cleaver question regarding the subject. “So would you run on
a Democan or Republicrat ticket, or maybe a Redemopendant one?” It led me to
graciously answer the thought provoking query, which I expand upon here.
An interesting and clever question Joe. Thanks.
Are Americans Engish, Indeses or Chinaxicans? Of course the answer is all of
these but none these. It makes the point that we are all an odd mixture and can
extend it to our philosophies rooted in our experiences.
What I love about Ben Carson is that
he was once a liberal Democrat, changed to a Republican but now
realizes neither party fully represents his ideas because each party has such a
wide range within the platforms. That is just inherent in our party systems. Today,
the two main parties have slid further away from their proverbial centers so it
polarizes our politics, revealing the extremes from our foundation. The liberal
progressives are the more extreme and off base, far that is from outside of the
American form of republic this nation was founded on. But the far right can be
as misleading if allowed driving to the excessive. Ben Carson will say that
conservative Republican come closes to his belief but he is willing to keep common
sense in the formula so labels himself politically as Independent.
Our founding fathers warned against “factions”,
what we call political parties, because they could be so dividing for our
republic (if you want to know more about factions, click here).
But they also came to comprehend that it was almost
unavoidable so continually
pointed back to our founding documents to anchor the process.
This is what Dr.
Carson has come to understand and strives to embrace using the common sense
approach that our republic works best under; the American republic foundation
with Biblical values. The founding fathers used republican thoughts (little r
here, not the party) embracing the idea of the common good, which expressed
itself within different “factions” (parties today). They wanted what was best
for all using Christian values as the gauge. Not so in much in today's
environment and actually opposing those values. That is not to mean every
American has to be a Christian, but rather the republic uses that value system.
That is why modern America is heading in the wrong direction and needs
correction.
Dr. Ben Carson could be an ideologue who
represents what America is all about and get us back on track if we were to
convince to him run for President.
“On a candid examination of history, we shall
find that turbulence, violence, and abuse of power, by the majority, trampling
on the rights of the minority, have produced factions and commotions which, in
republics, have, more frequently than any other.”
James Madison 1788
“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people.
It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
John Adams
“The Declaration of Independence laid the cornerstone of human government upon the first precepts of Christianity.”
John Adams
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