Edge, George Washington himself warned of the perils of parties. The founders themselves were wary of parties, they neither anticipated nor desired parties. They expressed such in Federalist #10.
However [political parties] 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, September 19, 1796
It is in vain to say that enlightened statesmen will be able to adjust these clashing interests, and render them all subservient to the public good. Enlightened statesmen will not always be at the helm. Nor, in many cases, can such an adjustment be made at all without taking into view indirect and remote considerations, which will rarely prevail over the immediate interest which one party may find in disregarding the rights of another or the good of the whole.
-James Madison, Federalist #10, November 22, 1787
There have been two great Revolutions in Human History, both of them in the 18th Century.
One was ours.... 1776-1783. The greater of the two because it was successful.
The other was the most cataclysmic event in the history of western Civilization...
The French Revolution 1789-1799.
IMO, Washington was fearful of the rise of people who thought like, and sympathized with, the French Revolutionaries -- Robespierre, et al.
Which Jefferson did. And so did a lot of other Americans at the time.... And to this day.
To this day, there are still two, and only two, schools of revolutionary thought in this world....
One based on American ideas and ideals and one based on the French ideal.
Never, not one time in 200 years, has any country succeeded using the French Revolution as a template for society..... communism, Fascism, socialism, Nazism.... All were the bastard children of the filthy whore, the French Revolution.
While every Country that has ever embraced the ideals and goals of the American Revolution has met with success.
And that, my children, is the difference between the parties today. Ours, the Republican Party is based on the ideals of the American Revolution, where the individual reigns supreme.
Theirs... dimocrap scum, is based on the French Revolution where the individual is merely a servant of the State.
You should look into it. It's fun and interesting.
