Lefties think our founding was leftist because the Federalists won the constitutional debate. However, they ignore the fact that the Constitution prevented Federalist desires to expand the central authority into a fiscal-military, British-style monarchy.
yes and they also forget that the second Jefferson and Madison got wind of what the Federalists wanted they formed the Republican Party and crushed.
[MENTION=34008]EdwardBaiamonte[/MENTION]
the liberal voters I talk with don't even have this much history or knowledge.
Most I know live hand to mouth.
Few I talk with even understand the difference between city, state and federal govt.
Too many people today think whoever you elect can just vote "whatever they want" into law. And nobody can fight the govt so you get stuck with that.
This board was the first place I found this many people who believed in enforcing Constitutional principles directly. I'm usually the odd one out, especially among Democrats.
I think by starting with Constitutional principles, that is plenty of work to educate people on due process, checks and balances, consent of the governed, and equal protection of laws.
Most people don't get "due process," because they are used to judging and projecting punishment on people without giving them a chance to redress the accusations!
So if they do this in everyday life, of course, they have no concept of govt being required to resolve grievances instead of just issuing judgment and punishment based solely on belief.
That issue of "due process" and "consent of the governed" alone is a full time job
trying to cultivate respect for in relationships in order to set the standard by example.
If more people were taught conflict resolution and mediation, maybe the concept of self-govt would be more established
instead of overrun by politics that profit by making people dependent on Party instead of invoking Constitutional principles directly to check and reform govt.
If we can even establish equal respect for Constitutional principles, why not focus there and bypass all the blame from this party or that one. Why not recognize people's political beliefs like religions, and let each have their own; while agreeing to keep these biased agenda out of govt policy and process, and just stick to Constitutional points where we agree.
If people don't get the connection between people and govt by Constitutional democratic process, no amount of arguing about party history is going to matter. They will keep using party politics to oppose and bully whatever group they blame. History will not change that impression, once you or a group is pegged as the problem, it doesn't matter what the past is with that party, they only care about trying to outvote the people they are against NOW,
and they think the only way is to elect someone of the opposing party and let them do for them.
They have no concept of empowering people to enforce Constitutional principles directly.
If we are going to address this problem, I believe the whole party system needs to be called out as establishing political religions
that should be kept separate from govt instead of competing with each other to impose their own national religion on the public.