Dakota Beacon

A serious phenomenon, not unexpected, dominates this presidential campaign season. No, it is not Donald Trump. He is only the symptom of a much deeper problem.

The open rebellion of voters against the Republican Party, and to a different extent against the Democrat Party, prevails. Whether the party bosses are called the “establishment” or “the ruling class” or “the elite,” those who control the levers of power and attempt to manipulate the voters are now being called to account for their behavior. In particular, the elected officials, political consultants, lobbyists and “donor class” are not doing a very good job. Thus, the insurrection.

This phenomenon is nothing new. Political struggles always existed and continue unabated facilitated by political parties. Parties come and go but the issues remain.

During his presidency, George Washington strongly decried the formation of political parties. Nevertheless, the Democrat-Republican Party, later shortened to the Democrat Party (Jeffersonian Democrats), coalesced around the ideas of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison in 1792. Slavery and agriculture were always part of the discussion throughout the colonial, post-Revolutionary and Constitutional period. The Democrat Party was founded in opposition to the politics advocated by the Federalist Party which held to a strong central government and banking system and loose interpretation of the Constitution. These factions dominated politics until they faded during the 1820s with the structuring of new parties focused on the same old issues.

The new Democrat Party evolved in 1828 and was home to Andrew Jackson, John C. Calhoun, Stephen Douglas and James K. Polk. It was the proponent for farmers, urban workers, new immigrants and Manifest Destiny. The Whig Party coalesced in 1833 forming around Jeffersonian ideals, centralization, protectionism and abolition. It was home to William Seward, Daniel Webster and Horace Greely.

With the dissolution of the old Whig Party, the Republican Party was established in 1854. Members included some from the old Whig Party – Free-Soilers, Conscience Whigs, and Anti-Nebraska Democrats – factions most people do not recognize. They were all united in their opposition to the expansion of slavery into the new territories.

Political emotions always run high when the stakes are elevated. Senator Preston Brooks (D-SC) nearly killed Senator Charles Sumner (R-MA and previously a Whig) in 1856 when he beat him severely with cane on the Senate floor. Sen. Sumner had provoked the attack with a bitter anti-slavery floor speech. We all know what happened in 1860 after seventy-five years of irreconcilable political differences.

In the twentieth century the Democrat rank-and-file struggled with the party “ruling class” over the communist, Stalinist and progressive factions. And who can forget the 1968 Democrat National Convention in Chicago with its anti-war riots against the “establishment?”

Grassroots conservatism took root in 1964 within the Republican Party. Conservative Republican Senator Barry Goldwater ran for president in 1964 in a bid to unseat incumbent Democrat President Lyndon Johnson. Goldwater’s campaign became the hallmark of the modern conservative movement.

Throughout Ronald Reagan’s ascendancy and presidency the Republican “establishment” hated this “rogue” conservative and could not wait for his departure. Moreover, they have always hated rank-and-file conservatism.

Today, powerful interests including the top elected Republican officials, lobbyists, political consultants and the wealthy “donor class” who can afford to buy influence are trying to eliminate the Republican Party’s two front runners – the one an outsider and the other a true conservative. The Republican Party bosses would just as soon lose the presidential election as long as they preserve their own cushy positions of power and influence. The congressmen and senators who would not stand against Obama’s abuses of power are more willing to destroy the two Republican front runners. This is a suicide pact rationalizing madness.

The establishment is compelled to kill the insurgency in its crib. If the Republican Party elitists reject either of the two leading candidates and thereby lose the presidential election to the Democrats, the Republican Party becomes irrelevant. This could spell the end of the Republican Party. By rejecting popular voter sentiment the establishment is willing to burn down the remains of the party in opposition to rank-and-file conservatism.

A German philosopher of the late Enlightenment named Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, inspired by Christian insights, proposed a dialectical method that emphasized the progress of history and ideas. In his thinking, an idea or event entered as a thesis, progressed to full maturity as it morphed into its antithesis and then melded into a more complete and richer synthesis. In this way history would progress to higher levels destroying the old and creating the new.

If Hegel’s thinking holds any credence whatsoever, the life of the Republican Party has reach its zenith as an antithesis and may be about to disappear into a more appropriate synthesis.

Dennis M. Patrick can be contacted at P. O. Box 337, Stanley, ND 58784 or (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).