WASHINGTON’S PREDICTION ABOUT POLITICAL PARTIES HAS COME TRUE

In his farewell address, President Washington cautioned against three interrelated dangers that threatened to destroy the Union: regionalism, partisanship, and foreign entanglements. He warned his countrymen not to let regional loyalties overwhelm national attachments: “The name of American…must always exalt the just pride of patriotism more than any appellation derived from local discriminations.” At this time, many Americans primarily identified with their state or region, but Washington reminded the citizenry not to allow such attachments to divide them, lest “designing men” convince them that differing local interests made the Union unworkable or unnecessary.
 
In particular, Washington feared that geographic identities would serve as the foundation for the development of political parties. Indeed, this process had already begun with the emergence of the New England Federalists and Southern Democratic-Republicans. While we currently view partisanship as inseparable from the American political process, in the early republic, most condemned parties as divisive, disruptive, and the tools of demagogues seeking power. “Factionalism,” as contemporaries called it, encouraged the electorate to vote based on party loyalty rather than the common good. Washington feared that partisanship would lead to a “spirit of revenge” in which party men would not govern for the good of the people, but only to obtain and maintain their grip on power. As a result, he warned Americans to guard against would-be despots who would use parties as “potent engines…to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government.”
 
This statement, while we currently view partisanship as inseparable from the American political process, in the early republic, most condemned parties as divisive, disruptive, and the tools of demagogues seeking power, is once again happening on Capitol Hill.  I have had some time to listen to the IG Report hearings taking place.  It is so apparent these hearings, as have others in the past, have nothing to do with the topic at hand but are used to push partisanship and political agendas.  The topic of the IG Report is about the bias of the hierarchy in the FBI, not whether it existed or not, but did it have an influence on the conduct during the investigation of Clinton and the conclusions drawn. 
 
In the House hearing, Marxist/Progressive (Democrat) Cummings gave his opening remarks and did not mention the report or the conduct of the FBI officials who conducted the Clinton investigation, but instead condemned the Trump administration for alleged wrong doing in what appears to be a manufactured crisis on the Southern border.  Cummings had no interest in learning why the IG found what he found.  Cummings only interest was in scoring political points and castigating the current administration which is of the opposite political party.
 
In today’s environment, there is nothing we American citizens can do that does not have political overtones, politics stretches into every facet of our lives.  The conversation is never centered on whether or not the action or lack thereof is in the best interest of the United States, but is instead centered on whether this is good for the political party.  Cummings is and always been an advocate for the advancement of his political agenda as opposed to learning facts and drawing reasonable conclusions.  He is the extreme.  His extremism would be mitigated if he was not placed in powerful positions and if others would not follow his lead but instead insist on placing the interests of the United States above the advancement of political ideology.
 
But then, we must remember that there is a political party in the United States who wants to see the principles stated in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States, and the Bill of Rights rendered meaningless.  A logical conclusion can be reached from their actions that they wish to see the fundamental transformation called for by Comrade Obama, that is a transformation from a free and independent nation to a Marxist totalitarian state, completed.