The Democratic & Republican Primaries

Observations | January 28, 2008 | Chuck Plante - aka backtothestreets

[backtothestreets]

Let’s set aside the individual candidates running for president, and instead look upon, and compare the party primaries. Both the Democratic Party and Republican Party are going through a purification process.

Until this past weekend, I’d have ventured a guess that the eventual Democratic candidate had a slight edge in the General Election. My guess would have been predicated, not upon any inherent strength the Democratic candidate might have, but the deep divisions within the Republican ranks. This is the purification process.

Republicans are bickering over which of the candidates best represent conservative ideals, and toes the party line, which is not always necessarily what conservatives, nor a majority of Americans might desire.

Democrats began with such a purification process themselves, but finding their candidates differed little on liberal ideals or toeing the party line, they added yet another element to their purification process. The Democrats added racism.

Born in the late nineteen forties, I recall the harsh imagery delivered by newspapers, magazines and television of the deep racial divides in the fifties and sixties. Even before Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke the words, “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”, my young heart held this dream for America.

I have long contended that so long as any legislation makes mention of the physical and hereditary aspects of Americans, segregation would be with us. This past week, the Democratic Party amply proved this as fact leading up to the South Carolina primary.

There is good reason why the Democratic Party is the party known for inserting language into laws that address the physical characteristics and heritage of individuals. It is because they are speaking to demons of their own making. The demigods of the Democratic Party have stirred anew these demons of hate and division. By intent or not, the party has once again dressed itself in the cloths of racists that marked the southern Democratic Party for a century following the Civil War.

The Republicans will continue the hash over their candidates. With the lone exception of one of their candidates that has tried to make age an issue of their campaigns, it is the Republican Party that most closely espouse the hopes of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., that people will be judged by the content of their character. I still hold this dream for America.

The purification process of both parties will continue, and eventually such a process will be undertaken by the entire nation to select our next president. I no longer see the Democratic candidate as having any advantage as the party strives to renew bigotry. There is no place for bigotry in my dream for America.