Posted on 01/29/2018 1:46:50 AM PST by Jacquerie
Look no further than recent comments from Clintonista Jennifer Palmieri to see why republics must minimize the destructive effects of factions. A portion of her recent confidential memo, which leaked to the press, reminded senior democrats that their future electoral success depends on keeping the illegal alien so-called “dreamers” here in the US. Not for the good of the nation, but for the profit and ambitions of the party, democrats must defend, keep, and make democrat voters of these people at all costs.
It wasn’t supposed to be this way. How did our government, one designed to promote the general welfare of all, degrade into mechanism that rewards the avarice and ambition of factions, of political parties who put their interests far ahead of those of the republic? What the heck happened?
Republics, which rest on the foundation of the people, must continually guard against the abuse of democratic institutions by factions for their own benefit. Factions, per James Madison, are groups of citizens (either a minority or majority) united by some “interest adverse to the rights of other citizens or to the aggregate interests of the community.”1
Factions are not new. They are endemic to popular government, and the more popular the government, the more dependent government is on the passions of the people, the greater the influence of dangerous factions. Having tossed aside an oppressive king in 1776, the first state governments were radically democratic, so democratic that governors and judges often served at the whim of factional legislatures.
These early state legislatures often appointed governors and even judges, who were mere ciphers totally dependent on the popular legislatures, with little or no power to resist or control political and social instability. Such was the mixing of the three functions of government that legislatures often dominated
(Excerpt) Read more at articlevblog.com ...
I think this may be why the founders warned against political parties. They were wise.
Not the Framers, but later generations booted the states from the senate and corrupted the electoral college. The Framers would freak if they knew the practical choice of state electors for President is one of two leaders of outright factions.
That is why I regard Donald Trump as the Echo of our Framers' uncorrupted President.
I think Jennifer likes fagtions.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.