Republicans see government as a "necessary evil," an attack dog, to guard the homestead and to set upon the wicked, but to be fed no more than absolutely necessary. The chief beneficiary of its protection is seen, first and foremost, as commerce - and secondarily, the citizenry, to the degree they can benefit from commerce. The right-wing ideological base of the party imbues it with the additional charter of enforcing morals - a natural extension of its function of falling upon the wicked and sending them straight to hell. As government is evil, Big Government is BAD, and Limited Government (preferably just cops and soldiers) is GOOD.
Democrats see government as the servant of the people, in that it is the coordinated means whereby the people care for themselves and for each other. In other words, it is not a danger to the people, for it is OF the people. The clearest statement of this principle is within the very first founding document of our United States, the Declaration of Independence.
It reads in part:
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."
The key phrase here is "...deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed..."
The government, when properly constituted, is not inimical to us, because it IS us. It is OUR expression of our coordinated effort to secure Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happines for ourselves and our brethren. It is the embodiment of the Christian principle that we are our brother's keeper.
Why, then, would we have such a national schism, wherein one party appears to honor and promote the collective model of government, and the other party has completely abandoned it? Why would one party try to solve irrationality and error in government by seeking to reclaim it, while the other party seeks to solve the same problem by seeking to reject and disable it?
I hold that the answer lies not in the head, but in the gut. It is ingrained deep within the very fibre of differing personality types. People are driven by emotion, rather than reason, toward the opposite ends of this spectrum. Now if you were to create an arbitrary dividing line down the middle of society, you could place half of the populace on one side of it or the other. There are myriad personality types, but among them EACH lies somewhere on the scale of giving vs taking - of generous vs greedy, of "me first" vs "you first." If the dividing line is at the center, then everyone will fall somewhere nearer or farther from the center, BUT, to the right or the left. In our political parlance, Left = givers, Right = takers.
To the far right, the "Donald Trump" personality, all about self-aggrandizement and the accumulation and concentration of power and wealth. To the far left, the "Mother Teresa" personality, all about service to others. All about generosity and the celebration of the value which is the life in each of us, down to the very least of us.
More in my next post.
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