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To: connell

“I will confess-—gladly-—to you and to anyone, that I am an electoral pragmatist. I am also a believer in the two-party system; I think it has done a lot of good for America, overall.”

Washington opposed political parties. His arguments on the subject are pretty compelling when you compare them to history.


53 posted on 01/10/2008 7:00:46 AM PST by GovernmentIsTheProblem (The GOP is "Whig"ing out.)
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To: GovernmentIsTheProblem
Washington opposed political parties. His arguments on the subject are pretty compelling when you compare them to history.

When Washington spoke of "parties," he was speaking from an 18th century British perspective. The British parties of the time were more what we would call "factions." With few real ideological differences, they were more struggles between groups of the British aristocracy for control of the goodies of government. No wonder Washington opposed them.

Parties in our modern sense developed in the US very naturally once real ideological disagreements arose between the followers of Hamilton and those of Jefferson.

If those who support expanding the role of government groupt together to push their policies, those who oppose this expansion must do the same if they are not to be overwhelmed. Parties are an inevitable part of our system now, which doesn't mean they don't have unpleasant side effects.

61 posted on 01/10/2008 7:10:27 AM PST by Sherman Logan
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