Depublican and Remocrats

Depublican and Remocrats
By Sheldon Firem

Identical twins separated at birth, conceived of a partisan passion, born of a mother’s shame and a father’s guilt,

suckled on the teats of power and raised on the fruits of undisclosed financial contributions. Identical twins assuredly but politically a Cain and Abel, each alternately committing fratricide between election cycles. 

Superficially, Depublicans and Remocrats appear ideologically dissimilar, but their genetic inheritance, their DNA, drives them down parallel paths. 

Explanations are needed.

 In the beginning, the deity of 1776 created America; the English Crown was the satanic anti-deity; forces of good and evil waged a Continental War and royalty succumbed to democracy. The Constitution and Bill of Rights were birthed. The signer-midwives sallied forth to their home states anticipating national unity. 

Alas, America incubated home-made divisive political devils, tempting America to taste the fruits of Republicanism (Jefferson) or Federalism (Hamilton). The concept of political parties was roundly rebuked by the ‘Father of Our Country’:

“It serves always to distract the public councils and enfeeble the public administration. It agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection. It opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, which finds a facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of party passions. Thus, the policy and the will of one country are subjected to the policy and will of another.”

George Washington’s words resonate loudly: civil agitation, false alarms, animosity, party passions and insurrection.Nonetheless, Jefferson and Hamilton rebelled and fathered the Democratic-Republican Party and the Federalist Party.

The reader may assert, “You have proven that political parties have differing principles!”

Superficially this is correct, but political principles are shifting sands; the in-born drive for power, monetary gain, political revenge and influence comprise the bedrock of political ambition. Principles subordinate to power. Rationale? 

1. The Democrats of 1860 were not the Democrats of 1964. Prior to the Civil War, Democrats were not averse to slavery, allowing slave states into the Union, choosing Stephen Douglas and John Breckenridge, Southerners, as their standard-bearers. Today Democrats seek to expand election access.
2. The Republicans of 1860 chose Abraham Lincoln as their standard-bearer, ultimately abolishing slavery and enfranchising the ex-slave. The first black Federal Congressmen were Republican. Today Republicans seek to place limits on election access.
3. Today, conservative Reagan principles have been abandoned for nativist Trump principles. Today, Theodore Roosevelt’s anti-trust principles have been abandoned for “Wall Street Democrat” principles.

Party principles mutate unrecognizably, demonstrating that principles are sand and the desire for power is bedrock. Principles are useful only if they can be used to advance the party’s existential future.

What is the genetic bedrock of the Depublicans and Remocrats? These identical twins covet power, monetary gain, political revenge and influence. Their shared DNA compels them to practice identical governing and electoral mischief with Machiavellian precision.

Depublicans and Remocrats:

• Exist to win elections; self-preservation supersedes national priorities.                                      
• Eagerly solicit dark-money campaign contributions from corporations and the wealthy.
• Sanctify their candidates and demonize the opposition in ubiquitous ads that take the Ninth Commandment to task. Any label will do: ‘Nazi’, ‘traitor’, ‘socialist’.
• Utilize procedural rules to stymy the opposition’s legislation.
• Promote ‘talking points’ for their members so the ‘party-line’ is of a whole, ambiguous cloth, ‘pivoting’ when cornered with a direct question.
• Fund raise full time, legislate part-time.
• Decry the political silos while building political silos.
• Facetime more with lobbyists than faceless citizens.
• Manipulate and deprecate the press.Individual Depublicans or Remocrats may demonstrate a responsible allegiance to country and citizenry, but the political party, that self-replicating, Covid-like organism, follows its genetic imperative by mutating its political principles to survive the cleansing sunshine and scrutiny of the American citizen. Representative democracy can never be fully immunized against that strained mutation.

To cleanse our political palette, I offer Mark Twain on principles:

“Although we were organized for a principle, we didn’t care much about that. Principles aren’t of much account anyway, except at election time. After that you hang them up to let them season.”