Conservative Republicans’ principles of tradition and free enterprise are on an irreconcilable collision course, and Trumpism is only making the problem worse.
The History of Republicans and Democrats
Historically, American politics has long had an electoral dichotomy split between the pro-labor and civil rights platforms of liberals and the Judeo-Christian values and laissez-faire economics of conservatives. Though the country’s two main political parties — the Democrats and Republicans, or ‘Grand Old Party’ (GOP) — have swapped these platforms throughout the 19th and 20th Centuries, these opposing platforms have long been the paradigm of America’s voting preferences.
The Democratic Party began as the ‘Democratic-Republican Party’ in the late 1700's, comprised of Jeffersonian anti-federalists and strong supporters of states’ rights. Its main rival was…
It’s time to examine what statehood really means for D.C. and America’s outlying territories
A day after the January 6th insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) called for statehood for the district’s three quarters of a million citizens. She argued that had D.C. been a state instead of a federal district, she would have been able to activate the National Guard on her own volition without needing the approval of the sitting president. Thus, the insurrection could have been over far sooner and with much less damage done to the nation’s heart of democracy.
Currently, D.C. is directly administered by Congress, with the local mayor and council having little…
Republicans have railed against Joe Biden’s American Rescue Plan as a ‘blue state bailout.’ Yet this political maneuvering ignores the economic reality on the ground.
Last week, the House of Representatives passed President Joe Biden’s American Rescue Plan Act by a vote of 219–212. The $1.9 trillion fiscal measure now heads to the Senate, which will pass its own version of the bill and send it back to the House for a final vote. After this, the ‘reconciled’ bill will be sent to the White House for President Biden’s signature. Democrats hope to have the bill signed into law before federally-enhanced unemployment benefits expire on March 14th, though it may take some time before the newly-minted relief gets disbursed.
The direct election of U.S. Senators has robbed Congress’ upper chamber of its grace and gravitas. It’s time to change that.
Last September, Senator Ben Sasse (R-NE) penned an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal decrying the Senate’s breakdown in decorum. He argued that the ‘world’s greatest deliberative body’ had fallen from the grace it was enumerated with by our country’s Framers. But far from just rage against the decline in the legislative chamber he wishes to salvage, Sen. Sasse proposed a number of controversial reforms to mitigate the Senate’s lackluster performance.
The Nebraska Senator fears that Congress’ upper chamber has ceded too much legislating to the bureaucratic rule-making of executive departments and agencies. Additionally, he sees what he terms the…
The Senate must take action or risk plunging the republic into constitutional chaos
Last Tuesday, Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) forced a vote on the constitutionality of Donald Trump’s impeachment trial, failing by a tally of 55–45. Five of Sen. Paul’s GOP colleagues — Senators Susan Collins (R-ME), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Mitt Romney (R-UT), Ben Sasse (R-NE), and Patrick Toomey (R-PA) joined all 50 Democrats in torpedoing the motion. Yet if this vote is any indication, it appears likely that Mr. Trump will be acquitted for a second time. …
Vincent Giordano
Politics and economics writer, among other things.
