Quotes
Twitter / DRUDGE, by
Matt Drudge, 3 Sep 2013
Tweet after commenting on results of poll asking "Give Obama authority to conduct military operation in Syria?" and shortly before tweeting "Why would anyone vote Republican? ... marching us off to war again; approved more NSA snooping. WHO ARE THEY?!"
It's now Authoritarian vs. Libertarian. Since Democrats vs. Republicans has been obliterated, no real difference between parties...
Articles
Bad Partisanship Drives Out Good, by
Sheldon Richman,
The Goal Is Freedom, 30 Nov 2007
Differentiates between superficial and profound partisanship (loyalty to a party vs. to a set of principles) and discusses the goals of the group Unity08 that during the 2008 U.S. presidential elections was seeking candidates that could "reunite America"
Superficial partisanship is loyalty to a party. Profound partisanship is loyalty to a set of ideas, a philosophy ... The major parties have long stopped taking ideas seriously ... A sure sign of superficial partisanship is the double-standard ... Should an influential person in an administration meet secretly with lobbyists on major legislation and refuse to tell the public who attended? Apparently, it depends on which party the culprit belongs to. The standard used by the partisan is: anything my party does, including running up the public debt, is good; anything that party does is bad.
Bureaucracy and the Civil Service in the United States, by
Murray N. Rothbard,
The Journal of Libertarian Studies, 1995
Historical examination of the evolution of the United States Civil Service and attempts to reform it, from its beginnings through the early 20th century
[Regardless] of how principled and ideological a political party may be, an essential point of party politics is to find jobs for the faithful of the winning party. If jobs cannot be found, the party system withers and dies ... By being carriers ... of a party ideology, the political parties in nineteenth century America were the vitally important means by which ideology could dominate the narrow clash of special interest groups and seekers after government subsidies and privilege. The disappearance of ideological parties, starting in 1896, brought about the weak and fuzzy party politics we are familiar with today.
Related Topics:
John Adams,
Bureaucracy,
Founding Fathers,
Government,
Limited Government,
Andrew Jackson,
Thomas Jefferson,
Richard Nixon,
Parkinson's Law,
Pennsylvania,
Spoils System,
Martin Van Buren,
Voting,
George Washington
Give Me Liberty [PDF], by
Rose Wilder Lane, 1936
Originally published as an article titled "Credo" in the
Saturday Evening Post; describes her experiences in and history of Soviet Russia and Europe, contrasting them with the history of the United States, emphasizing the individualist themes
The issue is not one of party politics. The issue at stake is the survival of American constitutional law, the American political structure. This is a real political issue, and the major political parties have not represented a real political issue since the 1860's. These parties have not stood for opposite political principles; they have differed only about methods. For example: one has stood for higher tariffs; the other, for lower tariffs. They have not presented to voters the real political issue between tariffs and free trade. The two major parties have contended only for public office.
Related Topics:
American Revolutionary War,
United States Bill of Rights,
Bureaucracy,
California,
Capitalism,
Democratic Party,
Economic Resources,
Economics,
Farming,
France,
Germany,
Government,
Hungary,
Italy,
Thomas Jefferson,
Kentucky,
Liberty,
Individual Liberty,
Militarism,
Nonviolent resistance,
Personal Responsibility,
Republican Party,
Socialism,
United States
My Election Prediction, by Steven LaTulippe, 29 Sep 2006
Discusses the possible outcome of the 2006 U.S. mid-term elections, predicting a "crushing defeat" for the Republicans due to the electorate demanding accountability for the wars, the advantages of divided government and the apparent threat of another war
Every election season, various pundits and politicians declare the upcoming contest to be the most important one of our lifetime ... But given ... the fuzzy distinctions between the major parties, that assertion is usually pure hyperbole ... Describing the Republicans and the Democrats as political parties is somewhat of a misnomer, since it implies that they harbor some sort of transcendent philosophy that guides them in their policies and programs ... The Republicans and Democrats are actually more like carrion birds, like two vultures fighting over the eyeball of a dead wildebeest.
Tired of Two Parties?, by Pradeep Chhibber, Ken Kollman,
The Washington Post, 17 Aug 2004
Chhibber and Kollman, authors of
The Formation of National Party Systems (2004), argue that the decline of third parties in the U.S. resulted from the increasing power of the federal government (e.g., national income taxation, the New Deal)
Third parties have little or no chance of gaining real representation in Congress or in statehouses. Minor political parties and independents win an occasional seat, but their impact ... is negligible ... [T]he truth is that the United States has not always been so dominated by two parties ... Starting in the 1930s, ... minor parties stopped winning significant shares of votes for elections to Congress ... [Minor] parties had strength in particular regions or even particular states. They were not fully national in scope. Even the major parties had more of a regional flavor than they do today.
