Here’s what Thomas Jefferson, the figurehead for the Democrat-Republicans, had to say about political parties.
“If I could not go to heaven but with a party, I would not go there at all.”
Here’s what Alexander Hamilton, founder of the Federalists, had to say about political parties.
“Nothing could be more ill-judged than that intolerant spirit which has at all times characterized political parties.”
And then there is Thomas Paine who, perhaps more than anyone, represented the pulse and ideals of our new nation.
“It is the nature and intention of a constitution to prevent governing by party, by establishing a common principle that shall limit and control the power and impulse of party, and that says to all parties, thus far shalt thou go and no further. But in the absence of a constitution, men look entirely to party; and instead of principle governing party, party governs principle.”
In truth, our founding fathers did not want political parties, which is why there are no provisions for them in the Constitution. They warned that political parties, though founded in the public interest, would be focused on their own self-interest. They predicted that this commitment to self-interest would eventually result in corruption. Smart folks, our founding fathers.
Political parties are special interest groups, both by definition and in the eyes of our founding fathers. Interest groups allege that their policies are in the public interest in order to foster support. They may even believe this to be true; certainly our political parties think they exist for the public interest. Yet interest groups are not products of communities and cannot rely on the bonding of people and place that perpetuates natural social groups. They must attract and retain members through their beliefs, their special interests. These special interests must then remain fixed, become dogma, or they would lose their members, precisely because of the absence of natural social bonds. This is not to say that subsets of members can’t form groups in a naturally social way, but that is incidental activity not important to the interest group’s cause.
OK. Our founding fathers did not like political parties, wanted to spare us the fate of having political parties, would turn up their nose at interest groups in general, even if they had “Tea Party” in their name. They still formed them, so what gives? That will be the next entry.
Tags: Interest Groups, Middle Class Politics, Political Misinformation
