One of the great Supreme Court Justices of the United States was Joseph Story (also regarded as the founder of the Harvard Law School) and his 1840 book, A Familiar Exposition of the Constitution of the United States is a magnificent portrait of the early American ideas that became the bedrock of our country.
The understanding of this aspect of the political party by many Americans may help explain the strong growth in the numbers of those who register independent or decline to state, making the independent vote virtually decisive in modern national—and many local—elections.
Here is Justice Story on political parties, a refreshing look in this political season, and a reminder “that the more things change, the more they remain the same.”
“I have already intimated to you the danger of parties in the state, with particular reference to the founding of them on geographical discriminations. Let me now take a more comprehensive view, and warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the spirit of party, generally.
“This spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable from our nature, having its root in the strongest passions of the human mind. It exists, under different shapes, in all governments, more or less stifled, controlled, or repressed; but, in those of the popular form, it is seen in its greatest rankness, and is truly their worst enemy.
“The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissensions, which in different ages and countries has perpetuated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries, which result, gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate that his competitors, turns his disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of Public Liberty.” (pp. 314-315)
Lampstand Foundation website, http://www.lampstandfoundation.org/
"The sinner is at the very heart of Christianity. Nobody is so competent as the sinner in matters of Christianity. Nobody, except the saint." Charles Peguy (1873-1914)
About
- David H. Lukenbill
- I am a California native, married, we have one daughter and live close to the American River with two cats and all the wild critters we can feed. I am a management consultant to nonprofit organizations and have an Associates of Arts degree in Administration of Justice from Sacramento City College, a Bachelor of Science degree in Organizational Behavior from the University of San Francisco and a Master of Public Administration degree, also from the University of San Francisco.