Mark W. Hendrickson: Tea Party Democrats
[Dr. Mark W. Hendrickson is a faculty member, economist, and contributing scholar with the Center for Vision & Values at Grove City College.]
I have good news and bad news: The good news is that the political ideals and values of some prominent Democrats are so right-wing that they make most Tea Party leaders seem like liberals in comparison. The bad news is that all those right-wing Democrats belong to an earlier century.
On Presidents Day, 2011, as we reflect on past presidents and chafe under the destructive policies of the incumbent, it might be hard for young Americans to realize that there have been Democratic presidents whose core beliefs included the inviolability of individual rights, the sanctity of our constitution, and the conviction that the federal government should protect citizens' property rather than redistribute it. In fact, though, those beliefs were the animating principles of the Democratic Party in the 1800s.
Today, it is virtually impossible to picture Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, or Grover Cleveland -- all two-term Democratic presidents in the 19th century -- being welcome in the modern Democratic Party or wanting to be associated with it. Today's Democrats -- Obama, Pelosi, Reid, et al. -- haven't modified the principles of those early Democratic presidents; rather, they have inverted, repudiated, and abandoned them....
Read entire article at American Thinker
I have good news and bad news: The good news is that the political ideals and values of some prominent Democrats are so right-wing that they make most Tea Party leaders seem like liberals in comparison. The bad news is that all those right-wing Democrats belong to an earlier century.
On Presidents Day, 2011, as we reflect on past presidents and chafe under the destructive policies of the incumbent, it might be hard for young Americans to realize that there have been Democratic presidents whose core beliefs included the inviolability of individual rights, the sanctity of our constitution, and the conviction that the federal government should protect citizens' property rather than redistribute it. In fact, though, those beliefs were the animating principles of the Democratic Party in the 1800s.
Today, it is virtually impossible to picture Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, or Grover Cleveland -- all two-term Democratic presidents in the 19th century -- being welcome in the modern Democratic Party or wanting to be associated with it. Today's Democrats -- Obama, Pelosi, Reid, et al. -- haven't modified the principles of those early Democratic presidents; rather, they have inverted, repudiated, and abandoned them....