Saturday, January 21, 2006

Democrats Tear At The Republic... Again.

Over the last few years something sinister has been going on in this country of ours. Somehow, the Democrat Party has transformed itself from the party of pro-America (The party of FDR, Truman and JFK) to the party of anti-freedom. Somewhere, FDR is hopping mad, Truman is ready to reclaim his body so he can give someone hell, and JFK is simply shaking his head at the antics of his youngest brother.

Of course, anyone who has spent time studying history will have an attack of deja-vu. We've seen this kind of thing before, folks. Step back in time with me about 14 decades or so. Back to a time when the Democrats were doing what they could to destroy the Republic. Yes, we're going back to the Civil War era (1855-1870). The issue today may be the globar war against Islamofascism (I refrain from using the generic term terrorism) and all that it entails, but back then it was Slavery in the Territories and Civil War.

In the 1850s, the United States was engaged in furious debate over Slavery, both in the US proper and in the Territories. The two sides are the established Democrat party and the then-fledgling Republican party. Within each party there are two factions.

In the Democrat party there were what I'll call the Status faction and the Expansion faction. The Status faction wished to allow Slavery to continue where it already existed. However, they were leery of Slavery's expansion into the new Territories. Even so, the Status faction was willing to let people in the Territories decide whether to be slave or free areas. The Status faction is offset by the Expansion faction. This faction was not only amenable to letting territories decide whether to allow slavery or not; they were active in expanding slavery to ALL the territories. Some of these folks, in fact, wanted slavery everywhere.

The newly formed Republican party also has two factions. I will name these factions the Status faction and the Abolition faction. As with the Status faction of the Democrat party, the Republican Status faction would leave slavery where it already was (Abraham Lincoln was of this faction). However, they differred with the Democrat Status faction in that the Republican Status faction wanted NO expansion of slavery to the territories. Their rival faction within the Republican party was the Abolition faction. The Abolition faction of the Republican party would have liked nothing better than to see Slavery ENDED everywhere. Both Republican factions, however, tended to assist runaway slaves in getting to Canada, where there was no slavery. The Abolition faction, however, went further in that they were willing to physically hinder slave-catchers who ventured into the Northern and Western states. Some in this faction would go so far as to physically attack and sometimes KILL the slave-catchers.

This situation would last right up to, and past the Election of 1860, when the Status and Expansion factions of the Democrat party fielded two separate candidates for President. Stephen A. Douglas was the choice of the Status (Northern) faction of the Democrat party, while John C. Breckenridge was the Expansion (Southern) Democrat faction's man. The Republicans, however, ran a single candidate on their ticket for President, Abraham Lincoln. Fast forward to 1862. Civil War rages, and there are numerous Democrats of the Status faction, and some of the Expansion faction, who are still in the Republic, and not in the Confederacy. These Democrats criticized the President and his administration. They stirred up internal opposition to the war and tried to foster dissent within the Armies of the Republic. They used the press to malign the Administration, the Military and the war effort, often giving moral support to the rebellious Confederate enemy.

The result of this was that President Lincoln clamped down on Democrat and Confederate-sympathizing news media. As the war went on and the triumph of the Republic became more and more certain *particularly after that Emancipation Proclamation thing, the victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg, and the suppression of a Democrat-inspired anti-draft and race riot by Republic troops*, the consequences for the Democrat party's subversion tactics became clearer. With a few exceptions (Andrew Johnson *Democrat* succeeded Lincoln after the latter's assassination; Grover Cleveland in 1884 and 1892; Woodrow Wilson in 1912 and 1916), the Democrats were out of the White House and greatly diminished in power for nearly three-fourths of a century. It took an economic crisis of nearly biblical proportions to bring the Democrats back into real controlling power. They would hold it for over half a century.

Now, back in the present day, the Democrats are at it again. Doing all that they can (with the most notable exception of Joseph Lieberman) to bring down the Republicans. Just like the period from 1855 - 1870, the Democrats' actions threaten to bring down the Republic. Only this time, ALL Americans may lose their essential freedoms and liberties rather than some who were previously left out not gaining theirs.