Partisan Oscillation
“Grand Old Party” for the
Republicans is a misnomer, for theirs is the younger of the two parties. The
Democrats don’t mention this because neither Democratic nor Republican parties
like to dwell upon their pasts. The Democratic party doesn’t like to remind its
base that it used to support slavery; and the Republican party doesn’t like to
remind its base that it used to oppose
slavery.
The $20 bill has a
picture of Andrew Jackson, who is now an embarrassment for the Democratic
party. The $5 bill has a picture of Abraham Lincoln, who is now an
embarrassment for the Republican party. Perhaps the two parties should arrange
an exchange.
Why not? They’ve
exchanged bases and territories. The Republicans used to represent pragmatic
business-friendly race-rights Northeastern and Western urbanites; and the
Democrats represented populist racist Southern farmers. After about a century
and a half, these roles have reversed.
And how are we to know
that in another century and a half, they won’t reverse again?
No comments:
Post a Comment