Political Parties Tearing the Country Apart
Founding Fathers’ Warnings Have Come True
“There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties, each arranged under its leader and concerting measures in opposition to each other. This, in my humble apprehension, is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our Constitution.”
~ John Adams in a letter to Johnathan Jackson, 1780
The behavior of our political parties is threatening to tear down our democracy. We have allowed them to radicalize politics and now we are paying the price. They are unable to control their members in Congress and are unwilling or powerless to rein in their presidential candidate. What is happening in our country today is exactly what the founding fathers worried about when forming the new nation’s government.
The founders purposely omitted political parties from the Constitution. Due to the political divisions that had resulted in civil wars in England, they were eager to avoid what they called “factions”. Despite their concerns that “factions” would tear the country apart, political parties began to form almost immediately.
In his farewell address, Washington expressed his concern about the effect of political parties on the future of democracy, saying “The common and…
