Friday, June 23, 2006

 

Ideology vs. Experiment

Today the two major political parties, the Republicans and the Democrats, differ with respect to their core beliefs. Republicans seem to have an ideology; a set of ideas that seem sensible and logical on one level but which don't seem to be supported by experience. Democrats seem to have a melange of ideas that one has difficulty associating with a single ideology. Democrats are blamed by Republicans and the news media for not having any consistent ideas on how to lead the country out of the mess that the Republicans have gotten us into.

Republican ideology seems to involve the following ideas or theories of human behavior:
Well, that's at least a partial list.

Democrats, on the other hand, don't seem to agree on a set of ideas based on things that ought to be true or seem to be logical. At this time in our history, Democrats are agreed on one thing: The Republicans, being the party in power, have exhibited arrogance and incredibly bad judgment (or bad luck, certainly) in getting this country into the mess it's in:
And that's just a partial list.

Historically, each Party has at times adopted an ideology that was eventually shown to contradict experience. Ideologies are adopted and discarded according to the coalition the Party seeks to build to enhance its electoral chances. Sometimes history validates an ideology. The Republican Party began with the ideology that slavery was immoral and that all human beings deserved to be free. That ideology is widely accepted today in this country, but it was not a universally popular idea in 1856. Democrats in the 1890's adopted the notion that our national currency should be based on both gold and silver, with a certain ratio defining the price of each metal. At the time farmers had difficulty getting money to pay the loans extended to them by banks. The proposed solution was to increase the amount of money in circulation by issuing silver certificates in addition to the gold-backed money then in use. History has shown that solution to be a loser.

For the sake of the country, I hope that the Republicans will abandon their ideas that do not have the support of experience. In the mean time, I hope for many Democratic victories in November of this year.
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