What’s Your Party - And Does It Matter?
These days we say we are Democrats, Rebublicans, Independents, or Green Party. I am sure that there are others, but the question I have to ask today is: Does it really matter?
Before we get into that question as a topic of discussion, let us look at the foundational basis of the top two first. Before we begin anything worth studying, we have to define the basis from which we build the topic. So let us start with some basic definitions.
- Democrat - (1) an advocate of democracy. (2) a person who believes in the political or social equality of all people.
- Democracy - (1) government by the people; a form of government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and excercised directly by them or by their elected agents under a free electorial system. (2) a state having such a form of government. (3) a state of society characterized by formal equality of rights and priviledges.
- Republican - (1) of, pertaining to, or of the nature of a republic.
- Republic - (1) a state in which the supreme power rests in the body of citizens entitled to vote and is exercised by representatives chosen directly or indirectly by them. (2) any body of persons viewed as a commonwealth. (3) a state in which the head of government is not a monarch or other hereditary head of state.
- Commonwealth - (1) a group of sovereign states and their dependencies associated by their own choice and linked with common objectives and interests: the British Commonwealth. ( (2) through (5) have to do with out of country examples) (6) the official designation (rather than “State”) of four states of the U.S.: Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. (7) any group of persons united by some common interest. (8) the whole body of people of a nation or state; the body politic. (9) a state in which the supreme power is held by the people; a republican or democratic state.
- Politic - (1) shrewd or prudent in practical matters; tactful; diplomatic. (2) contrived in a shrewd and practical way; expedient.
- Definitions used are from the Webster’s Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language, New Deluxe Edition, Published by Thunder Bay Press in 2001, Copyright 1996 by Random House Value Publishing, Inc., ISBN 1-57145-691-0.
OK, I know that seems like a lot, but all of the previous definition was necessary in order to prove a point. This point starts with the knowledge that Democrats are supposed to believe in the vested equality of power being in the people and that power is supposed to be able to be exercised through an elected body of representatives. Republicans also by definition believe that supreme power of government rests in the people and that they also exercise this power through elected representatives. So what is the difference?
Republicans normally would reside in a republic and would not believe that a kingship or monarchy should exist in that republic but that the power of governing is spread across the people on an equal basis. Democrats are neither against or for a kingship or monarchy, but instead see every man as equal regardless of the position that they hold in government or life.
It seems to me that the common interest here is the same. If both parties are supposed to be counted as equal, why does it matter so much which one you are? For that matter, it seems by definition that you technically cannot be a Republican unless you are part of a republic. There are only four republics in the U.S. So is it really possible to have Republicans in Texas? Is it really possible to be a Republican anywhere there is not a republic?
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–SilverMouse