The DNC Platform – the end of Capitalism.
The 2020 DNC platform reveals the intent of the Democratic Party to become the all inclusive provider of all services. Outwardly it portrays itself as the champion of the people. However, its platform lays out the massive expansion of government control dictating how society and industry will perform. Nowhere does it mention personal responsibility. Karl Marx would be proud. Amity Shales in The Forgotten Man defines the origins of the Marxism in the Democratic Party. Ninety years later it is a very real possibility we are done as a nation. Atlas Shrugged IS no longer fiction. Where is Galt’s Gulch?
Although the "Parties" have changed to a reasonable degree over time, the thing I find constant is that the tools of enslavement are the only historical changes.
As I read through the rest, I find an anti-Trump expostulation without a specific "remedy" other than that of oppression of those who succeed.
The Trail of Tears is one of a legacy of Andrew Jackson, first as a military commander who undertook several unauthorized campaigns to "liberate" large portions of Florida for white settlement and later as President when he used the power of the army to "negotiate" land cessions in Florida and those regions by expelling the native inhabitants. I recommend Dinesh D'Souza's "Hillary's America" as an excellent documentary on the racism which has been with the Democratic Party since at least Andrew Jackson.
Technically the first Republican party came out of the split between Jackson and J.Q. Adams, with the former's side chopping off "-republican" from the party name, and the latter's side picking it up and creating the "National Republican party". They soon disbanded and mostly/somewhat became the Whigs.
Now, that isn't the same as the later Republican party founded in Lincoln's era, but what is most interesting is that they share values. John Quincy Adams was staunchly and vocally opposed to slavery (especially so over his congressional career -- IIRC he did 9 terms in Congress after being POTUS) and was the rallying-point for the NRP until he lost to Jackson in their second contest.
One of the lesser known aspects of this is that Adams increasingly relied on his notion that in a republican form of government, one could not have slavery. This argument would be later espoused by secessionists in the run-up to the Civil War. They, too, argued that under a republican form of government, everyone had to be legally equal. However they used this line as to why the split from a republic and went with a democracy.
While the CSA structure was somewhat similar to the US government, there were key differences that still resonate with the Democrats. One of which was the printing of more and more money to pay for the government - and the resulting inflation will surprise none of us today. They "doubled down" on cotton because they had nothing else going. I'm sure we can imagine the problems that wrought. They went through a significant depression. While at the higher level this can be argued as a result of the northern blockades, the underlying reality is that they had no industrial base. I know, you're shocked. ;)
That lack of industrial base meant they imported most of what they needed, which is why the blockade was so effective. While most of the fighting occurred in just two states (Tennessee and ... Virginia), infrastructure went belly up in all confederate states - even Texas and Florida - due to the allocation of resources the CSA demanded and the inability to support both local and confederate demands and needs. Again, this resonates with the actions of the current Democratic Party in their never-ending bid to seize and control local resources and wealth for their social desires.
Side note: when you see figures on military operations in that war, bear in mind that nearly all of them will give you totals and estimates after excluding Texas and Florida. For example you might see Paskoff's assertion that Union forces were in 56% of the counties, but often not the "after" exclusion I mention above. And I'm never a fan of "X% of Y ....(after getting rid of huge parts of Y's dataset)" claims.
One thing that does seem to stick over time is the Left's/Democrats' focus on groups as opposed to individuals. Even when they are claiming to be for freedoms and liberty it is always a group rather than individuals: "gay rights", "women's rights", "white's rights", "German's rights", and so on. They try to condition it away from choice - the individual context - and onto seemingly non-choices attributes such as skin color, lineage, sexuality, etc.
Take "gay marriage" for example. They argued that gay people should be allowed to marry not because it was the right of each adult to enter into that agreement voluntarily, but because "they were born that way." Not only does that create a group and thus rights based on a group, it excludes or implies the exclusion of individual choice being a factor. For a leftist/liberal this is how they look at it. For a conservative/classical liberal/libertarian/individualist it doesn't matter if they choose to "be that way" or nor - what matters is that they are (all) consenting adults.
Recognizing that even when they push for freedom/liberty/rights it is always in the context of being group-based reconciles a lot of otherwise seemingly contradictory positions they've espoused over the centuries.
"One of which was the printing of more and more money to pay for the government - and the resulting inflation will surprise none of us today. They "doubled down" on cotton because they had nothing else going."
That's because at the time, cotton was the #1 export in the entire world and it commanded a premium. When the cotton exports from the South were threatened, the South thought that the economic incentives of cotton would bring the English in on their side. What the confederacy didn't know was that the mills in England already had stockpiles of cotton - enough to last them nearly a year of production. When England took a "wait and see" attitude, the market for cotton crashed and with it much of the South's economy. Though C.G. Memminger, Secretary of the Treasury for the Confederacy, was an able financier, the problem was that no foreign nation wanted to lend them credit (no one would accept Confederate printed money) so they insisted on payment in hard currency - usually gold. This resulted in the Confederacy forcing an exchange of Confederate bills (which quickly devalued) for hard currency (sound familiar). As the demand for gold financing of the war increased - and without any mines from which to obtain that gold - the exchange rate between Confederate bills and gold rose even further until even the most ardent Confederate patriot was forced to admit that the economics of the war was destroying the Confederacy faster than the Union Armies.
"One thing that does seem to stick over time is the Left's/Democrats' focus on groups as opposed to individuals."
A key observation. And why? Because membership in a group is wholly dependent on the leader of the group. It creates an instant power dynamic and inequality among the members. Groups make it easier to assert and maintain control over individuals simply by controlling the terms of group membership, membership duties, and membership rewards.
An interesting take, and certainly backed by millennia of history.
I think their focus on groups is deeper than that. A key "feature" of grouping is the ability to distance uncomfortable parts of human nature from oneself. It is, and should be, particularly discomforting and even nauseating, to confront the reality that humans of all kinds are capable of great and terrible things. The Christians have "There, but for the grace of God", go I as their reminder that any among us are capable of those things.
This is another time-worn facet of the Left - their never-ending quest to render themselves somehow immune to wrongdoing. We see it more generally in our referencing of people who do these things as "monsters", "demons", "evil", "animals", or anything that makes them "not like me." It is why I've made, and continue to do so, a concerted effort to not refer to people that way. I studied they why and how of the rise of Fascism and Naziism with the specific intent of understanding how people could be pushed into that space where it became acceptable. Outside of Christianity we have the villain who is the hero of their own story as out warning parable. Some people do just want to see the world burn, but even out of them most do so because they thing something "good" for people will come out of it.
And think of it as the stories we tell: in fiction pick your 5 favorite villains. How many of them thought they were doing "the right thing"?
It is part of the stoic reminder that we are all capable of it in the right conditions.
For the Left that condition is "I am morally superior and better than you" - which IMO isn't a very high bar. People will do things to groups quicker and more easily than to an individual. This does tie back in with your observation about the power dynamic, so it isn't like we're disagreeing here. :) I'm just adding some, perhaps call it color, to it. We can see this in the current burning, looting, and murdering going on.
How many of these are "this person is of this group I have considered evil, therefore this that I am doing is to a group, not the person" rather than something the person actually did? All of them. We don't see "I killed him because he supports Trump" but "I killed him because he is a Trump supporter" instead.
It is, in my view, an important distinction. The former acknowledges the agency of the victim, the latter removes it. And in so doing removes the responsibility of agency on the murderer's part. He didn't kill a person, he killed a member of a group.
I say that is A DEMOCRAT Marketing Campaign, and an outright lie.
The LEFT(Democrats) were ALWAYS enslaving people, and using the threat of violence. The Republicans were literally founded as anti-slavery and had the first Black congressman. They were always on the side of leaving people alone!
There was no "switch". That's the Democrats trying to NOT DISCUSS how THEY formed the KKK, and their Klansmen were elected to congress and REVERED by the likes of HRC!
"Changed"; Democratic-Republican, Whig, Democrat and Republican.
Now, regarding your second sentence, are you implying I am of Democrat persuasion. Are you implying I am marketing for Democrats? Are you implying I am a liar? I split the three questions intentionally and in order of importance.
Yes, switched sides, and changed sides are used interchangeably.
My point stands as a separate FACT, triggered by your comments. My daughter once BOUGHT the idea that the Republicans and Democrats somehow changed sides. They swapped values, in effect.
And that SIMPLY never happened. That is just another way the LEFT (via Schools) tarnish the conservatives.
And I use the term LEFT as a derogatory reference to Liberals far left of Libertarian. I don't like disparaging Liberals because the older Liberals are actually more JFK or Libertarian, and it confuses people.
Plus a trick from Scott Adams: vagueness makes your point apply to more people. (Notice you do NOT know the industry Dilbert is in, or what exactly his company does?). Using LEFT allows me the slight of hand to paint in a direction, and various people will ACCEPT it thinking I mean people LEFT of them... But it gets them to accept it.
A lot of time the context of the written can be misconstrued without having prior, at least, verbal contact.
I spent the last 30 years in Minneapolis, moved complete this March and I'm just feeling clean as of recently. I understand how the rhetoric pulls at the empathy of the youngsters...falsely.
I have a Dilbert collectible, gifted to me because I'm involved in plenty of engineering endeavors.
Boss to Dilbert: Dilbert, I'm sending you to Elbonia to open up our new subsidiary.
Dilbert: But they just renounced Communism last week, they don't understand economics and have no appreciation of the real world!
Dilbert to Dogbert while packing: He thinks they'll make fine engineers....
That theft of the term is a good example of what the left does with language. It steals terms by redefining them to mean often the exact opposite of their long term and original meaning. Liberal once meant defender of liberty.
Neither the Democrats, nor the Republicans, have defended individual liberty or defended the US constitution in over a century - with very rare exceptions in each party.
Career politicians must become extinct for individual liberty to flourish again.
(These comments are not intended as an argument with either Cmdr or Capn.;^)
Well, isn't that so special? Good Schiff that.
But why am I thinking of smoke and mirrors?