The constant use of "Left" and "Right" as disqualifiers by
President Trump and his political antagonists reflects the use of extremist
views and politics of fringe minorities to dominate the political discourse and
polarize voters in a now endless election cycle.
What is "Left"
and "Right"?
The terms originated in
the National Assembly's seating arrangements at the time of the French
Revolution in 1789.
Those sitting on the
left-of-center benches were against nobility and monarchy. Those on the Right favor
them or at least of gradual change. Using violent tactics, those on the Left
initially prevailed. They included the revolution leaders, such as Robespierre
and Marat, and many others that came paradoxically from nobility or clergy.
They instituted rigid censorship of their rivals and, one by one, sent them to
execution in the guillotine. At the peak of this process, known as The Reign of
Terror, more than 20.000 "traitors" were summarily executed.
After all the bloodbath came a dictator, Napoleon Bonaparte, who restored monarchy with his own relatives and partisans, giving way to the revenge of the "Right" wing and a decade of wars and imperial conquer in Europe that ended with Napoleon's defeat in Waterloo not before crowning himself emperor of France.The Framers of the United States Constitution noticed the lessons of the Left and Right-wing bloodbath in France and explicitly designed a Constitution to prevent what Madison called "the tyranny of the majority" by instituting checking powers and term limits.
Far Left and Far Right politics represented by different varieties of communism and fascism caused WWII and the ensuing Cold War when the likes of Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Hitler, Mussolini, and Franco rose to power after the Great Depression, instituting their own "Terror": the nazi Holocaust, the Soviet Gulags and "Cultural Revolutions" that according to most historians caused between 100 and 200 million deaths between 1932 and 1992.
Today, "Left" and "Right" wing politics are present in diverse forms, such as:
1. Identity politics and racist movements -from Birthers, Tea Party, and Q-Anon on
the "Right" to Antifa, La Raza, and BLM on the "Left"
2. Culture wars expressed with tribal
symbols such as MAGA hats,
Confederate Flags, taking down monuments, or re-writing history
3. Nationalistic, jingoistic movements such as MAGA, anti-immigrants, and Black
Power demonize those looking different and set one set of minorities against
each other.
These fringe, half-baked ideologies are used by both political parties as "bait" to attract frustrated voters through a toxic flow of 24/7 propaganda in Cable News networks and social media.
Campuses and churches have been captured by the Far Left and the Far Right as grassroots institutions to indoctrinate followers.
"Left" and "Right" wing categories are both wrong and toxic, as they are designed to separate rival camps in perpetual wars between absolute concepts of "good" and "evil" taken from religious war into politics.
"Left" and
"Right" wing politics are exactly what Washington described as "faction" and
"parties" in his farewell advice.
"I have already intimated to you the danger of parties in the State, with particular reference to the founding of them on geographical discriminations. Let me now take a more comprehensive view, and warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the spirit of party generally.
This spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable from our nature, having its root in the strongest passions of the human mind. It exists under different shapes in all governments, more or less stifled, controlled, or repressed; but, in those of the popular form, it is seen in its greatest rankness, and is truly their worst enemy.The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries which result gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of public liberty.Without looking forward to an extremity of this kind (which nevertheless ought not to be entirely out of sight), the common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it.It serves always to distract the public councils and enfeeble the public administration. It agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection. It opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, which finds a facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of party passions. Thus the policy and the will of one country are subjected to the policy and will of another.There is an opinion that parties in free countries are useful checks upon the administration of the government and serve to keep alive the spirit of liberty. This within certain limits is probably true; and in governments of a monarchical cast, patriotism may look with indulgence, if not with favor, upon the spirit of party. But in those of the popular character, in governments purely elective, it is a spirit not to be encouraged. From their natural tendency, it is certain there will always be enough of that spirit for every salutary purpose. And there being constant danger of excess, the effort ought to be by force of public opinion, to mitigate and assuage it. A fire not to be quenched, it demands a uniform vigilance to prevent its bursting into a flame, lest, instead of warming, it should consume."
No comments:
Post a Comment