An Open Letter to my BLM friends

First, I need to state unequivocally that I am a friend to the Black Lives Matter movement and an enemy to all its enemies.  I am a white man and of an age to have grown up during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s.  At the time, I was a committed Republican (party of Abraham Lincoln, of Teddy Roosevelt and of individual rights).  I boast of this because while the landmark Civil Rights bills of 1964 and 1965 (see below) were the children of LBJ – a Democratic president from Texas – Republicans in Congress stood for them more solidly than Democrats (half of the Democrats of that time were Dixiecrats – white racists from the South – while Republicans were still the party of Lincoln.  The ground shifted immediately thereafter, and nearly all Dixiecrats dragged their nasty racist behinds over to the welcoming Republican party).  And I changed my party affiliation at the same time and for the same reasons.  I am 100% on your side.

Ham & Jeff

Jefferson by Rembrandt Peale

A lot has been spoken and written about Thomas Jefferson being the grand-daddy of the modern Democratic party and Alexander Hamilton being the grand-daddy of the modern Republican party.  But I think this conventional wisdom is simple-minded and maybe just plain wrong.

George Washington was elected unanimously, by presidential electors, and before partisan parties sprung into being (everyone back then feared factions, or parties).  Soon enough, his most trusted advisors – Thomas Jefferson his Secretary of State and Alexander Hamilton his Secretary of the Treasury – came to (personal, political and philosophical) blows.  Those who followed Hamilton called themselves “Federalists” (the original name for those who fought for ratification of the U.S. Constitution without the need for a Bill of Rights; those who fought against ratification without a Bill of Rights were called “Anti-Federalists”).  The party that grew up around Jefferson called themselves (Democratic-)Republicans (the Federalist vs. Anti-Federalist argument was over by then).  Their core disputes were over the size and reach of the new federal government, the power of the presidency, and who we should ally ourselves most strongly with, France (our revolutionary ally) or Great Britain (our revolutionary foe).

Either-Or

Republican or Democrat?  Liberal or Conservative?*   Right or Left?  Jefferson or Hamilton?  Capitalism or Socialism?  Adam Smith or Karl Marx?  Competition or cooperation?   Freedom or Equality?   Liberty or Justice?  Young or old?  Past or future?  Male or Female?  Faith or Reason?  Science or Religion?  Determinism or Free-Will?  Nature or Nurture?  Destiny or Chance?  Thinking or feeling?  Head or Heart?  Which side of each of these pairs are you?

No matter which side of any of these pairs you favor – as the true side, the right side, the moral side – you are wrong to favor one to the exclusion of the other.  For example.  Many if not most liberals believe that most or all conservatives are either evil or stupid, or both.  Guess what: conservatives believe the same about liberals.  Is it possible for one half of the nation to be always right while the other half is always wrong?  Hardly likely.  Liberals and conservatives alike have their geniuses and their fools.  Another example.  A man is a man, for sure.  But if he denies his feminine side, he leads a fractured life. C.G. Jung called the denied side of us all the Shadow side.  He wanted us not to deny our Shadow side, but to integrate it into our lives.   If the Shadow side is ignored or tamped down, it will sure as hell create havoc in our lives.  Another example: Men live their lives according to either Faith or Reason, and it makes a huge difference which side they choose.  One is not always a better guide than the other, but most people are quite certain that it is.

Our Two-Party System

Our Two-Party system – which is nowhere enshrined in the U.S. Constitution – is an artifact of individual states choosing to decide elections by what is called “Winner-Take-All” voting rules.  Here is an illustrative example of what Winner-Take-All looks like.  Say, five candidates compete for an elective office.  The one who wins the most votes wins the job.  This sounds alright, doesn’t it?  Even if the best vote getter only won 24% of the vote?  Let’s suppose that one of the candidates was a liberal and all the others were of conservative stripe.  The liberal won 24% of the vote and the four conservatives divided up the remaining 76% of the vote, 19% each.  Doesn’t sound alright anymore, does it?  76% of the voters (conservative voters) will be represented by a legally elected liberal.