You’ve heard the saying “My party, right or wrong!” Or maybe “My country, right or wrong!” “My (fill in the blank), right or wrong!”
The implication here is complete loyalty and allegiance to the entity spoken of. When is such allegiance justified? It might just depend on how you fill in the blank. Or maybe not.
If I were to become a member of a political party, I would likely feel the need to say, “My party, right or wrong!” Since political parties are comprised of people, it is quite likely that at some time I would have the feeling that my party was wrong. After all, people are not perfect. When that happened, I would have to either abandon my ‘promise’ or abandon my party.
Not everyone would take this view. All political parties tend to drift over a period of time. Sometimes the drifting is in a direction a given member considers wrong. I know a little bit about this regarding two political parties: Republican and Libertarian.
At one time the Republican Party was the party of laissez-faire capitalism. Now it supports corporatism. Corporatism has done nothing good for the United States. It’s done a lot for certain corporations, but nothing good for the citizens in general. It has helped drive manufacturing overseas. It has been a major factor in our getting into wars. It has hurt the average American while lining the pockets of politicians and the top brass of some corporations.
The Libertarian Party has always been one that many people find difficult to accept. Most of us seem to believe that we NEED the government to do certain things for us. Things like take care of our medical expenses, provide for our education, and pay our way when we retire.
Others will say, “No, I can pay my own way.” But they can’t accept the Libertarian stance on some other issue such as: gay marriage, abortion, legalization of drugs, etc. Often a person will feel so strong about one specific issue that they will join a party based solely on that specific issue. Or leave a party based solely on that issue. I must confess to being a one issue person. My issue is the United States Constitution. If a bill does not conform to the constitution I expect my servants to vote NO.
Although I have been a small ‘l’ libertarian for some time now, I have only a rudimentary knowledge of the history of the Libertarian Party. It has been brought to my attention that they ran Bob Barr for the presidency in 2008 because they wanted to get a more significant showing at the polls. As far as I’m concerned, Mr. Barr voted the wrong way too often on some important issues. Too many times his vote was against the constitution.
Although I have never been a member of the Libertarian Party, I did sort of consider it my party. But not “My party, right or wrong!” They were wrong (IMHO) – so I could not vote Libertarian for the presidential office. (more…)