By Michael P. Riccards

Just as in the 1850s, the two party system is undercutting the American way of government.

Then the Whigs and the Democrats did not provide viable candidates to run for the presidency or the leadership of Congress. The Senate tried to forge compromises with the famed trio of Webster, Clay and Calhoun, but those compromises could not deal with the great evil of slavery nor could the leaders provide the type of leadership that was necessary to keep the Union together. And, as Lincoln put it, so the war came.

Now we are seeing the ridiculousness of two men running for president who are too old to properly remember important facts and dates. 

Trump, a seditionist like some of the ex-American presidents during the Civil War, is saying he is going to do battle with Obama. He not only forgets what opponent he has, but what city he is in. And Biden, never a bright light in the Senate, is unable to remember that he is providing aid to Israel, not just Ukraine. These are not just important deceits, they are very frightening lapses.

You know that, but you do not know that the party’s leaders know that neither man is ready for the next four years. But as they say in baseball, the bench of both parties is weak.

Why can’t Biden’s Democrats and its senior statesmen approach him and say, “Good four years, now you are indeed a transitional figure.”  Because none of the party’s leaders see anything in that for themselves, including Obama, Clinton and the Democrat  governors. 

And as for Trump, are the polls right? We don’t see anything wrong with a convicted felon, and a twice impeached president, running for another four years for what he has simply said is revenge.  

Has it really come to that?

When I was a boy, I remember my mother respecting the president, General Eisenhower, and my Dad talking fondly of Franklin Roosevelt. They had a stereotype of the president which they shared with the Founding Fathers more than we do. 

This lapse is exactly how Mussolini came to power. This breakdown is exactly how German  big business helped to destroy the Weimar Republic. Historians like to say that history does not provide lessons. But it does. 

We have immense problems still with poverty, and the pandemic showed us who is most vulnerable and how to help them. We have not dealt with immigration since Ronald Reagan and Tip O’Neil split a bottle of whiskey and put together a bill. We’re facing a nasty regime in Russia and a resurgent one in Communist China. When was the last time a decent regime poisoned its opponents? 

We must be aware that instead of having local and state leadership, we have the type of silliness we are facing in Florida, my new home state. We are discussing  child labor again, we are banning books, we are being led by a menage a trois called the Mothers for Liberty who are intimidating schools and librarians. 

Is this the Enlightenment of the Founding Fathers?  We have become too rich, too consumer oriented, too addicted to TV stupidity. In the process, we have lost the notions of civic virtue that Washington and Adams prized so much. So we are wealthy,  pampered, and drugged mentally and this is our way of life.

Michael P. Riccards, a former college president, is the author of 30 books, including “A Republic If You Can Keep it.”

Categories: Jandoli Institute, Michael Riccards, Politics, Uncategorized