A Tale of Two Parties

by Lawrence Kadish

August 25, 2023 at 11:30 am

Among his opening words of Charles Dickens' classic novel, A Tale of Two Cities, he captures the enormous decisions, challenges, and choices that face people, institutions, and nations:

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times... It was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair."

Those choices can lead either to chaos or triumph.

While much has been said about the recent Republican presidential debate, our nation's most important focus would probably be better spent on the policies of the representatives currently running the United States of America. Many of these politicians and officials have created a tale of two profoundly different parties -- in their policies, values and their vision for the country. What once was a party that might leave a voter disagreeing with certain issues, at least one could respect its core principles.

No more.

What once was the party of FDR, Truman, and Kennedy appears to be in the throes of being torn apart by those whose agenda seeks to make government -- not the voters -- ever more rich, more centralized, and more intrusive in our daily lives. They have increased the national debt, which now tops out at more than $32 trillion -- more than the 2022 GDP of only $25 trillion. With interest on the debt of more than $1 trillion annually, it is capable of crushing America as no foreign nation ever could.

Long gone from the US pantheon of leaders are the great statesmen above. They have been replaced by politicians who have been accused of racist antisemitism (here , here and here), of being "compromised" by China ( here and here), and even of endangering "national security." The mental decline of America's current leaders (here and here) is painfully on view every day to world leaders in Communist China, Iran, Russia and North Korea, who have made no secret of their wish replace America, which they seem to view as the only obstacle between them and global supremacy.

Nor is the current administration even remotely attracting "the best and brightest" of a generation that once rallied to JFK. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has presided over a fiscal policy that is being slammed. Then there are, according to reports, allegations of "perceived corruption" at the FBI, the DOJ, the CIA, and IRS with a budget of $80 billion in new funding to hire 87,000 new agents -- with 4,600 guns and five million rounds of ammunition (!) -- and a Department of Transportation that has allowed the FAA to become so understaffed that there is now an epidemic of near-misses being reported by airline pilots.

The tale of two political parties will have much to answer for as historians far in the future study its legacy. They will be deeply puzzled as to how a once wise and seasoned leadership, that included giants such as Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, allowed its party to become hijacked. Now, sadly, it is a party that embraces policies that invite aggression (here, here and here), such open contempt for Americans that it refers to parents who attend school board meetings as "domestic terrorists" and Catholics who prefer a mass in Latin as "domestic extremists."

Sadly, Dickens might well observe that this tale of two parties has left our country with no happy ending -- it really did become a "winter of despair."

Lawrence Kadish serves on the Board of Governors of Gatestone Institute.