Benjamin Franklin George Washington
John Adams James Madison
Thomas Jefferson Alexander Hamilton
1/27/2014
Washington and Madison Warned Against Parties
Founding Fathers Warned Us About Political Parties
GEORGE WASHINGTON
George Washington in his final Farewell Address warned . . .
“The Spirit of Party in popular governments 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 is itself a frightful despotism.”
“The common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of Party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of 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.”
Washington warned Parties . . .
“misrepresent the opinions and aims of other parties.”
“cause jealousies and heart burnings which spring from these misrepresentations.”
“tend to render alien to each other those who ought to be bound together by fraternal affection.”
JAMES MADISON
James Madison, “Father of the Constitution” and fourth president, diagnosed the problem of parties as a republic’s most dire threat in his famous Federalist #10:
Among the numerous advantages promised by a well-constructed Union, none deserves to be more accurately developed than its tendency to break and control the violence of parties.
The friend of popular governments never finds himself so much alarmed for their character and fate, as when he contemplates their propensity to this dangerous vice (parties).
The instability, injustice, and confusion introduced into the public councils (by parties), have, in truth, been the mortal diseases under which popular governments have everywhere perished.
1/26/2014
Eagle I mascot
Eagle I is mascot for Youra Independent. That is an I, not a 1. He is Eagle "I" as in Eagle "Eye." The "I" is the singular, personal pronoun. The "I" stands for the "I" in each of us. The name goes along with "I"ndependent, as in "You're independent" and "I'm independent." Eagle I is the handiwork of cartoonist Dan Youra. The eagle represents the characteristics of the independent self, the independent person, who lives the more independent life, far from the herds of sheep, horses, donkeys and elephants. See more of Eagle I in the Cartoon Section of this website. See more of Eagle I on products and souvenirs in the Catalog of the website.1/25/2014
IndependentVoting.org
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American Independent Party
by Cody Quirk
An organizational convention for the National Alliance of Independent American Parties was held at the American Heritage Academy in Las Vegas, Nevada on Saturday, January 18th of this year. The political parties in attendance were the National Independent American Party, the National American Party, and unofficial representatives of the National Constitution Party. - Ream more at Report
1/24/2014
More Independents Than Ever
Click to Read Article in The Washington Post Jan 8, 2014
More people say they are independents than ever before! So?
Film "The Party's Over"
Movie trailer: The Party's Over [Political Documentary Philip Seymour Hoffman]
youtube.com 2:16 1 year ago
Americans Want Independent President
Majority of Americans Want an Independent Presidential Candidate Email Print In a study recently conducted by the Washington Post/ABC News, an amazing 61 percent favor the idea of an independent presidential candidate. Americans are facing near-record dissatisfaction with the two-party system and Congress’s job approval is at the lowest point on record. So, Americans are open to the idea of an alternative. This is a snub to those two-party loyalists who say a third party candidate would never have the support of the public. Clearly, the opportunity exists. A third party candidate can fight the unconstitutional system that has been rigged by the Democrats and Republicans.
Learn more about Independent Political Candidates at: http://indecan.org/2012/voters/majority-of-americans-want-an-independent-presidential-candidate/
Gary Johnson Libertarian Party's 2012 Presidential Candidate
VIDEO: Gary Johnson Discussion with Alex Jones on Info Wars
Gary Johnson is the former governor of New Mexico and was the Libertarian Party’s 2012 presidential candidate.
Presidential Candidate Gary Johnson Exposes [read more]
Wikipedia Defines "Independent"
An independent voter, often called an unaffiliated voter in the United States, is a voter who does not align him or herself with a political party. An independent is variously defined as a voter who votes for candidates and issues rather than on the basis of a political ideology or partisanship;[1] a voter who does not have long-standing loyalty to, or identification with, a political party;[2][3] a voter who does not usually vote for the same political party from election to election;[4][5] or a voter who self-describes as an independent.[6]
A Better Way: Federalist #51
The Founders’ great insight was that such policies—policies that win the support of large and diverse majorities—are more likely to be wise policies than those that can only win the support of a narrow faction.
Madison articulates this conviction—the rationale for our Constitution—in Federalist #51:
In the extended republic of the United States, and among the great variety of interests, parties and sects which it embraces, a coalition of a majority of the whole society could seldom take place upon any other principles than those of justice and the general good.
Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence and our third president, explained that the Founders’ structural solution would require us to put the common interests that we share ahead of the narrower interests that divide us:
We have no interests nor passions different from those of our fellow citizens. We have the same object: the success of representative government. Nor are we acting for ourselves alone, but for the whole human race…our experiment is to show whether man can be trusted with self-government. The eyes of suffering humanity are fixed on us… and on such a theatre, for such a cause, we must suppress all smaller passions and local considerations.
Parties Are The Disease
In our Founders’ view, faction was the disease. Their cure was a government of checks and balances and separation of powers. The Founders understood that in such a complicated system, policies that won the support of only narrow factions would be frustrated while policies that could attract support across the lines that usually divide us would be far more likely to succeed.
Today’s politics prove—in a regrettably negative sense—the soundness of the Founders’ understanding as well as the effectiveness of their structural defense. The Founders expressly designed a government that would frustrate those who attempt to use it to serve narrow factional aims. Our contemporary politics are rife with excessive partisanship and special interest influence and the result is the very result the Founders intended: Frustration for all.
Washington Warned Us About Parties
And our first president, George Washington, dedicated his Farewell Address to warn us of the perils of partisanship. He observed that:
The Spirit of Party…exists under different shapes in all governments …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 …is itself a frightful despotism. 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.
1/23/2014
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