Random Thought #107

With all of the political news and ads going around this time of year and with all of the disagreements and party politics games in congress, I started to think how the Republicans and Democrats actually got their names and ideaologies, especially considering that the USA is a Democratic Republic. Its rather interesting but many of the Founding Fathers didn't believe in political parties and the Constitution doesn't really address them at all but it started out with the Federalists who believed in National Banks and Strong Central Government vs. the Opposition or Anti-Federalists who believed in supporting the rights of the states as a better representation of a republic. Now you may be thinking that the Opposition were the Republicans of today and those that wanted a strong central government were the Democrats. That's actually the exact opposite. In fact, the Federalists led by Alexander Hamilton and John Quincy Adams hurled the term "Democrat" at the then Opposition which later became known as Democratic Republicans (I know...oxymoron right?) led by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison because that was a derogatory word following the Reign of Terror following the French Revolution in 1789. Back in the day, everyone was considered a republican so after that term had been flung out there, there were the National Republicans (Adams Republicans) and the Democratic Republicans (Jefferson/Jackson Republicans). You can read the entire history here but I think its quite ironic that the Republicans and Democrats of today support the exact opposite of what their original founders supported and in fact that we have a party system at all considering that was not the intent of the Founding Fathers. Amazing what money/power/influence can do to people.