These days, a Democratic Republican Party sounds like an oxymoron, but it actually existed and had a long history in American politics. Founded in 1790 by Thomas Jefferson, it produced the third, fourth, and fifth presidents of the United States.
A party candidate described as a political outsider and man of the people ran on a platform of getting rid of the corrupt aristocrats who controlled the country. Sound familiar? This was Andrew Jackson in 1824, and he won the popular vote.
But opponents did a deal on the electoral college to steal the election, ignoring directives from state legislatures, and to transfer their votes to John Adams. Rewards of plum positions were doled out in blatant cronyism. This is known as “the stolen election” in US history.
Jackson split from the party and set up what became the modern Democratic Party. The people were outraged at what politicians had become, and flocked to Jackson in the 1828 election. He trounced Adams in a landslide and emerged as the seventh president.
His policies emphasized the capacity of the people to come to the right conclusions, shunning the idea that they need to be controlled by the elites. To quote Michael Scott of The Office, oh how the turn tables.
But Jackson and the Democrats were also pro-slavery. The Republican Party was founded in 1854 to combat the expansion of slavery. The frequent accusations of racism thrown at republicans by young SJW democrats simply reveals the ignorance of the accusers. Lincoln was the first republican president, and civil liberty remains at the heart of republican ideology.
There is much to learn from history, but watching the garbage-spouting talking heads of mainstream media, I fear too few people care.
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