View from the Right: When we stop agreeing on ideals we will forever move away from any ‘era of good feelings’ – Norwich Bulletin

By Martin Fey| For The Bulletin

A decade following Americas victory over the British in the War of 1812, running from 1815 until 1825, is known as The Era of Good Feelings. Americans found little to disagree about, the existing political parties atrophied, and the once powerful Federalist party of George Washington vanished. President James Monroe, elected in 1816, announced that it was his intent not to reconcile Federalists and his own Democrat-Republicans but to exterminate both parties as threats to democracy. He was re-elected unopposed in 1820.

That unanimity is hard to imagine today. The foremost reason is the lust for power. In the early 1800s the federal government was a small, poorly financed institution, its authority severely constrained by the Constitution and considered inferior to that of the states. Today the federal government is playing with over $6 trillion a year, an unimaginable treasure trove that Democrats and Republicans struggle to control. The U.S. government freely dictates to the states by heavily taxing their citizens and then doling the cash back along with encyclopedic conditions and minus a hefty bureaucratic brokerage fee.

The second reason is ideology. Historically Americans have eschewed political schools of thought, but the incessant push toward socialism, which started with the New Deal, has created an atmosphere similar to that which existed prior to the Civil War, when irreconcilable differences split the nation. From the 1960s to the year 2000, left-leaning Democrats pushed mainly for more social-welfare spending. They were countered by ostensibly more fiscally-conservative Republicans, epitomized by President Ronald Reagan. It was a Yin-Yang tussle that supposedly kept things in balance.

Todays leftists want more than welfare programs. They want to redefine America, starting with rewriting history so that American exceptionalism is replaced with the idea that we are a nation forever stained with the original sins of slavery and colonialism. We and particularly our children are being indoctrinated with the idea that racism is the most important issue facing us, that it is as virulent and systemic as ever, and that the only solution is to reject the past and embrace the ever-changing moral standards set by the left. There must be common sense gun control, but no common sense abortion restrictions. Free speech is a fundamental right, but only if that speech doesnt irritate sensitive liberal minds. The Constitution is sacred, but not when it stands in the way of the progressive agenda.

Prosperity is the biggest obstacle to socialism, so it must be restrained. Prosperity is one of the reasons the left hated President Trump. Miniscule unemployment and real increases in wages made people feel self-reliant; socialism needs government dependents. That is why the Biden administration is so eager to grant citizenship to anywhere between 16 and 22 million illegal aliens (see recent Yale study), most of them financially needy. The middle class, another obstacle to socialism identified by Karl Marx, must be made more dependent through heavy taxation and loss of jobs via globalization.

Unlike the countries of Europe and Asia, Americas are not bound by common DNA and long history but by ideals born less than 250 years ago. When we stop agreeing on those ideals we will forever move away from any era of good feelings and instead toward division, turmoil and oppression.

Martin Fey is a member of the Quiet Corner Tea Party Patriots.

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View from the Right: When we stop agreeing on ideals we will forever move away from any 'era of good feelings' - Norwich Bulletin