We are living in interesting times for sure. Who would have thought a few years ago that we would be entering an election cycle with better than even odds of electing either the first black or the first female president or potentially a combined ticket of the two? That we have gotten to this point indicates that we truly have come a long way as a country and marks the final transformation of a Democratic party that was for generations dominated by racists and violently defended both slavery and terror in the south.

A third and perhaps more transformative winner would be Ron Paul who could still show up as a third party candidate. We are now in the very sad situation, in which the only person likely to have been recognized by the founders as a true liberal and the only one who seriously seems interested in obeying the constitution is now a fringe candidate. This also seems to mark the tragic end of the Republican Party as a major defender of human liberty. They now defend waterboarding.

John C. Frémont ran as the first Republican nominee for President in 1856, using the political slogan: “Free soil, free labor, free speech, free men, Frémont.” Although Frémont’s bid was unsuccessful, the party showed a strong base. It dominated in New England, New York and the northern Midwest, and had a strong presence in the rest of the North. It had almost no support in the South, where it was roundly denounced in 1856-60 as a divisive force that threatened civil war. The election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 ended the domination of the fragile coalition of pro-slavery southern Democrats and conciliatory northern Democrats which had existed since the days of Andrew Jackson. Instead, a new era of Republican dominance based in the industrial and agricultural north ensued. Republicans still often refer to their party as the “party of Lincoln” in honor of the first Republican President.

I guess it’s nicer that the boot kicking in my door or stepping on my throat might have nice heels or be on a different colored foot but I doubt it’s gonna feel any better. Watching contemporary politics is like being in a crowded bar watching a gang of drunks fighting over a gun. Every year it seems like the gun (government power) gets bigger causing the fighting to grab it to become more and more desperate. The original, highly revolutionary concept of the U.S. Constitution was promote peace by limiting the size of the gun and strictly limiting how it could be used.