I am a man with many interests, two of them being musical theatre and American history. Thanks to the magic of Lin-Manuel Miranda (and in the words of Hannah Montana), I can now have the best of both worlds through "Hamilton," the musical, which tells the story of one of America’s founders Alexander Hamilton in a completely unique way. Even if you don’t consider yourself a fan of musical theatre, stop reading this article, find it on YouTube, and thank me later in the comments below when you return to finish reading this article. Now, on to politics.
Today in America, I have observed with frustration the fall of both the Republican and Democratic parties, and have seen them replaced with the Conservative and Liberal parties respectively, in all but name. This may seem like a game of semantics, but bear with me as I explain why I believe this is important to note if we are truly intent on actually solving the problems our country, and our society will continue to face.
The Republican and Democratic parties represented a collection of people coming together to debate possible solutions to the nation’s quandaries, with the ultimate goal of moving the country forward in some course of action. If we choose to analyze our founders we see that even when one side lost an argument, the other supported the implementation of the majority approved solution, and either advocated for an alternative solution, or moved onto the next issue. Rarely, if ever, did they begin to argue that we should revert back to “how things used to be done.”
As we have shifted to the Conservative and Liberal parties we see today, we are now debating ideologies, and belief systems which are ultimately rooted in a moral question of right and wrong. Simply put, me telling someone that I disagree with them puts me at odds with them in a more personal sense as I am now telling them their moral compass is incorrect. That is much harder to swallow, and puts people in a defensive position to begin with, not to mention that solutions are not the center of thought in these parties.
If we can take a lesson from "Hamilton" we should see that it is not appropriate or productive to debate the character of people. Instead, our parties should be defined by the solutions they provide, rather than the ideologies they represent. The further down the rabbit hole we go allowing ideological parties to take the reigns, the further we stray from a solution oriented government.
