The Party of Burr
That’s basically the thesis of my new essay, The People v. the Democratic Party, now available on Amazon from my PJ colleague Roger Kimball’s Encounter Broadsides. The first review went up today, over at the lively website of the Ancient & Noble Order of the Gormogons. Some excerpts from the review by “the Czar,” one of its erudite contributors:
The book begins with the premise that the Democratic party was effectively founded in an act of crime—the murder of Alexander Hamilton by Aaron Burr, and how this links to the founding of Tammany Hall, the eventual spoils system of Andrew Jackson, and so on down the line to today’s party. Along the way, Walsh covers the Democrats’ presistent racism to maintain or acquire power, financial entanglements, manipulation of the media, and more, while showing the continuing pattern that repeats every generation…
The point is that the Democrats have not changed in two-hundred years, even though they alter their shape: their shift from pro-slavery to forcing blacks to live on government programs seems like a 180° irony but is no different than the virulent anti-Communist Democrats of the past suddenly embracing radical socialism today: find out where a group is disenfranchised with Republicans, promise them whatever they want in exchange for a vote, and then backstab them once elected. This logic seems tortuous as the Czar puts it here, but Mr. Walsh guides you through it expertly.
Case Closed
Criticism? Well, really, only one. In the conclusion, Mr. Walsh elects to quote a stanza from Milton’s Paradise Lost, which we confess was like hitting a speed bump hidden around a highway curve. The stanza is clever, and underlines a point, but struck us as a strange distraction from the fast-moving text of the rest of the book. A line or two would have sufficed, but a dozen lines of blank verse iambic pentameter is a thwack in the face. We might have edited that out entirely.
So if you can live with that—and you’re gonna have to, because the book’s in print—this book is a superb and swift read.
For whom does the Czar recommend this book? If you are fairly new to politics, or want to learn more about suppressed history, this book is a gem. Inexpensive, too—and did we mention owning it is a click away? This is the sort of stuff that a lot of people would prefer you not read; so even if you already know the sordid history of the number 2 party, you will enjoy Mr. Walsh’s infrastructure thoroughly, as we did.
Also, if you’re a Democrat, you ought to read this book. We didn’t mention it above, but a small portion of this book strongly suggests that the Democrats need to go. This is not a mere partisan challenge; rather, like the Tea Party has begun a serious and increasingly successful reformation of the Republican party, it might be time for Democrats to start a similar reformation of their own.
Exactly. Here’s my conclusion:
After more than two centuries, it’s time to send the Democrats the way of the Federalists, the Whigs, the Know-Nothings, the Dixiecrats, and the other splinter parties and factions that litter American political history. No law says a given political party is eternal. And yet as long as the party of Burr continues to thrive, its loaded gun is no longer pointing at a man but at a whole nation.
Is there a place in the American political system for a truly loyal opposition – one that does not seek “fundamental transformation” of our constitutional Republic but rather its betterment and continuance? Of course there is.
But is there a place for a criminal organization masquerading as a political party?
If our nation is to survive, not any more.
Full disclosure: As the full review notes, I’m Twitter-friendly with the Gormogons, although I’ve never met any of them in person. I do have a cordial email friendship with one of the members (not the Czar), who’s reviewed my work favorably in the past.
Sorry Mr. Walsh but the Democrats are not the party of Burr. Burr was an outcast from the get go back during the founding period and was more than well loathed by Jefferson. Please read David O. Stewart’s book, ‘American Emperor, Aaron Burr’s Challenge to Jefferson’s America’ and you will quickly learn that Burr was more or less a man without a party. As much as I disdain the Democrats saying Burr was one of them is an insult to the Dems.
P.S. Some may argue that the two party system was founded after the John Jay treaty debacle.
The following is inscribed on the tombstone of Civil War veteran Nathaniel Grigsby in Attica, Kansas:
“Through this inscription I wish to enter my dying protest against what is called the Democratic party. I have watched it closely since the days of Jackson and know that all the misfortunes of our nation have come to it through this so called party. Therefore, beware of this party of treason.”
He had the Democrats pegged, all right!
The Jackass Party has been riddled with every sort of liar, crook, thief, thug, malcontent, traitor, slaver, Marxist, and outright tyrant since the early 19th century. The Marxocrats have been the enemies of liberty and freedom for a very long time.
Read what Grant had to say of them in his Memoirs.
“plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose”!
Burr was a [Jeffersonian] Republican, no doubt about it. His NYC political organization was a cornerstone of the J-Republican Party in New York; without it the Federalists would have won NY and the 1800 election. Burr pioneered precinct work and GOTV drives.
Of course Burr ran himself out of the party with his highjinks after the electoral vote tie…
But one can argue that Burr’s methods presaged the spoils-driven party-locked politicking of the 1800s. Whigs and [post-1854] Republicans used the same methods. But later still, one sees urban Democrats relying more heavily on patronage than Republicans.
I do think it’s too much to call it a continuous pattern. And by the time Burr killed Hamilton, he was a renegade from the J-Republicans, so it wasn’t their fault.
As usual, the readers here know their stuff.
I do not think the Dems need to go. There will always be the criminal-minded. If they do not infect the Dems, they will infect another Party. Even if they are relegated to the fringes, they will then move into another, more dominant, Party, and start again.
Truth is, there is not much difference between Repubs and Dems. Establishment Repubs are just a kinder, gentler version of the same beast, and thus more dangerous in the long run. Bush II is a good example of this. Vast expansion of the FedGov. 7.5% annual growth in spending. Incompetence in foreign affairs. Everything he did, Obama is just doing in spades.
The Dems go too far, and thus, we can undo what they do. The kinder, gentler Repubs do stuff that is just within the bounds of tolerance, and so, we get stuck with their results. Does anyone think we will ever see the end of the Patriot Act? Ever? No Child Left Behind? Medicare Part D, unfunded? An end to the growth of spending?
The hogs line up at the trough. The only way that is ever going to change is if enough good people simply keep them out, but these good people better be beyond temptation. That trough is very tempting to many people. All you have to do is just bend your principles a teensy-tiny bit. It’s okay. No one will notice….
At the time that Tammany was reaching the apogee of power in New York it was opposed, quite effectively, by Thomas Platt and his amen corner of statewide republicans equally devotees of the spoils system. The same held true on the national level at a time when party organization was absolutely necessary for the election of candidates of either party. Does Walsh think that repeaters and colonizers were utilized by only one of the parties in the rough and tumble politics of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. By the way, is it admirable to be anything less than a “virulent” anti communist?
Oh oh.
A writer for a aspiring mainstream conservative blog has finally stated the bald truth. 1) we’re dealing with criminals, not political opponents, and 2) the progressives /leftists /marxists /soialists are just the latest name the criminals like to call themselves to get you looking the other way while they steal everything you own.
Mr. Walsh may not be writing for long.
Once you understand that it has NOTHING to do with ideology, but that it’s only about power and wealth, it all comes clear.
Had a mild spat with a lady earlier in the week in the PJM comments who just doesn’t feel it’s “helpful” to say the truth about these people. Mustn’t be mean to them, you know. But now it looks like Mr Walsh falls into weo’s category of being “unhelpful”. It’s good to know I’m not alone.
How I put it says the same thing differently.
Democrats are, and always have been, the party of group rights- they simply change from time to time on which group they favor.
Republicans are and have been teh party of individual rights.
Individual rights and group rights are contradictory to each other- if you have one, you cannot have the other.
This is absolutely excellent. IDEA: send to any Democrat with an open mind. Or is that an oxymoron?
Now for a nice wiki of the Republican criminal accomplices–
what, you think progressive criminals have only been selling to one side for the last hundred years? Crooks go where the money and power is– the difference is only marketing.
The great advance came about with FDR’s drugwar.
Governments control the cartels and use the militaries to defend their network.
American progressive imperialists have successfully spread their model of covert funding and money laundering for political takeover throughout the world, beginning with the ‘enforcement’ of American ‘law’ at US military bases.
Various common medicinals were ‘legal’ everywhere; suddenly the entire world discovered that common plants were a danger to all civilization. Banned all over the globe- why?
The first thing communists and their warlord sepoys do is ban ‘drugs’.
Rogues using terrorism, torture, blackmail, human trafficking, and nuclear proliferation are worried about our virtue? Or do they need money for illegal ‘political’ activity and physical muscle? Ever wonder about some of our shadier allies?
The financial and political model of covert mafias is our most successful export. What we see today is a convulsion natural to the strange economies of creating criminals and double fronts- as were WWI and II.
Democrats launder the money, Republicans build the prisons.
Both sides of Crime.gov profit. Traditional capitalist economics don’t really apply to shadow politics.
P.S.– I bet you thought the Europeans invented ‘Communism’.
Not so. They learned it from the actors of the Roosevelt Dynasty, themselves the Ivy League sons of the fled Confederates who sought to create American Empire.
Their European allies just reworked the branding a bit.
Societies re-echo ideas back and forth, especially as their criminals avoid exposure.
Corruption and it’s public speakers are the key component in cultural change.
Everyone commenting above regarding this being about progressives in both parties being responsible are right. Regardless of party, shall we agree that they are “democrats” by their actions. Rhinos, infiltrators, saboteurs whatever we choose to name them they are them. Really, the author and the columnist have hit it on the head. Let’s stop trying to name them and just root them out whenever and wherever we find them. At least the Republicans have a reformation movement within their ranks to start stripping progressives out of the party. Regardless of party affiliation the progressive/”democrats” have become shameless criminals, power-grabbing-Anti-constitutionalists who have been building their oligarchy for a long time. If it can be illustrated as growing more virulently from Burr’s gunshot then that’s just fine with me. The book seems like it will still be enlightening because it tries to restore truths and actual history to the public dialogue. I intend to read it and share it … now if I only knew one Democrat that would actually read it or engage in honest dialogue. I have dozens of democrat relatives and not a single one will tolerate progressive blasphemy like this. Even if it came from one of their own they’d cast the sender out as a heretic.
Glad to see I was dead on with my November 15th post…….”When is Donna the Mule gonna pull the trigger on your December bowl game? Would think she would put Gawdawful Golden out of his misery before she stuffs her turkey neck with more turkey.”