Trego's Mountain Ear

Heaven and Hell are both dictatorships.  The difference is in the management.  Back in 1787, Benjamin Franklin announced that our form of government would be “A republic, if you can keep it.”  So far, management of that republic has been somewhere between the management level of Heaven and Hell.  Maybe it’s structurally set up to be in the middle of the road.

Somehow, we wound up with a two-party system – George Washington and John Adams were both Federalists.  We don’t have Federalists any more.  Then Thomas Jefferson came in as a Democratic-Republican – we have both of those now, but I doubt if Tom would recognize either group as his moral descendents.  It stayed with Democratic Republicans through Madison and Monroe – then John Quincy Adams came in as a National Republican.  John Quincy was in second place to Andy Jackson – but when Congress was through with the election, John Quincy Adams was President.  Once.

Andy Jackson ran again as a Democrat and won.  He was followed by a one-term Democrat named Van Buren, and then the Whigs came in with Harrison and Tyler.  Harrison died after a month in office, Tyler finished his term, then Polk was a Democrat elected for one term, followed by Whigs Zachary Taylor and Millard Fillmore (who finished that term).  It may be worth noticing that John Quincy Adams left the National Republican party to join the Anti Masonic party, and that Millard Fillmore became a Whig when the Anti Masonic party died before his political career did.

Democrats Franklin Pierce and James Buchanan were single-term Democrats, then Lincoln came in and it’s been Democrats and Republicans ever since.  Obviously, we haven’t been long-term, permanently happy with either side in over a century of experimentation.  Perhaps Frank Herbert had it right:

If power is indeed a magnet for the corruptible – and I can imagine folks nodding agreement with that phrase and mental images of Trump and Biden – we have a problem.

On one hand, I’m looking at an election where I don’t particularly want either candidate.  On the other hand, I’m looking at candidates that are about as opposite each other as can be.  Unfortunately, we’re not offered the choice between heaven and hell.