Is Federalist 10 Still Valid? 9-19-2010, Part Three

 [Continued from Is Federalist 10 Still Valid? 9-19-2010, Part Two. sch 7/17/2023.]

Primary elections raise the ideological bar for political candidates. The Commerce Clause gives federal politicians power down to the local level. We have unbalanced the system with personnel concerned more with a specific ideology pursued with a more pervasive use of power.

Communications have reduced the distance Madison thought would dilute faction. Primary voters/activists bring their personal and local interests which adhere to their faction into the voting booth, into funding elections. Campaign funds arrive from outside the candidate's electoral district but within the candidate's ideological faction. Ideology becomes more important than national objects for the public good. Or, even worse, identify the factional good with the public good.

I should mention that my thinking includes the Senate and the Presidency, which did come within Madison's concerns.  When Madison helped write The Federalist Papers, the Senate was elected by state legislatures, and the President was not the leader of his party (there being no political parties). The Senate is now elected by the people of each state, subject to winning a primary election where the ideological hold sway. Likewise, the presidential candidates must survive a primary election.

(Could it be that President Obama saw this role as faction leader a mistake and rejected the role? Or is he doing with more subtlety what George W. Bush did with utter gracelessness? Regarding Obama, I am more for the first than the second, but I thin it possible President Obama wants to completely retool both parties, with the Republicans left with a rump of crazies.)

sch

[To be continued in "Is Federalist 10 Still Valid? 9-19-2010, Part Four." Considering the Presidency,  Donald Trump has a plan...and that should worry you came into today's email from Chris Cillizza's Substack:

It quickly became clear that Trump viewed the entire federal government the same way he viewed his eponymous company: Everyone and everything should work in service of him — his wants, needs and, most importantly, his vendettas.

And the longer Trump was in office, the more he bent the government to that image.1

The more he not only was willing to push boundaries but knew how to do it effectively.

That fact —even before this latest Times article — is why I am convinced that if you thought Trump’s first term was filled with barrier-breaking (not the good kind) then you ain’t seen nothing yet.

Trump won’t have the learning curve he experienced in his first term when it comes to radically overhauling how the federal bureaucracy works — and doesn’t. And he won’t even attempt to make nice with the traditional elements of his party, most of whom he has already categorized as RINOs and traitors to the conservative cause.

The leader of a faction must keep the faction's ideology pure. sch 7/17/2023.]