Blog 3880 – 07.07.2026
Democratic Socialist
This two hundred and fifty year old democratic republic began with The Articles of Confederation because that was the best the thirteen colonies at the time could agree upon. But the federal government that it created was two weak to hold the thirteen states with their often opposing interest together. So it was decided that representatives from each of the states would meet in Philadelphia and revise the Articles of Confederation. These men knew right away that what the country needed to survive as a nation was a stronger central government and a new Constitution to establish this Democratic Republic where the radical idea expressed in the Declaration Independence that proposed that the best governments derive their power from the consent of the governed, that sovereignty in a democracy belongs not to a king, a council, or a few but all the people who have a say in how they are governed.
The Constitution’s outline for a stronger federal government set up three divisions of the federal government as checks and balances. The strongest of the three being Congress consisting of two houses, the Senate and the House of Representatives much like the British Parliament with its House of Lords and House of Commons. The two other branches of the federal government were to be the Judiciary consisting of the Supreme Court having the ultimate authority over the federal courts and to interpret the law. And lastly the Executive Branch headed by the President was set up to enforce the laws enacted by Congress.
The Second Congressional Congress realized that a stronger federal government would be never keep the special interests of the various states from tearing the new nation a part. These men knew the most prominent division at the time was between the Federalists, who believed in a stronger federal government, and the Anti-Federalist, who believed that the state governments should be supreme. It was a difficult task getting three quarters of the states’s legislatures to ratify the new Constitution. And eighty years later the southern states would attempt to secede from the United States and form the Confederates of America. The original Articles of Confederation allowed secession but the U.S. Constitution does not. The rebellion was put down by federal forces in the bloodiest fighting our country has ever known.
People in the southern United States like to say the war was all about states rights and in away it was, I suppose, yet the states right most in question was slavery which had been a problem from the start. Sixty years of compromises still ended in federal government finally having to settle the question of slavery.
Other great differences in this country have always been about the interests of the rich versus the working class and the cities interests versus those of rural communities. Anti-trust laws, and regulations have been passed by Congress to curb some of the abuses of Capitalism. During the Great Depression which many believe was caused by unchecked greed and the failure of the government to regulate the stock markets, social programs were put in place and regulations to prevent certain abuses.
Trade unions once held by a majority of Americans as progressive have lost much of their support and power as larger and larger swaths of the populace have become enamored by the millionaires, the billionaires, and our first trillionaire who all promise if given a free hand to make all the money they can that one of two things will occur: “A rising tide lift will all boats” or the “trickle down theory” will kick in. In my experience, more millionaires than ever meant that fifty thousand U.S military personnel died in Southeast Asia, and more billionaires meant two wars in the Middle East, and one trillionaire meant DOGE ravishes Federal government programs that fed hungry children around the world and led to many federal employees losing their jobs and our Social Security information being compromised, while he got more government contracts that made him a trillionaire on paper at least.
Offering people a Square Deal or a New Deal, these are not Marxist Socialist or Communist ideas they are by definition Democratic Socialist ideas. They are not new, and they are becoming more and more popular to people tired of being cheated and lied to and getting a raw deal by men putting on “-aires”. As for the trickle down theory what trickles down after the fat cats get all they want is, well you would not want to step in it.
Your friend and fellow traveler,
David James White
