The number of voters who split their tickets hit an all-time low of only 11% in 2012. The ideological divide, and animosity, between Republicans and Democrats has hit extremes. And there is little incentive to compromise on the debt ceiling. James Madison warned of this "curse" to society. ~ Ilene
Factional conflicts have the power to destroy empires – and republics
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard at The Telegraph
The US Founding Fathers abhorred factions. The 10th Federalist Paper by James Madison in 1787 is a study of how to defend the fledgeling republic against the dangers of organised zealotry, the curse that blighted earlier republics in world history.
Madison defined factions as groups of citizen "united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adverse to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community".
The bone of contention was thought to be disputes over the "unequal distribution of property", and so it has proved to be as we see today in the bitter fight between debtors and creditors, or between those who live off government and those who pay for it…
Keep reading: Factional conflicts have the power to destroy empires – and republics – Telegraph.
