Prof. Rahe on Parties and Principles

Dr. Paul Rahe, author of Soft Despotism, offers a history lesson at Big Government on political parties, principles, and more. Dr. Rahe — who, not coincidentally, happens to be one of the country's experts on Montesquieu — knows whereof he speaks. He uses the historical background to illustrate the perpetual struggle for power that takes place in D.C., then offers a few choice words on what we face now.

Here's an excerpt:

As Codevilla and I have argued in different but complementary ways, what is required is a return to first principles carried out at the ballot box and enforced on the hapless hacks in the Republican Party by a public sentiment fierce, fully aroused, and no longer willing to tolerate half measures.

What is needed is a peaceful revolution that restores civil equality, that does away with “affirmative action” and protected legal categories, that eliminates the redistributionist apparatus imposed upon us gradually over the last century, that eventuates in a principled rejection of government subsidies of every kind, and that restores to the states and the localities the prerogatives that are rightly theirs.

Anything short of this will merely slow down our gradual descent into servitude.

The entire post is well worth a read.