The Breakdown of Brotherhood
Posted on September 25, 2014
"United States Capitol west front edit2" by United_States_Capitol_-_west_front.jpg: Architect of the Capitol
derivative work: O.J. - United_States_Capitol_-_west_front.jpg. Licensed under Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.
It started with Cain and Abel.
The Spartans never got along with the Athenians.
The Christians split off from the Jews, despite the fact that Christ was a Jew. During several dark periods of history, Christians persecuted the Jews, calling them Christ-killers, despite the overlooked fact that Christ mostly preached about being an observant Jew.
Almost immediately upon its founding, the Sunnis decided they hated the Shia, and vice versa. It had something to do with somebody’s brother. I don’t know. It’s complicated.
Eventually, the Protestants broke off from the Catholics.
We started off with no political parties in America, but now we have the Democrats and the Republicans.
We had a nasty civil war between the North and the South.
In Ireland, the Michael Collins wing of the IRA clashed with the Eamon DeValera Wing, which later morphed into the two dominant political parties, Fianna Fail and Fine Gael.
In Russia, the Mensheviks had a falling out with Bolsheviks. Trotsky and Stalin weren’t on the same page.
Hitler purged the SA on the night of the Long Knives despite the fact that the Brown shirts brought him to power.
Republicans have always had their internal issues.
Teddy Roosevelt didn’t like how Taft was running his party, so he started the Bullmoosers.
LaFollette didn’t like Speaker Joe Cannon’s iron rule, so he started the Progressives.
The Taft conservatives were aghast that Ike took control of the party, the Ford folks didn’t trust the Reaganistas.
Within the GOP today, you have the establishment and the Tea Party wing. They don’t like each other very much.
The Democrats have their history of division. The Southern Democrats controlled all of the Committees, making it hard for the liberals to take Civil Rights to the floor.
Bill Clinton decided to embrace the Bubba vote, but first Nancy Pelosi and then Barack Obama drummed the Blue Dogs out of the Party.
In Chicago, you have Cubs fans and White Sox fans. They hate each other.
Well actually, White Sox fans hate Cub fans. A good day is when the Sox win and the Cubs lose. And equally good day is when the Cubs lose.
In the Congress, the House and the Senate have equally low regard for each other.
In the House, your adversary is the other party; your enemy is the Upper Chamber.
You want to see two people who really dislike each other? Find out two Senators who represent the same state (especially if they are female). They most likely loathe one another.
That’s how life is sometime, stretching back to the beginning of time.
The ones we should love are the ones we hate with the deepest passion.
It’s kind of inexplicable.