The historic and traditional role of the Republican Party (GOP) is to be anti-war. In recent years the GOP appears to be the party of war. But this is an unfortunate incident which is not Republican. The Republican Party was born out of a need for more property rights and for equality among all citizens. The first Republicans were fierce abolitionists, calling for the abolition of slavery. The Republicans are traditionally and historically pro-Constitution, pro-capitalism, pro-equality (civil rights), and anti-war.
The Democratic Party touts itself as the Party of “the common man” and attempts to pass policies and programs that help all citizens, not just the elite. It is historically opposed to being the bully both in domestic and foreign affairs.
The Democrat-Republican Party founded by Thomas Jefferson (3rd pres.) and James Madison (4th pres.) and other Founding Fathers is not the current modern day Democratic or Republican parties. Their philosophies of not building up huge military spending, following the Constitution, and states rights do not fit with either the Democratic or Republican parties of today, with perhaps some noted exceptions for fiscally conservative, anti-war moderate Republicans and moderate Democrats.
Both the Democrats and Republicans have largely abandoned their roots and have frequently gone to war. The two-party system has glamorized war and gone to war frequently, fueling the military-industrial-complex, which is more attune to socialism and Marxism than capitalism. This is because it is a government run business, government sponsored business, creating a fictitious productivity for the purpose of preparing for war and going to war and then re-building the countries we bomb. The end result is numerous recessions and depressions to the economy of the U.S.
Democrats & Republicans: The Parties of War
Contrary to common perception, the Democrats are just as much the party of war as the Republicans. Here are the major wars of the last 100 years and who started them:
| World War I | Woodrow Wilson | (Democrat) |
| World War II | Franklin D. Roosevelt | (Democrat) |
| Korean War | Harry S Truman | (Democrat) |
| Vietnam War | Lyndon B. Johnson | (Democrat) |
| First Gulf War | George H.W. Bush | (Republican) |
| Bosnia-Kosovo | William J. Clinton | (Democrat) |
| Afghanistan War | George W. Bush | (Republican) |
| Iraq War | George W. Bush | (Republican) |
Regardless of the outcome (even if it is positive) war is not acceptable when it is a unilateral attack and especially on weak and uninformed reports. In Iraq and nearly all other wars civilians account for 99% of the casualties. The end does not justify the means. If the outcome is positive, we still cannot bring back the lives lost and the money spent on these police states actions.
The founding fathers including the first six presidents all called for a non-interventionist foreign policy. James Madison, the father of the Constitution specifically placed many checks-and-balances in the Constitution and framework of our government so that one branch and one person could not become too powerful and make wrong choices, such as attacking another without the Declaration of War and without Congressional approval.
Wars are very expensive. The Iraq War that began in 2003 had a cost of an average $10 billion per month. The GOP is quick to defeat many social programs that cost in the millions but for the Iraq War there appears to be a thinking that massive deficit spending is okay. It is okay to deny many domestic programs that are geared at income redistribution, but it is hypocritical to deny domestic programs saying that they are too expensive when the cost of the domestic programs are in the millions and the cost of a war is in the trillions, if the okay is given for these expensive wars.
The only solution to the short-fall in government revenue is then to raise taxes. There should be low taxes on individuals to encourage savings and consumption and low taxes on corporations to encourage investment and the further hiring of staff.
The national debt has been steadily rising for years. After the start of the Iraq War, the spending has skyrocketed further as does the debt. The government continues to borrow money from the Federal Reserve and from other countries. The trillions of dollars in taxes collected does not come close to paying for the massive spending that is required to maintain war functions.
The U.S. National debt was $5.7 trillion when Pres. George W. Bush took office in year 2001 and when he left office in January 2009 the debt was $11.4 trillion, double of the amount he received. This excessive spending has other consequences too. The strength of the U.S. dollar has been steadily declining at the same rate as the war spending has been going up. The U.S. dollar became weaker than the Canadian dollar and the EU euro in year 2007. Some international destinations are no longer accepting U.S. dollars as the dollar continues to plummet.
Wars are inhumane. In all recent wars civilians account for 99% of the casualties. In many cases torture and war crimes get committed by one or both sides. They do tremendous damage to buildings and infrastructure. The utilities and currencies get disrupted. Life enters a stage of chaos and anarchy during war for the people living at the front lines. Often we get placed in charge of re-building the nation after it is destroyed, which again costs billions and trillions of dollars. Again, where is this money going to come from? If you are a taxpayer, do you have a mirror? Democrats are typically known as the party to care more about people and their welfare than the GOP, so should be opposed to war on at least these humanitarian grounds.
The cost of war is simply too high. It cannot exist or continue unless more taxes are collected. The only way to do that is to raise taxes. Wars are too expensive. War causes the raising of taxes. The GOP should be opposed to war at least on these economic concerns. Therefore, neither the GOP or the Democrats should support unnecessary wars.
The famous words from the Declaration of Independence, that “all men are created equal and that we are endowed from our Creator with certain unalienable Rights among them Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness” does not sound like war mongering. It asks for compassion for all, that we are all equal and that we all desire life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It does not advocate the killing of others on a whim.
Are all wars unjustified? Of course not. Some wars are justified when in the defense of your sovereignty or when in response to an attack. But the attack must be specifically and directly toward the aggressors. When you attack another and send a missile, it cannot be addressed to the aggressor’s friend’s neighbor’s cousin twice-removed roommate.
Don’t the Sept. 11 attacks change everything? Is non-intervention out-dated in this day and age? The Sept. 11 attacks don’t change the Constitution and do not change anything into how we should do our foreign policy. The Sept. 11 attacks are the result of decades of poor foreign policies. It is exactly because we have not been non-interventionist in the past few decades that the attacks occurred. Luxemburg, Canada, Brazil, Germany, and others did not get attacked the way the U.S. did on Sept. 11. That is because they are non-interventionist and do not try to be the policeman of the world.
Corporatism
The two-party system frequently prepares for war and goes to war because of the growing and large influence of the military-industrial-complex. The defense contractors have managed to place plants in all 50 states and have a large lobbying group, encouraging the Senators and Congressmen to approve of massive defense expenditures for the sake of a make-believe economy for their constituents. The congressmen also receive large donations from these corporations for their re-election campaigns. It is a make-believe economy that does not produce marketable “goods and services” and is government sponsored and paid-for, not a true free-market capitalist economy and since it is false, it results in recessions and deflated currency.
Sometimes capitalism gets the blame for such practices and the left-wing uses downturns in the economy to claim that capitalism is not working. But in fact this system of government and economy is not free market capitalism and has more in common with corporatism and socialism. Corporatism involves state intervention and subsidies and the awarding of large contracts to certain industries. If we return to a true free market based economy, the U.S. could return to being a truly wealthy nation and not the borrowed nation, full of debt that we see today.