Republican Rivalry

The Democratic Party and the Republican Party have a long rivalry that predates the American Civil War. Their rivalry is based upon issues much more pressing than any foreign policy dispute that America faces today. This rivalry is based upon the application of human rights and natural rights in the social policies in the United States. These terms, now used interchangeably by most Democrats and Republicans, are the base of all the modern social debates between Republicans and Democrats. But where did this difference begin and how will it affect the development of the two dominating parties of the United States? The difference began with the founding of the Republican party and the civil war, became clear in the election of 1912, and continues

Accordingly, the idea of human rights developed in conjunction with the progressive movement. These “human rights” developed from Theodore Roosevelt as he worked against trusts in order to end special interests and preserve the peoples’ interest (Kesler). Consequently, one might ask, what preserves the peoples’ interest, and what is the difference between natural and human rights? Natural rights indicate “that we owe our rights to our nature” (Kesler). Our nature is not determined by man, but by God. In contrast, human rights are man made (Kesler). If they are made by man, by what standards is man meant to determine what a human right is? Because of this, yet again, nebulous philosophy that the Democrats and some Republicans adopted, the Democratic platforms do not gain traction until Franklin Delano Roosevelt took office in 1933. Even then, the vague nature of these human rights did not take shape until the 1960s and 1970s when the sexual revolution

This division is more greatly seen in the Republican party. Due to the origin of the progressive movement being in the Republican party, there are still influences of human rights. The individuals that follow the edicts of people campaigning human rights and the individuals who take no stand in the issue of human rights versus natural rights are leaving the Republican party. Although they may still align with the reported fiscal responsibility that the Republicans claim to have, an increasing number of these human rights Republicans are becoming libertarians. This faction of Republicans is being joined in the libertarian camp by moderate Democrats. These moderate Democrats, less enchanted with the social justice and equality loving elements of the far left Democrats, are sick of the establishment Democrats, and they eager to join this more moderate course of action proposed by