It is the nature and intention of a constitution to prevent governing by party, by establishing a common principle that shall limit and control the power and impulse of party, and that says to all parties, thus far shalt thou go and no further. But in the absence of a constitution, men look entirely to party; and instead of principle governing party, party governs principle.

Republicans as well as Democrats would do well to heed these words of Thomas Paine, written in Paris in 1795.
It may very well be that the GOP so decisively turned out of the majority in Congress ran straight into the common principal Paine speaks of that ultimately limits abuses of power and impulses the excesses of party.
To many it is a relief that with a new party in the majority, a sense of balance may be restored. Party serving principal, instead of its opposite.
But pendulums do swing, and those that are elected can forget their hard won fights, their years in the political wilderness, and the promises made to those that elected them.
The frailties of man and the temptations of power can erode the ideals and good intentions of anyone, of any party.
And it is the highest grace bestowed upon us as a nation that the men of Thomas Paine’s generation created the founding principals of our government in the Constitution of the United States. It is by the light of this document that we survive as a nation of free men and women. And we shall remain free only as long as we protect and preserve it.

And so to the reader I ask; did you vote?

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