Sectionalism is defined as an exaggerated or disproportionate devotion to the interests of a region over those of a country as a whole. One could arguably substitute “political party” for “region. Left to itself, sectionalism has led to irreconcilable differences that result in either the peaceful break-up of a nation, which is rare, or more likely, civil war.
So the Democrats want to eliminate the legislative filibuster, eliminate the Electoral College and pack the Supreme Court. What follows is one possible outcome.
Removing the legislative filibuster would make it easier to pass unpopular legislation with just a simple majority instead of the required 60 votes and make it less likely that minority interests would be respected and protected. Partisanship would become more bitter and more frequent than it is now.
Eliminating the Electoral College would give much more political power to the Democrat urban elites in the Pacific Coast states and the Northeastern states, and erode the sovereignty of the southern and midwestern states.
Packing the Supreme Court with more Democrats would create a parallel Congress that would legislate from the bench and render decisions that would destroy what’s left of the court’s impartiality; it would lead to more corrosive and divisive future Supreme Court rulings.
In my opinion, taken together, all of the above will lead to an irreconcilable political conflict between the Democrats and the two opposing political parties — the Republicans and the Conservatives.
“We hold that the government thus established is subject to the two great principles asserted in the Declaration of Independence; and we hold further, that the mode of its formation subjects it to a third fundamental principle, namely: The law of compact. We maintain that in every compact between two or more parties, the obligation is mutual; that the failure of one of the contracting parties to perform a material part of the agreement, entirely releases the obligation of the other; and that where no arbiter is provided, each party is remitted to his own judgment to determine the fact of failure, with all its consequences.” (Excerpted from the South Carolina Declaration of Causes of Secession, Dec. 24, 1860.)
“Those who don’t know history are destined to repeat it.”
— Edmund Burke.
CHARLES F. HEIMERDINGER
Edinburg
