Party Labels

THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT: Former House Speaker, and recent Catholic convert, Newt Gingrich has embarked on a media campaign to label America's political parties...

• Democratic Party = Food Stamp Party
• Republican Party = Paycheck Party

While this may smack of partisan rank it certainly does have an element of truth to it, on both sides, and I would assert that the "Paycheck Party" is only a step above the "Food Stamp Party." You see both parties put a heavy emphasis on making the common man dependent on some big entity for his very existence. With the Democratic Party (aka the "Food Stamp Party") people are made to depend on the massive entity of the federal government for a free handout. It's dehumanizing and demoralizing. However, with the Republican Party (aka the "Paycheck Party") once again people are made to depend on large corporate entities for their wages. This is because the Republican Party has a long history of favoring large corporations over and above the needs of small family-run businesses. Granted, there is a greater moral value in the "Paycheck Party" because it rewards hard work rather than sloth. It retains the dignity of man through labor, instead of dehumanizing him with welfare handouts. However, the reward offered by a "paycheck" is minimal and temporary. It has no lasting benefits, for once the paycheck is spent the common man is left with nothing but more dependency upon the corporate entity that gave him the paycheck to begin with. He must return to his corporate "master" to receive yet more sustenance, just like the recipients of food stamps. Granted the corporation is often a better master than big government, but it is a master nonetheless. Now please don't misunderstand. We all need to work, and corporate work is an honorable profession, but it is usually not designed to be a permanent one. It may be temporarily necessary, but many who have retired from corporations will tell you the labor they put into the company is not commensurate with the pension they are currently drawing out. In light of this, might I suggest an addendum to Speaker Gingrich's party classifiers...

• Democratic Party = Food Stamp Party (Big Government)
• Republican Party = Paycheck Party (Big Business)
• Constitution Party = Ownership Party (Small Businesses)

The Constitution Party is the ONLY political party in America that fully embraces the Catholic social teaching of SUBSIDIARITY. This is the Catholic teaching that higher government should take a subsidiary role to lower government and private initiative. In American politics this is often referred to as "Federalism." It happens to be based on a Catholic doctrine and it is codified by the 10th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

U.S. Constitution, Bill of Rights, Article X
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

Catechism of the Catholic Church, Paragraph 1894
In accordance with the principle of subsidiarity, neither the state nor any larger society should substitute itself for the initiative and responsibility of individuals and intermediary bodies.

Likewise, the individual right to private property is also taught by the Catholic Church and codified in the U.S. Constitution...

U.S. Constitution, Bill of Rights, Article IV
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Catechism of the Catholic Church, Paragraph 2403
The right to private property, acquired or received in a just way, does not do away with the original gift of the earth to the whole of mankind. The universal destination of goods remains primordial, even if the promotion of the common good requires respect for the right to private property and its exercise.

Private property is good! It is something God intends the common man to have, own, use and benefit from in a responsible way. Furthermore, private property is meant to be distributed far and wide so as many people as possible can enjoy the benefits thereof. It is not meant to be concentrated into the hands of a few. This is the surest safeguard against poverty and dependency. Small business is private property! It is something that can be owned by the common man. It has value and can be passed on to children. It can remain in the family, or be sold for a profit. In this way it's much better than a paycheck and vastly superior to food stamps. Herein lies the problem with America's obsolete and dysfunctional two-party system. The Democrats look out for big government, seeking to concentrate as much wealth and property as possible into the hands of one massive federal bureaucracy. Once this happens people become dependent on the federal government for their very existence. Though it may smack of partisan rank to say it, it is true nonetheless. The Democratic Party is the party of food stamps. On the flip side we have the Republicans. They look out for big business, structuring laws in such a way to benefit large corporations, large banks and interstate lenders. The objective being to give them a leg up on competition and drive the small businesses into bankruptcy. In this way the Republican Party is indeed the party of paychecks - big business paychecks. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it's not the best thing either. So long as somebody else is paying you to work for them, you are dependent upon them for your very existence. Again, that's not necessarily bad, but when you have a whole lot of people (thousands upon thousands), dependent upon one employer, it's a recipe for disaster. All it takes is a little economic bump, and a thousand people can get laid off in a single town, crippling the local economy for years. Or if the employer has driven out his competition, he can keep his wages low and the people have no alternative employer to turn to. Again, in the end, the employee owns nothing. He can dedicate his entire life to his employer, and may lose his pension and insurance overnight should the employer file bankruptcy. If this happens we're back to - you guessed it! - food stamps.

Sadly, in recent decades we've even seen mutual collaboration between the "Paycheck Party" and the "Food Stamp Party." Each one scratching the other's back, keeping each other in power at the expense of the common man. Yes, the Republican (paycheck) economy is better than the Democrat (food stamp) economy, but neither is ideal. Widespread distribution of property and business is the most sure safeguard against poverty and dependency. It also insures the highest level of charity, as many people who own their own employment often reach a point when they can afford to give more to their churches and synagogues. Fifty years of "Paycheck-Food Stamp" politics between the Republicans and Democrats have demonstrated we will never achieve such an ideal state with either. There once was a time in America when we did have an ideally distributed economy of private ownership spread far and wide. Over the last fifty years, the Republicans and Democrats have robbed us of that. Only a federal government restrained by the Constitution can bring us back even close to where we need to be, and only one party supports such federal restraints unconditionally. That party is the Ownership Party, otherwise known as the Constitution Party.

So in the upcoming months and years, try to remember this every time you go to vote at the polls...

• Democratic Party = Food Stamp Party
• Republican Party = Paycheck Party
• Constitution Party = Ownership Party

The Constitution Party