Matthew Dowd Quotes
Democrats have a problem if they go one way and don't emphasize the rule of law and only have compassion. The Republicans have a problem if they only go with the rule of law. There has to be a balance.
Dowd, Matthew. This Week with George Stephanopoulos. ABC, 24 June 2018.
He is credited with the origin of this statement by many sources but a primary quotation has eluded us.
Theodore Roosevelt was the Presidential nominee
Even Washington, the least partisan of the Federalists, was not favorably disposed to the Jeffersonian Democrats. The Democratic Republicans as they called themselves were also equally hostile to the Federalists. So were most of the American people after John Adams’ presidency, and the people voted so heavily against America’s first political party and for the “Democrats”, that the Federalist party totally disbanded, “Blackamoor” is word for a Black person who is extremely dark—almost jet black in color. For many people today it is an impolite term to use,
Essentially Trollope claimed that English political parties are by their very nature, conservative, in the sense that they tend to resist great change. This has tended to be true in America and other democracies, but there are a number of exceptions. Where political parties are totally unsuccessful, they have little to lose. Likewise, when a political party becomes overwhelmingly dominant, it tends to overreach and try and make ideological change. However when there is true contest among the parties, they tend to be conservative in the sense that even if they are liberal parties, they do not move in extreme ways.
“Republicans” then referred to strong opponents of not only monarchy, but opposed a strong Presidency and federal government. The Federalists who supported John Adams for reelection to a 2nd term, were trounced so badly that it was the end of the Federalist Party. Their attacks on Jefferson had been particularly vicious with the hyperpartisanship as bad as in the early years of the 21st century. Jefferson tried to unify the nation with this quotation. It helped but there was still much bitterness.
Matthew John Dowd is an American political pundit and consultant. He was the chief strategist for the Bush-Cheney 2004 presidential campaign and was an ABC News political analyst.
