Letter to the editor: History lesson on political parties

Regarding Jim Papke’s letter “Biden should learn history, humility” (Jan. 19, TribLIVE), contending that President Biden should learn the correct history of the Republican and Democratic parties: The first thing one should learn is that the parties have switched stances throughout our history.

Thomas Jefferson and James Madison were Republicans in favor of separation of church and state. Today’s Republicans are against separation of church and state. Democrats once were against civil rights for Blacks. Today, it is the Republican Party that seems to be against civil rights for Black voters, while Democrats fight for Black/nonwhite voting rights.

Republican Abraham Lincoln stated in the Lincoln-­Douglas debates that he was not in favor of social and political equality for Blacks. Lincoln also claimed that if he could have ended the war without freeing the slaves, he would have done it. Republican Lincoln was as much a believer in white supremacy as Democrat Jefferson Davis.

Lincoln wanted to save the union any way he could. I believe Democrat Biden is also trying to heal a very divided union, no longer the “one nation indivisible” as misrepresented in the Pledge of Allegiance that forces our children to lie. Former President Trump encourages divisions.

The problem with political parties is that both major parties have become monolithic. Whatever became of the idea that an officeholder could vote his or her conscience regardless of party leadership dictates on how to vote?

Bruce Braden

Carmel, Ind.

The writer is a Mt. Pleasant native.