By Jeff Smith

Guest Columnist 

In his book, Tragedy and Hope, Carroll Quigley stated the two parties should be almost identical, so that the American people can “throw the rascals out” at any election without leading to any profound or extreme shifts in policy.

It’s an undeniable fact that this is the operational policy of both parties, as evidenced by the actions of the last forty years of six presidential reigns.

Beginning with Jimmy Carter up to the current president, three Republicans and three Democrats have held the office equally, each party twenty years. There has been no profound change in reducing government growth and spending or constitutional violations.

Both parties jointly increased the debt by 15.9 trillion dollars to its present 17.3 trillion dollars. Democrats Carter, Clinton and Obama increased the debt by 6.6 trillion dollars and Republicans Reagan, (darling of the Republican Party) Bush I and Bush II by 9.3 trillion dollars. Our children and grandchildren will be poorer because our country is being destroyed by the endless habitual abuse of the Constitution.

I’m a constitutionalist! This is not a party affiliation. It is, however, a description of my strong belief that the Constitution must be protected and defended against all government enemies, who trample on it daily. Uncon-stitutional spending, massive debt, expansion of government, senseless wars, growing socialism, a central bank (Federal Reserve), our debt money system and many other violations by both parties are all dangerous enemies of the Constitution and country.

Party leaders discourage all attempts from new members to return the party to constitutional boundaries. This implies that when constitutional obedience is rejected by party leaders, violations are acceptable. They believe party platform and ideology are supreme over the Constitution. Duty, honor and country, has been replaced with duty to the party, honor the party, and party before country. I’ll never submit to this brand of party belief.

It’s not my personal opinion or idea that the parties and politicians should honor the Constitution; it’s the law envisioned by the framers and codified in the Constitution. In fact, those who see constitutional violations as unimportant are forcing their unjustified personal opinions on the few constitutionalists in existence.

In an interview, NBC’s Brian Williams asked Speaker of the House John Boehner (R) to name a government program he would cut. Boehner replied, “I don’t think I have one off the top of my head.” So the head honcho of the party that claims to love the Constitution as much as mom and apple pie cannot name a single federal program to cut.

Blind allegiance to nonstop violations of the Constitution by political parties and politicians is not patriotism and continuing these wrong-headed policies will destroy our republic. Patriots love the country and will protect it from a corrupt government. Politicians and political parties love the government that illegally operates outside of its constitutional boundaries, and will destroy our country to protect it.

(Jeff is retired from Lockheed-Martin at Michoud.)