Connecticut Commentary: Red Notes from a Blue State

The Democrats, with President Barrack Obama leading this time from the front, are anxious to portray Republicans as being the party of the past. It was Orestes Brownson who said, way back before the outbreak of the Civil War, “that mankind are always divided into two parties, one of which may be called the stationary party, the other the movement party, or the party of progress .” Americans, a highly experimental people, are temperamentally disposed to align themselves with the party of progress. It was something of a coup for presidential candidate Obama to structure his first bid for the presidency around the pillars of hope and change, too often mistaken for progress.