(NOTE: I am not trying to split people into factions with this post. I’m trying to present two sides of the same coin. I in no way am provoking or otherwise advocating one mindset over the other. I’m simply presenting what I think about the topic as a contrast to the original post, linked below.)
A very popular blog post here on DK (one that I commented in) has gained traction and shown split beliefs among the readers. The gist of the article (for the sake of brevity) is that America was founded on "...racism, nationalism, xenophobia, sexism, bigotry, classism, (insert negative noun here). And so, it follows, that anyone trying to move America away from these bedrock principles, is in fact, destroying this country."
While many of the founding fathers, as it were, may have been many of those negative nouns (and that’s up for debate), their ideas certainly were not.
This is inherently not true. America was "discovered" (by Europeans) by people looking for religious freedom. They fled England and other places in Europe in the hope that they could maintain their own beliefs without the government persecuting them. After roughly 150 years of mostly British meddling, mostly in the form of taxes, America gave the British the middle finger and decided to become independent.
While that started with the Continental Congress, we ultimately ended up with The Constitution, which was born out of the preamble of the Declaration of Independence:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
The Constitution proper maintains this theme, starting thusly:
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
So, while we may have been formed by white men of privilege and wealth, the intent of the founding of the country was never about keeping others out. Was it perfect? Nope. Not by a long shot. The natives were killed and/or herded to reservations without a second thought.
In the 18th century, "all men" most likely meant white men in America. Those were the ones "endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights". Times have changed. The entire country has changed. When this document was written, the "entire country" was basically the East Coast of the United States.
As expansion continued, the terminology began to morph into what it should've meant all along: all men is literally every human. Race, color, ethnicity, religious belief -- you're created equal by the "Creator". What you're taught is a different story, but many smart and open-minded people began to realize this.
It wasn't until 1886 that the Statue of Liberty (a gift from France), which was the main gateway to America at the time (and still is, to a certain degree), was erected. Even then, it wasn't until 1903 it got its famous inscription. It's a poem by Emma Lazarus (fun, not-ironic last name there) that includes the following:
Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!
These are the ideals of the modern Democratic party. These are the ideals that we fight for. They are not based in racism, nationalism, xenophobia, sexism, bigotry, or classicism. They are what people have thought we should strive toward for more than a century.
Today's democratic party is not out to "destroy America", but realize the America that has been a part of the fabric since the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, and the Constitution itself. It's not "destroying" what America was founded on by any means. It's trying to realize a dream, one small step at a time.
What the current incarnation of the Republican party has become is a reversion back to what some rich white people thought centuries ago (or hell, 50-60 years ago, and some still today). The "racism, nationalism, xenophobia, sexism, bigotry, or classicism" is taught, not innate. It's not what people of an open, educated mind believe, and it's certainly not the bedrock of America.
No, America was founded an idea of freedom for all, and despite the best efforts of some, we've come a long way. The current Republican party is doing everything they can to hinder this, and the Democrats are trying to advance it.
After all, the whole reason for our existence and our resiliency to push toward the original dream of everyone being equal relies on learning from the past. One party wants to live in the past. The other wants to continue writing the story of our future.