Political parties in the U.S. are a means of like-minded people to leverage their numbers to affect elections, and therefore our country’s governance. They are intended to serve the greater good for the greatest number through broad citizen participation within each party. The philosophy of Republicans is expressed on gop.com. The philosophy of the Democratic Party is found at democrats.org. As you will recall or read, both are aimed toward influencing the American center.
As religious services are waning in attendance and some religions are struggling with scandals and financial settlement issues, political parties seem to be filling the vacuum. The parties now rely more on dogma than fact and reason, and the coercive power of tribal think. Three reasons for this are offered:
1. Reasoned debates over what is effective and what is counterproductive have been replaced with arguments over good and evil. If a party’s position is perceived as evil, distaste and/or hate follows, which snuffs out objective discourse and bipartisan solutions. This also draws out fringe lunatic individuals and organizations who operate outside the legal realm.
2. The two major party central committees are dominated by ideological zealots. From personal experience, GOP tactics include weaponizing Robert’s Rules of Order and purposely extending meetings to thin out moderates. Each party speaks of their having a big tent to encompass wide variation of opinion, but practice proves otherwise. Republican Party MAGA leaders label dissenters as RINOs (Republican in name only), and extreme woke Democrats tend to label their moderates and Republicans as phobic, racist or anti-environment. Both parties’ actions are analogous to the Foreign Legion ripping off medals and insignia and marching moderates out the fortress gate, or in Liz Cheney’s case, out of office.
And, 3. By various means, America has become obsessed with celebrity. We grouse about their sense of entitlement and Teflon resistance to accountability, all the while granting it and some even applauding it as a form of hero worship. Political parties should police their own but seem to focus exclusively on dogma and winning elections. It often appears they and some of the public are blind to candidate qualification and what should be disqualification. Congress was once a bicameral system steeped in decorum and mutual respect of differing views. Now it is a legislative Babylon with rampant intraparty dissension and acceptance of the few documented prevaricators and corrupt among their ranks who sully the institution.
Our two-party system perpetuates disenfranchisement of one-third (and growing) of nonpartisan and third-party voters, which leads to rule by one third of Democrat or Republican voters. Be thinking about the advantages and drawbacks of open primaries and a ranked candidate voting method that would put nonpartisans and third-party members on an equal footing with the current two-party duopoly.
Why are the upcoming elections so critical that we should take special care in voting? Because the world is becoming more dangerous by our enemy ambitions, domestic social and political unrest, disruptive immigration around the world, our porous southern border, climate change, threat of the U.S. dollar losing its dominance, street crime and violence, homelessness, drug deaths, possible future pandemics, and AI job displacement. How can America lead the free world if it cannot manage itself? Politics has always been a place where good people go to be transformed into politicians who linger for decades by name recognition and incumbency. That is why we need to soul-search, research, and critically evaluate as we approach the election cycle.
Jim Schnieder is a veteran, nonpartisan, retired purchasing VP, and Stanford alumnus. He can be reached at [email protected].
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