Political Parties

One thing I have been thinking about lately is how we reform the political system. It seems like the public is becoming less and less satisfied with their leaders and quite frankly our leaders are becoming less and less worth following. Instead of thoughtful debate on the issues we have two parties bashing each other to gain political advantage and people both inside and outside the system are getting sick of it. And while talk of lobbying and election reform sounds nice they don't really address the real problem.

The dirty truth about both politics is that Republicans and Democrats are only concerned with one thing and that is Power. Either they are fighting to maintain power and control or they are working to regain it. The policy implications of what happens in government become just a pawn in this battle. And unfortunately, the start of a third party is not the solution. It would be impossible for a third party to become a major player simply because the two main parties have stacked the system against them. And besides the third parties are usually just one issue parties and lack broad popular support. But even if the green party or libertarian party were to win they would simply become just like the Democrats or Republicans in their quest for power and control. The old axis is right when is says that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

So what is the solution? I will get in trouble with several of my friends for suggesting this but the real solution is dissolving the political parties. Let each candidate run on his own merits and ideas without the party infrastructure pulling the strings. We could save a lot of money by eliminating the primary elections and simply have one election where winner takes all.

I am convinced there a lot of really good candidates out there that don't fit neatly in the Republican or Democrat box. They might be conservative in some areas and liberal in others but they will never be able to run for office because they couldn't get the nomination. Instead we get a lot of people who are nothing but idealogues who can't even think for themselves getting elected. And even if someone was able to get elected without being a party line person, they would constantly be pushed by the party to conform and vote a certain way for the sake of the party or because they owed the party their election.

If people could freely run on their own issues and vote their own conscience the quality of government would greatly improve. Instead of partisanship, each legislator would find others that agreed with on a certain issue and work together instead of against them. I know several Democrats that like my boss and agree with him on several issues but will campaign against him simply because he is a Republican. And it goes both ways.

One last problem with the current system is that it pigeonholes people into one group or another. I often get asked what I do and when I tell them I work for a Senator the very next question is what party. When I tell them, I get either a sigh of relief and a grateful smile that my boss is Republican or I get a shrug of disbelief because I work for a Republican. They have no idea who he is or what my boss stands for but they just assume he is either good or evil based on a party label. Political labeling has created such a lazy voting public. A lot of people just vote for Republicans or Democrats regardless of who the person is. So I guess the voters are getting what they deserve.

I realize that my plan has no way in hell of actually coming to fruition because it would shake the roots of power in this country and too many people would lose their positions of influence. But I do think this is the best solution and would have popular support among the voters. Most people are becoming independents and moving away from being a member of either party. Unfortunately, the parties will do everything they can to prevent changing the system that keeps them in power.