Like it or not, no one paid much attention to George Washington when it came to his stand on political parties. It is one of those things that 200 plus years of hindsight helped us to understand but, it’s too late now to change. Our two party democracy is the system we have and will have because there is no going back. The only way to change it would be some type of violent revolution or a spontaneous act that goes against human nature. Forget it, humans are tribal, it’s always been US vs. THEM. As was previously alluded to in the opening post, our system has a strong dependency on the balance of power among our two parties. Our system will surely would fall apart if either party was to overwhelm the other and force it out of existence. The checks and balances that our system depends on would be gone.
I have found that the best thing to do is live in the here and now. To do this you need to figure out what you going to do to try to make things a little better where you live. It’s too lazy to just throw up your hands and say things will never get better with our current system. Once you move past local politics to the state level, it is a mess. State types only care about getting “their” boys and girls elected. It’s all about numbers and acquiring power. It doesn’t matter what a candidate ideologically stands for at all.
Local political parties DO compete in the open market for members. Anyone can say they are a Democrat or Republican but, there are very few active members. Active members are the ones who do all the heavy lifting. They are the people who raise money and stand out on street corners handing out flyers. They are the ones who go door to door in the rain with petitions so, that people have a choice come Election Day. There is no glory and no power for the worker bees of both parties. These people work because they believe they are making a difference. They are also the clean souls who believe in the pure interpretation of the ideology of their party. It is hard to get new active members and a lot of us work to find them every day. Without them in equal numbers for both parties, the house of cards our system is based on is doomed to crash and burn. Our system will eventually lack oversight and no one will be held accountable. I have found that the system is wasteful and clunky but, it does get the job of governing done.
So go join your local party, not for what it is but, what it can be. Everyone has a duty to serve their country and their local community. If there is a problem with our Democracy it is the fact that normal people don’t understand that they need to take part and personally act if they want our democracy to work. Stop blaming “those people” for what is wrong and GO FIX IT!
