Forget a Third Party, America Needs to Adopt a No-Party System
We pride ourselves on being a two party system. Never mind the fact that the difference between Democrats and Republicans are far less than between most parties of European countries. In countries like France, Germany, and Italy, you really do have a choice. You actually have liberals running against conservatives instead of the moderate conservatives running against slightly more radical conservatives we have in America. In a European country, a socialist can actually get elected. For that matter so can a fascist. They have real choice there. Here, well, not so much.
Americans love to point to totalitarian countries and compare ourselves. They have only one party and you have to choose from that, they say. We have two. We have choice. Aside from the fact that it’s a misleading choice, our system is rife with another problem that is increasingly making our so-called two party system the problem and not the answer to our difficulties.
I hereby suggest that we become a no-party system. In other words, we do away with labels such as Republican or Democrat or Libertarian or Socialist or whatever. Imagine if people actually had to investigate what a candidate was saying rather than simply looking to make sure they had a little “R” or “D” next to their name. Imagine a country in which candidates had to raise money based on their own ability to raise funds rather than benefiting from the huge party coffers. Honestly now, would you know what the average politician believes in if you didn’t immediately notice his party affiliation when he is interviewed?
Of course, the problem goes much deeper than mere identification. The real problem with our system lies in how the party system runs Congress. Are you aware that it doesn’t matter whether the majority in the House and Senate has just one member more than the minority or fifty members more, they still control all the power? The Republicans hold a majority in the Senate by the absolute slimmest of margins, yet it is only Republicans who make all the decisions. Sure, the minority party has access to certain rules, but every single committee Chair is Republican. And when the President does deign to inform members of Congress about his secret plans for this, that or the other, he typically only informs the Republican majority leaders.
Did you know that a first time Republican Congressman potentially holds more power than a member of the minority who has been in the House for thirty years or more? The Congressional rules were designed to award seniority, but in reality the seniority rules only apply to members of the majority.
What if the legislative branch of our government awarded seniority over party affiliation. What if the guys who’d been there the longest were awarded committee Chairmanships instead of the guys who happened to have a majority of a few seats? Is there anyone who thinks this idea is outrageous? Is there anyone out there who actually has a problem with dividing the power in the Congress?
And here’s the thing: We could still reward the majority. Let’s do it on fair basis. If the majority has 60% of the seats, then they get 60% of the Chairmanships. If, on the other hand, they only have 51% of the seats, then they only get 51% of the Chairmanships. We supposedly have a two party system, but under the current leadership (so-called) the GOP has absolutely all the power over the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government. The GOP has virtually had the power of a totalitarian government since the 2000 election. And, well, it’s pretty obvious they’ve done nothing but screw things up ever since then.
The system is broken. We don’t need a third party, we need to eliminate this phony two party system. It’s a lie, a dangerous lie and it isn’t doing this country any good. There is nothing we can do about the stranglehold of one party on the White House. Bush will continue to appoint dangerously unqualified people to positions of power they are in no way equipped to handle, but the GOP majority is wafer-thin. There is no reason why a wafer-thin leadership should have 100% of the power. It’s kind of a reflection of the tainted Electoral College. Even if a candidate only wins a state by one single vote, he is awarded every single electoral vote of that state, thereby effectively rendering meaningless every single vote for the losing candidate.
As it stands now, from a power point of view, every elected member of Congress who isn’t in the majority is powerless. Their election virtually meaningless. That’s what our vaunted two party system has brought us to.
It’s time America went to a no-party system.
