“There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties, each arranged under its leader, and concerting measures in opposition to each other. This, in my humble apprehension, is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our Constitution.”
~ John Adams
Whether or not “two great parties” are indeed the “greatest political evil,” I’ve come to the conclusion that there is no political “team” I feel comfortable joining. Trust me, I’ve tried. At various points, I’ve called myself a Democrat, a Republican, and a Libertarian, but at each juncture, I’ve found myself disagreeing with core principles of these factions. What I’m opposed to is fundamentalism in all its forms. Our views should be fluid, adaptable to changing circumstances and new information.
Too often, people latch onto an ideology that becomes part of their personality, their very identity. This is not only irrational but hazardous. Nuance and rational debate seem to be disappearing faster than the American middle class. We are quick to turn to shouting, name-calling, and sometimes even violence when faced with differing political opinions. We often view those who change their minds or political affiliations with suspicion, if not outright disdain.
In a recent episode of Common Sense, Dan Carlin brought up a widely-used anecdote often attributed to John Maynard Keynes. When faced with a critic who is accusing him of being inconsistent in his political views, Keynes is supposed to have responded, “When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?”
This kind of intellectual flexibility is rare today. Instead, we are more and more replacing religious fundamentalism with political fundamentalism. Our churches are becoming our political parties, and our politicians are our clergy, insisting that “our way is the only way.” For evidence, look no further than your Facebook or Twitter feed—or worse, the YouTube comment section, where civil discourse goes to die. The vitriol and hate spewed in these online spaces are alarming, revealing how deeply entrenched our divisions have become.
Many Independents, Libertarians, and Greens are quick to announce that the “two-party system” is destroying our country. While there’s truth in this statement, I’m not convinced that replacing Republican fundamentalists with Libertarian fundamentalists or Democrat fundamentalists with Green Party fundamentalists is the solution. As the saying goes, “power corrupts.” When a political party comes into power, its main mission is to retain that power, often at the expense of the needs of the electorate.
Personally, my political and social beliefs don’t fit neatly into any party platform. I’m a combat veteran who owns guns but believes in rational gun control. I’m pro-choice but recognize that a healthy fetus left alone would eventually become a human being. I believe the First Amendment is the greatest piece of legislation ever penned and should be protected at all costs, even for those who espouse ideas I find abhorrent. I’m pro-immigration but see the impracticality and dangers of wide-open borders.
Perhaps some of my views are inherently contradictory. But as Walt Whitman wrote, “Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself. I am large, I contain multitudes.” It’s not about cognitive dissonance but about embracing complexity and rejecting simplistic, black-and-white thinking.
We’ve reached a point where I must admit I don’t have any practical solutions to our partisan problem. I don’t believe we should “scrap the whole damn system,” as some of my more anarchistic friends suggest. We Americans have created a representative system of governance that can rival any in history. But just because the foundations are solid doesn’t mean we can’t evolve and improve upon them.
I would love to see a world where political parties don’t exist, where candidates run on individual platforms judged in the marketplace of ideas. Like John Adams, I believe that party control could be our downfall. But my “party-free utopia” isn’t likely to come to fruition anytime soon, nor do I believe that eliminating political party strongholds is a panacea.
And this brings us to Donald Trump.
For years, my friends and I discussed how great it would be if a true political outsider, not beholden to the entrenched political norm, found a way to circumvent the establishment and come to power. Well, that just happened. Fuck…
President Trump, while a Republican (currently) in name, is an outsider. Unfortunately, he’s not the outsider I hoped for. Putting aside any political views he may hold, I think we can all agree that he is a narcissistic, power-hungry, egotistical authoritarian—the very personality type we Americans should not want to lead the government of the United States.
Over the last several decades, Congress has ceded more and more authority to the executive office, and now we are seeing what happens when someone comes into power who is willing to wield those unchecked powers to further his own agenda. We might be in for a bumpy ride—a ride that we voluntarily, if perhaps naively, boarded.
From an all-out assault on the press and free speech to open attacks on the judicial system, we are in turbulent, uncharted waters. Facts have become alternative versions of truth, and established scientific theories are dismissed as liberal conspiracies by many citizens and the politicians who write and enforce policy.
How did we get here? It’s a complicated combination of actions, missteps, and intentions, both good and bad. But our current state of affairs can, to some extent, be traced back to political parties. We’ve given up on electing the most qualified people to represent us in Washington, D.C. Instead, we’re too happy to check the box next to the name of our candidate that happens to have an R or a D next to it on the ballot. We’ve trusted the parties to have our interests at heart, but they’ve repeatedly failed us.
Yet, despite the bleak outlook, there is a sliver of hope. The very fact that Trump was nominated and elected against the wishes of both major parties shows that a political outsider can gain a foothold in the current system. If only the Democrats had recognized this, we might be in a far different position today.
In 2016, the Democrats ignored the anti-establishment climate in America and ran one of the most disliked establishment candidates in history, despite having the perfect answer to Trump in a Senator from Vermont. Bernie Sanders attracted the same type of voter, desperate for an outsider candidate, that Trump did—the major difference being that Sanders was largely viewed as trustworthy, honest, and genuine. But the DNC wasn’t listening. They rallied around the establishment and ignored the voices of their working-class constituency, an error that likely cost them the election.
Not that we should be surprised. This is what happens with political parties. When they take control, the desires of the masses are pushed aside. The party comes first, always.
So where do we go from here? I don’t know. We’ll ride out these next four years the best we can and see what happens. Maybe things will change for the better in 2020. Maybe not. But whatever the short-term solutions may be, any long-term solution to our current challenges won’t start with a capital D, R, G, or L. It will start with an electorate waking up and realizing that an established political party platform will never solve our problems. It will only serve to drive deeper the wedges that divide us.
Author: Nick Allison is just a banged-up Army Infantry vet of the War in Iraq. He lives in Austin, TX with his wife, their children and two big, dumb, ugly mongrel dogs. Don’t take anything he says too seriously… he’s just trying to figure out this ride we call existence like everyone else. Also, he enjoys writing his own bio in third-person because it probably makes him feel more important.
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