Revolutions are built on a simple idea. Mine is for all Americans, one by one, to leave the two-party system and become independent voters. We might not all agree on which politician is best for any given office, but we can all agree that every politician is made worse by the two-party system. So let's at least get rid of that.
The power of the two major political parties is derived from their memberships. If they have no members then they no longer exist. Everyone currently registered as a Democrat or a Republican -- about 70% of the electorate -- collectively controls the fate of the two-party system. You can dismantle it at anytime simply by becoming an independent voter.
Regardless of political leanings, all Americans like freedom: in our professional lives, our political lives, and our personal lives. The historical record consistently demonstrates that we have rarely settled for less; standing vigilant time and time again against any and all violations of freedom.
On the surface, the two-party system looks like an elegant protector of the freedom we cherish, a balanced structure where Democrats and Republicans trade power about equally. Dig a little deeper and you find that the two-party system itself has become more powerful than its component parts. By cozying up to big business and passing laws that effectively close the political process to outsiders, the Democrats and Republicans dampen the influence of individual voters while ensuring the collective power of their two-party system, no matter which one of the parties is ruling.
The United States government has three primary tasks: make laws, enforce laws, and spend tax dollars; and three branches with which to accomplish these tasks: the legislative, the judicial, and the executive. Thanks to the system of checks and balances all three branches participate in all three tasks; but roughly speaking the legislative branch makes the laws and spends the taxes, the executive branch enforces the laws and blesses the tax-spending ideas, and the judicial branch decides what to do when someone breaks one (or more) of the laws. This whole apparatus, as elegantly outlined in The United States Constitution, works pretty well.
The modern two-party political system was an afterthought, a mutation affixed to our nation more than a half century after The Constitution was signed. For the first fifty years of its life, America essentially had one political group, ironically named the Democratic Republicans. Led by Thomas Jefferson, the Democratic Republicans dominated the political landscape well into the early 1800's. Jefferson co-authored The Declaration of Independence and once famously said, "If I could not go to heaven but with a party, I would not go there at all."
In the 1820's, despite Jefferson's sentiments, the Democratic Republican party began to split over the issue of whether the United States should have a national bank or an independent treasury, evidently a white-hot issue at the time. Proponents of the national bank called themselves National Republicans and proponents of the independent treasury took the name Democrat. Andrew Jackson, the first leader of the Democrats and the father of the modern Democratic Party, was elected President in 1828 and again in 1832. In 1836, the National Republicans changed their name to the Whigs (a clear branding error) and ran William Henry Harrison against Martin Van Buren. Van Buren won the election and the Democrats remained in control for another four years.
Harrison finally won for the Whigs in 1840. James Polk won for the Democrats in 1844, and then Zachary Taylor wrested control back for the Whigs in 1848. The Whig party began to split in 1852 over the issue of slavery. During the next few years most southern Whigs joined the pro-slavery Democrats while most Northern Whigs joined the anti-slavery Democrats to form a new party, which took the name Republican. Lead by Abraham Lincoln, the Republicans won the election in 1860. And so goes the rough history of how we ended up where we are.
Since the end of the American Civil War the two modern political parties -- Democrats and Republicans -- have waged a war on the influence of the individual voter by instituting election processes and regulations -- the primary system, the winner-take-all philosophy of the Electoral College, and campaign finance regulation -- that build the power of the two-party system at the expense of the individual voter. We don't need a nation of strict Constitutionalists, but it's good to know what the original plan was. The two-party system was not part of the original plan.
Both Democrats and Republicans are pretty bad, particularly right now. But it's the two-party system that is failing us more than either party. We need to re-shape the basic legislative environment to make all politicians more effective. A good start is dismantling the two-party system.
All it takes to accomplish this is one simple act that carries little risk and no expense: become an independent voter. Without the baggage of a party affiliation, you will be free to think independently. And without any members, the Democratic and Republican parties won't exist; and the two-party system will be dismantled.
If one-by-one we all become independent voters, the Democratic and Republican parties will lose their monolithic structures and take on different roles, perhaps alongside the many other legislative think tanks that populate the political landscape, all of which would then be contributing to a more rich and healthy political dialogue. Once the clear majority of us are independent voters, most politicians and candidates will abandon their party affiliation and become independent themselves. Becoming independent voters is one simple step we can all take back toward the independent thinking on which our country was founded and with which it has flourished for so long.
Below are some links to help you take action right now and switch your voter registration to independent.
Click here for a voter registration form. This is the same form you would use to register as a new voter. It's also used to switch your registration status to independent.
Click here for your state's specific instructions for filling out this form.
Here is a PDF of the whole package if you'd like to make it available from your blog, Facebook page, etc.
A lot of people are "independent voters," but vote overwhelmingly for one party over the other. So what makes them independent? Well, it just sounds better, giving you the ability to fancy yourself and independent-minded thinker as opposed to a follower of party doctrine.
It doesn't matter if people become independent. They still go one way or another. And even if there were no parties, as long as a simple majority wins an election, the voters will end up splitting in two. After all, we all want our votes to count, right? So how do you fix that? Ranked-choice (also known as "instant run-off") solves that problem, although it introduces some others. Parliamentary representation could also be nice.
The time to call for this is “after†the Republican primaries are over. At that point, the call could be made for “all†Americans who are dissatisfied with both parties to withdraw their membership and register as independents in protest. If numbers in both parties were to decline substantially it would then be impossible for either party to claim legitimacy. Both parties would also be left with membership roles that would more clearly reflect those whom they actually represent.
The message would be clear and impossible to spin…
These "twin" ruling parties of elites -- do not have “the consent†of the governed.
It surprises me more and more that a majority of voters don't realize that the two parties do not represent them or - more importantly - their interests and well-being. The Repubs would be left with kleptocrats and the repressive social puritans. I don't know who the Dems would be left with.
At this point, I would settle for a party whose only ideology was a fair political system and which encouraged independently voting members otherwise.
It is not enough to swell the ranks of independents. The entire electoral process must be wrested from control of the Republicrats in favor of neutral boards, this includes: candidacy, the administration of elections, vote counting, redistricting. I don't see how partisan control of elections is Constitutional anyway; it is an affront to democracy.
Other words I've seen - and have borrowed - are corporatocracy and kleptocracy.
I give donations to individual candidates, whether in my state or district or not (love Elizabeth Warren), who have pretty consistently demonstrated support for progressive positions and sometimes politely, sometimes not so politely tell the DNC, DSCC, DCCC and the local Dem Committee that I will give no money to the party. When they ask me why, I mention Max Baucus, Mary Landrieu, Blanche Lincoln, Ben Nelson, Bart Stupak (and the 64 Dems who voted for his anti-choice amendment to the ACA), Joe Manchin, the entire Blue Dog Caucus, etc. who all have gotten money from the party as Dems and then turned their backs on Dem values.
It may not mean much, but I feel like it gives me a little more control of the political process and it seems like it's the least I can do.
Instead we need to organize in each state and get the laws changed so that more people can run for office.
As one person wrote once "Any idea small enough to fit in a nutshell should stay there"
you want big government in the form of intrusion into your life, deregulation and an end to SS and medicare, war profiteering, bribes and tax cuts for the top at the expense of the many, dismantle education and other government agencies...run your teaparty patriots as republicans....
you want to end bribes, end money as free speech, end profiteering, corporations as people...to regulate business so they can't tank the economy, use diplomacy, a carrot and big stick....you have to run your OWS and liberals in the democratic party.....
otherwise your wasted vote for a third party is actually cast for the part you hate.......
We can vote for our favorite American Idol in a day year after year, but we don’t even get a chance to vote for who we think the best presidential candidate is. With today’s technology there is no reason why we the people can not be involved in the whole process of elimination.
Maybe debates could be held weekly with all parties represented. The candidate with the least votes being “booted†until we are left with a winner….Our favorite President. Not the Democratic or Republican party’s favorite.
It was not part of the plan because there was no 16th Amendment which handed all politicians the power to destroy America - the tax code which has been used by both sides to destroy the independent or individual.
Get rid of that and go back to levy's, flat tax on the GDP, and cap or curtail governments ability to borrow more than e.g. 5% of GDP etc. etc. and the two party system, lobbyists and all the rest will go away and can we will all be 'independents' or more succintly, we will return to a government of the people, and by the people.
To which part of that amendment are you objecting? Income taxes were used in the Civil War and attempted prior to the amendment and when challenged the SCOTUS objection was over apportionment, not the power of the government to raise an income tax. Lest you forget, a major force in pushing for this amendment was the Christian Temperance Movement, and they did so as an attack on the corruption which arose from government dependency on revenue from sales taxes, the saloon boss system. So you would return to the old forms of corruption over todays?