Not long ago, we could judge political candidates by their views on issues we cared about to see if there was a match with our own (e.g., abortion, war, spending, immigration, gay rights, unions, and the role of government). Party affiliation was important but not critical, and many, if not most, Americans probably voted for candidates of both parties at some point.
Not anymore. As Democrats and Republicans developed contrasting views on a range of issues, they increasingly demanded that their candidates commit totally to the party's platform. Today, pro-choice Republicans are as rare as anti-union Democrats.
Today, more Americans identify themselves as Independents rather than as Democrats or Republicans. This tells me that the hardening of the parties' positions on every major issue is not in step with what Americans want: good government, problem-solving and nuance on the issues. Instead, the parties demand extremism and rigidity.
We no longer need to know a politician's positions because their party label tells us everything. While many Americans may like the clarity and lack of thought required by the parties' clear contrasting positions, many others, like me, are frustrated. Most Americans I know see a Hobson's choice with the candidates from both parties. Democracy theoretically thrives on vocalized contrasting positions. But our nation isn't benefiting from the stark choices presented by the two parties. The loyalty test, demanded by the activists who dominate both parties, gives us a candidate pool with an incredibly narrow range of extreme views.
The result? Americans now face the next presidential election with a distinct lack of enthusiasm for the choices. President Obama's own supporters are "exhausted" and lack their former zeal. Even his campaign launch displayed such tepid supporters that the left-leaning Jon Stewart lambasted the effort as pathetic.
And for those looking for an alternative on the Republican side, every candidate has to meet an incredibly lengthy litmus test of issues (e.g., support the wars, oppose health care reform, be pro-life, support guns, oppose any tax increase, be against immigration reform, and oppose gay rights). Today, the pool of probable GOP candidates shares identical positions on nearly every issue.
If you agree that wine and politics are the only two things left with only two choices and want to do something about it:
1. Run for office or support courageous candidates who are willing to stray outside the party lines. Michael Bloomberg, the Maine senators, certain anti-deficit candidates, and even those from other smaller parties deserve wider support.
2. Let your voice be heard. Write letters to the editor, post on blogs, draft op-eds, and engage others. You'll almost certainly find others who are just as frustrated as you.
3. Support institutional changes that strip power from incumbency, like proportional voting, non-party primaries, and objective redistricting.
4. Join the NoLabels Movement. This group of centrist politicians and voters wants to solve the problems by building a grassroots effort based on compromise.
5. If you not only agree that our two parties are failing us but also view yourself as "fiscally conservative, socially liberal," then join that page on Facebook and build a movement. If you are "fiscally liberal, socially conservative," then join that page. If you have other views, then form a page and attract like-minded people.
With each party allowing only one set of views we are increasingly unable to solve real national problems. Unless we act, we will burden the next generation with a weaker America than we inherited.
Gary Shapiro is the president and CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association, which represents more than 2,000 technology companies and owns and produces the International CES. Shapiro is the author of The Comeback: How Innovation Will Restore the American Dream.
Follow Gary Shapiro on Twitter: www.twitter.com/GaryShapiro
In this model Obama does not stand for anything and as sad as this is, I think it fits.
In this model what happens is that the more Obama gets bashed around the more the GOP winds him around their pole and the closer he gets to their immovable position.
The solution is that Obama must cut the rope binding him to the GOP. But time is running out. If he does not do this soon, then the public will do it for him in the up coming election.
The democrats try to be the party of everyone, including the rich. But at the same time they are the party of the anti-GOP. This means that both parties serve the rich and the rich are guaranteed to win no matter what in this scenario. Plus being the party of the Anti-GOP leaves the GOP in the drivers seat when it comes to framing national debates on crucial issues.
Take reproductive rights. Instead this being about sex, which is the route actual issue and admitting that to be anti-abortion is also to be anti sex, this has been warped into Pro -life? Life is better when it includes good sex! I am prolife and pro sex and pro safe sex and pro women, but this does not fly because the GOP controls the debate.
Obamas solution is to chace the GOP around and hope that the public will be satisified if the democrats morph into the GOP-lite party. Instead he needs to offer a clear distinct different direction that makes sense due to its own merits. And no, he should not try to find a compromise solution.
this is something that we as a people should look at very closely. this was written in the '70s, the problems is that we as the population have not seen this, and we have been sucked into the political jet engine !!!!!
May I suggest a much simpler alternative approach to spreading your message.
Simply and repeatedly refer to Americans as the subjects they have truly become. While this will escape the notice of some, others will recoil at the notion that they are subjects of the state.
This will give you the opportunity to explain the fact and consequences of our having been reduced to the status of subjects and include http://wwwÂ.republicoÂftheunitedÂstates.orgÂ/
for those who are aroused to refute your contention or learn more about it.
I am frustrated with the black and white choices in politics today. The truth is that no one who gets to that level ever seems to effect change, they just get sucked in and spun around and spit out - much wealthier and much corrupted.
I want someone with his own mind who recognizes that, right or wrong, the individual is sovereign and corporations are not now and never will be "people". I also want a fair tax code that doesn't allow "people" like GE to squirrel out of their duty to pay taxes, while simultaneously leading the middle class into poverty and the poor into oblivion via big bank bailouts, ensured corporate profitability plans, stolen entitlements, and runaway inflation.
There are winners and losers in a capitalist society and I think everyone can accept that. What we can't accept is a society that guarantees the rich a financial return, earned on the backs of the middle class and poor, through the force of ignominious new "laws" that give them that "right".
The alternative to a series of rational compromises would be the prevailing view in whatever region loses the political argument that they have been disenfranchised and no longer view the government as valid.
At which point we would be looking at a Union of Autonomous Regions much like the current British Commonwealth. Is that really what the hard right or left have in mind?
The required blind allegiance of politicians who wish to suck from the teat of their party makes many voters, such as myself, strongly repulsed by both parties.
Joining a facebook page for the "fiscally conservative, socially liberal" or some such group is unattractive because it once again pigeon holes the joiner into a fixed, defined set of policies.
I'd much rather see all political parties dissolved and have each candidate run on their own positions and merits. Wouldn't it be wonderful to have some real choice for a change? Yes, that won't happen. But maybe we could get a few candidates that aren't party clones.
Liberal politicians are therefore faced with obstacles conservative do not have have to deal with. Now why will anybody without healthcare insurance or inadequate healthcare decide that single paper system is socialist and therefore evil. Heck why will anybody be blind to the relative merits of a single payer healthcare system even if they are adequately insured today.
Yet it is the same people and seniors who stand to benefit the most that went out en-mass and ushered in a republican majority and state governorships.
You see democrats by their very existence is un-american (whatever that means) to some people. That is why rather than be too hard democratic representatives we should give them all the support we can muster because the battle they face is much more difficult and much more different.
The seniors who voted against the Democrats did so because of the Democratic spendthrift practice that threatens the fiscal viability of our nation. These votes were self serving, as most votes are.
What the Deciders in both parties don't seem to understand is that we are all catching on to the fact that they mismanage our assets in horrible, deceitful, wasteful ways, benefiting a small group of insiders to the detriment of everyone else. It's a high-profile club of profiteers who produce nothing but sound bites in exchange for robbing us blind.
Signed,
Kettle.
What the United States needs, and currently doesn't have, is a vibrant Progressive Party the furthers populist issues that have real world benefit for the 310 million people that call the United States home. Our current political construct is weighted for the interests of the wealthy and transnational business, two groups who have been greatly empowered by the corporate path taken by the Republicans and Democrats for the past thirty years ... that is not America to me.
Actually what is happening is that the GOP is well organized and steadily pursuing a single minded objective of dismatling the middle class and transferring absolutley all of our money and assets to the wealthiest 1%. Everything else they say or do is either a distraction, a smoke screen inteded to distract people, or a ruse intended to sucker people into voting for people who consistently act counter to the best interests of the American people.
In contrast we democrats are disorganized and this is why the GOP is winning. This is why the GOP even exosts at all. We democrats on failing to have the singular focus that you seem to think we possess fail to offer an alternative capable of taking our nation in a different direction in which prosperity for all once again becomes the central objective. Instead the best we have been able to muster is resistance to the continued overwhelming destrcution being wrought by the GOP.
I consider Obama to only be a speed bump, a minor obstruction incapable of stopping the GOP.
I also fault Obama for not leading in a new direction because this was the mandate that got him elected President. The resulting lack of unity that arises from Obama's weak and impotent leadership of the Democratic Party is the primary cause of our present malaise.
I think you are wrong about encouraging people to step outside of party lines and to be independents. We have that right now and the GOP continues to progress down its inherently destructive path in part because so many people like you are willing to sit on the sidelines and let evil march forwards.
What we need is clarity of purpose and real leadership. We will not have that until we have a better President, a Democrat able to lead and ready to fight the GOP and destroy them.
Not true - takes time and energy and a lot of research to vote responsibly and ignore all the MSM and hype and rhetoric. Read the platforms of not only the candidate but also the party - check the voting record of incumbents - even the personal history of all candidates (yes, that does matter).
Seems like every newspaper, every TV station, every website has its own agenda and ideology and promotes those in sometimes overt but often in covert ways. Reporters? Gotta follow the party line of the employer.
We have fallen for the smooth talkers, the pormises, the ranting and raving, the snake-oil salesmen in the political arena far too often without doing our homework.