Why must we accept someone else's political platform instead of having our own?
In the farewell address of George Washington, the first president of the United States (who was also the only Independent president...) he mentioned having serious reservations about the party system that was coming into power as he was leaving government. He had run unopposed for his position as president and appointed Thomas Jefferson to his cabinet specifically because he knew that Jefferson's political views were not the same as his own.
In England where most of the founding fathers came from, literal civil wars were fought between political parties and this lead to the decision specifically not to mention political parties whatsoever in the Constitution.
George Washington’s family had fled England precisely to avoid the civil wars there, while Alexander Hamiltononce called political parties “the most fatal disease” of popular governments. James Madison, who worked with Hamilton to defend the new Constitution to the public in the Federalist Papers, wrote in Federalist 10 that one of the functions of a “well-constructed Union” should be “its tendency to break and control the violence of faction.”
Despite this, political parties did develop within the United States much to it's detriment. And many of the warnings that George Washington put in his farewell address were rather then warnings to be heeded dire predictions of what would come to pass.
From the farewell address of George Washington at OurDocuments.gov
"In contemplating the causes which may disturb our Union, it occurs as matter of serious concern that any ground should have been furnished for characterizing parties by geographical discriminations, Northern and Southern, Atlantic and Western; whence designing men may endeavor to excite a belief that there is a real difference of local interests and views. One of the expedients of party to acquire influence within particular districts is to misrepresent the opinions and aims of other districts. You cannot shield yourselves too much against the jealousies and heartburnings which spring from these misrepresentations; they tend to render alien to each other those who ought to be bound together by fraternal affection."
"All obstructions to the execution of the laws, all combinations and associations, under whatever plausible character, with the real design to direct, control, counteract, or awe the regular deliberation and action of the constituted authorities, are destructive of this fundamental principle, and of fatal tendency. They serve to organize faction, to give it an artificial and extraordinary force; to put, in the place of the delegated will of the nation the will of a party, often a small but artful and enterprising minority of the community; and, according to the alternate triumphs of different parties, to make the public administration the mirror of the ill-concerted and incongruous projects of faction, rather than the organ of consistent and wholesome plans digested by common counsels and modified by mutual interests.
However combinations or associations of the above description may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely, in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.
I have already intimated to you the danger of parties in the State, with particular reference to the founding of them on geographical discriminations. Let me now take a more comprehensive view, and warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the spirit of party generally.
This spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable from our nature, having its root in the strongest passions of the human mind. It exists under different shapes in all governments, more or less stifled, controlled, or repressed; but, in those of the popular form, it is seen in its greatest rankness, and is truly their worst enemy.The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries which result gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of public liberty.
Without looking forward to an extremity of this kind (which nevertheless ought not to be entirely out of sight), the common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it.It serves always to distract the public councils and enfeeble the public administration. It agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection. It opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, which finds a facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of party passions. Thus the policy and the will of one country are subjected to the policy and will of another."
It was clear to Washington and several of the other founding fathers that there was serious danger in the party system as individuals would band together to do what was best for their party instead of what was best for the country. And that what was good for the people at large would always be secondary to the power and influence that their specific faction had over the others.
This is why you see efforts on the part of both major parties to seek to undermine legislation, appointments of positions, and in general fight against any efforts from across the aisle in a fight over dominance. They will seek to sabotage the efforts of any president of an opposing party for example specifically to make their party look weak or ineffective. Even if whatever measures they are thwarting would be good for people like you and me.
When you add to this the fact that people with more money and therefore more money for campaign donations will inevitably have considerable power and influence over our "elected" officials the system further breaks down.
Gerrymandering is perhaps the most obvious example of parties seeking to get a ridiculous stranglehold on power for their party at the expense of the citizens of the states they live in. Literally jigsaw puzzling districts together to ensure their party has the majority of seats in the house and senate. You end up with crazy situations where the Governor of a given state elected by that state's majority is opposed by a state legislature that is for some reason totally dominated by the opposing party. This picture is an example of actual state legislature districts drawn up by members of political parties who are literally creating districts that are only populated by their party:
This ridiculous corruption of our democratic republic system is exactly the sort of nonsense that George Washington was concerned about. But I doubt even the founding fathers in all of their wisdom would of ever dreamed that the parties would simply create zones for themselves to rule within our republic. And to be clear, while the Republican party did perhaps do more of this recently in states like Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, etc the Democrats have done plenty of this as well.
In my show with Clint Curtis, he revealed that he was called on by the same people that asked him to write election rigging software for voting machines to write a computer program to assist in gerrymandering. You can listen to my shows with Mr. Curtis here: (In two parts)
There is also the issue of how our electoral system itself has been completely corrupted by the party system. The reason for example Bernie Sanders, a lifelong Independent had to seek the nomination for President by joining the Democrats is due to the ballot access laws that have been put in place to ensure that the two party duopoly remains in power. One thing the two parties agree on for sure is maintaining their dominance in all of our political system.
We are made to choose from a very small number of hand picked candidates for all of our important offices and it is extremely rare that an Independent or 3rd party candidate manages to penetrate the system. Governor Jesse Ventura managed to win the election in Minnesota but it was entirely predicated on his celebrity status getting him into the debates. During his time as Governor both parties worked together to thwart his agenda to ensure that he would not seek re-election.
Perhaps the best example of this, was the 2016 Democratic primary. It was revealed through hacked emails that the DNC had actively worked to steal the nomination from Bernie Sanders. Angry members of the party filed a lawsuit against the Democratic party citing that they had donated money to the party under the impression that the process would be a fair and democratic one.
What was perhaps the most disturbing revelation that came out in this situation was that the lawyers working for the DNC literally defended the DNC by stating that the political parties are private entities that could literally pick their candidate in back rooms if they wanted.
And they were right. And they won. Many people are still unaware of the fact that the political party system is not in the Constitution. Many people are unware that there are reasons why.
Two private, unconstitutional organizations control access to the ballot, access to the debates, and as a result access to the highest offices in our country.
To my Republican friends, don't for a moment think that your party is exempt from this. In 2008 Congressman Ron Paul ran on an anti-war platform. And I distinctly remember him being excluded from debates at one point in favor of Rudy Giuliani. Despite the fact that Ron Paul consistently polled higher then Giuliani in every state. And more recently don't forget that your party didn't want Donald Trump at all. Jeb Bush was their guy as the Bush's are exactly like the Clinton's in that they are both deep state favorites.
The major political parties are bought and paid for. They have become instruments of plutocracy, rule by the wealthy. They distract us by taking stances on social issues that they feel will garner favor but this evolves entirely on their fancy. The Republicans for example historically were the party that moved to abolish slavery yet the Democrats are now understood to be the party for people of color.
It is perhaps the greatest delusion that any citizen of the United States can allow themselves to be caught up in to believe that either of these parties care about you. And even the third parties have the same sort of infighting and corruption at their core. The Green Party for example has a candidate who was favored by party insiders in ways that are perhaps even worse then the favoritism showed to Hillary Clinton in 2016. In one Green Party primary Howie Hawkins was literally the only candidate on the ballot despite Dario Hunter his main rival being sent an email confirming that he had done everything that was needed to be on the ballot.
I say it's time to stop surrendering your beliefs to parties. Make these parties earn your vote. Instead of joining these parties and having them take you for granted which they most certainly do, be one of those voters who will decide solely by which candidate actually is closest to their beliefs. And overall stop settling.
Political parties have become like competing religions, and you are expected to go along with all of that religion's doctrines to the letter. Even when they contradict each other. Even when you don't agree with one critical aspect but do agree with another. It's an unnatural way of thinking that only suits us when we surrender to group think and cease to think for ourselves.
Since I don't want to offend anyone from a specific party, let me make up some fictional parties for the sake of my analogy....
DISCLAIMER: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, platforms, corruptions, contradictions, and hypocrisies detailed within are the products of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual political parties, living or dead, is purely coincidental. -WINK-WINK-
The people who get caught up in these political cults are expected to follow their platform/dogma to the letter. There is no room for any deviation. For example Bernie Sanders is actually pro gun rights. And is a Left leaning independent. Because he is seeking the nomination for the Jackass er...Democrat party he has to revise his position on this issue. As it is expected of him.
This situation also creates strange contradictions. So for example the Jackassocrats are pro abortion yet anti-death penalty. The Dumbocans are anti-abortion but also anti-welfare for the same kids they demand that mothers give birth to. The Jackassocrats at least currently seem to want to abolish or defund the police yet are opposed to private ownership of guns even to defend one's self.
But perhaps more disturbing then the things the parties say or do to contradict themselves there is what they agree on. And this kind of reveals the real truth of the matter.
Both of these parties actually serve the same corporate masters. The military industrial complex likes war. So do they. The medical industrial complex dislikes medicare for all so they also dislike medicare for all. Big money interests are at the top of their priority list. And we the people are basically just here to pay the bills.
So getting back to reality for a moment, consider for example the first economic stimulus packages offered by the Democratic Congress, and the Republican Senate in the wake of Covid-19.
The Jackasses...I mean Democrats put together a huge corporate bailout, and then two weeks of paid sick leave...which they of course put in the fine print only businesses with less then 500 employees would have to pay.
In other words, only small businesses would have to offer any extra help to the people. The businesses literally in the worst circumstances. In fact there seems to be an effort to choke small businesses to death while propping up big business and big corporations. We are looking at a future where the major retailers are Amazon and Wal-Mart, two companies that pay very little in taxes if any.
Then the Dumbos...I mean the Republicans offered a one time payment of $1,200 that initially was proposed to come out of our next tax return, and that be adjusted down for the tax burden of the people involved. This amounted to the poorest people with no tax liability getting a whopping $300. Which is less than even the average paycheck of a minimum wage worker. Meanwhile they made sure to take care of their corporate masters forking over billions and billions to companies. And the wealthiest in our country strangely all increased their net worth while the rest of us are struggling to get by.
Do you see the pattern? These parties don't give a damn about you. And now they are playing political football with our future as the ball. Ironically Donald Trump as the executive has done more in the past four months to help us then either of the major parties. Whether this is for his own political gain is of course questionable as it would be for anyone in his position. But in the face of this pandemic neither party has prioritized anyone but their donors.
This is my message to activists on both sides of this issue. Reject the parties entirely. They are unconstitutional entities strangling our democracy. They are vehicles for the plutocrats to control our system. They are set up in such a way to keep us fighting each other over social issues that neither of them really actually care about. While the one class they continue to serve are the wealthy deep state over any of us. They want us distracted with race, gender, religion, etc to keep us from uniting against them. To keep us from picking our candidates on their sincerity rather then their membership of one cult or another. Reject the "illusion of choice". Reclaim your liberty.
You can support Trump, or Bernie, or whomever as an INDEPENDENT. As our system was originally intended. Stop donating to political parties. Stop joining them unless you have to temporarily to participate in an primary. Fight for rank choice voting so that 3rd party or Independent candidates have a chance. Support candidates as individuals rather than as members of political cults.
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