Abolish
Political Parties from Elections
Yes, abolish political parties from electoral
campaigns at every level. Ban them from lobbying on behalf of their agendas.
Ban them from endorsing candidates. Ban them from organizing front
organizations, shell companies, PACs, shell NGOs, and other rackets on behalf
of candidates and party agendas. Ban political parties from giving money,
assets, and even volunteer services to candidates. The term “candidate” refers
here to both human beings running for elected office or nominated for an
appointed position as well as proposed legislation including laws, bills,
referendums, etc.
Abolishing political parties and any similar
organizations from the political process is a necessary, even urgent electoral reform.
Many may view it as a radical reform. Which it is, especially when you consider
one of the earlier meanings of the word radical is “root.” Returning to our roots, in a sense, as the American
Founding Fathers abhorred the concept of political parties.
The Founding Fathers had just survived the
Revolution. They had different views, opinions, understandings, and judgments
concerning many issues. Even so they put aside many of their differences in
shared sacrifice for the common good. They did not anticipate political parties
in America, surprisingly as they had existed in the UK and British Parliament
for a little over 130 years prior to the end of the war. The Founding Fathers
also had intense dislike of these parties and dismissed them as “dangerous
factions.”
Political parties in the UK were associated with
quarreling groups competing for power. The home islands of the British Empire were
riven with factions and “political clubs” representing different religious
groups, aristocratic nobles, nationalist groups, fed up peasant farmers, and
increasingly politicalized merchant classes. Such political parties in the UK
were associated with civil wars, revolutions, and rebellions. The Americans,
having recently emerged from their own revolutionary war, wanted no part of such
vicious internal strife.
What the Founding Fathers preferred, first
through the Articles of Confederation and later in the Constitution with the
Bill of Rights, was group deliberation arriving at agreements. They upheld a
vision of logical collaboration to resolve conflict and address issues where
people and groups put aside petty differences and personal beliefs for the
greater good and the common weal. The best interests of the community, the
state, and the nation were placed over the narrow competitive drive for
personal power, regional domination, and group self-interest.
Such “groups” were churches and religious groups
as well as organizations rooted in different socio-economic classes, states,
cities, counties, the frontier, and trades competing for power and resources.
Many of the Founding Fathers, while understanding the rational for different
groups to self-organize around common local causes, still expected these same
groups to subordinate their narrow self-interest to the general welfare of the nation.
Political parties were viewed as divisive and
self-serving. They would compete for power at the expense of their fellow
citizens. Rather than collaborative processes of deliberation with wisdom
tempering headstrong emotions, political parties would rile up the masses and
agitate them against one another so rabble-rousers could manipulate them to
seize power. The possibility of election campaigns between such parties was viewed
with dismay and disgust.
The Founding Fathers feared such elections would
divide the nation rather than bring forth the best and brightest together in
wise republican government. The United States of America was to be a
constitutional democratic republic with measures built in to prevent mob rule
and tyranny. The Founding Fathers achieved astonishing success in many areas,
such as navigating together constant changes and many obstacles from the end of
the Revolution through the Articles of Confederation to establishing the
Constitution. They dealt with commerce and financial battles between the
states, the first armed rebellions against the national government, and even a
movement to create an American monarchy.
A system of government was set up with a Federal
system balanced with state’s rights, with triangular “checks and balances”
between the three “branches of government,” with separation between “church and
state,” with an independent press, and a Bill of Rights. Dismal failures,
however, were to haunt the Founding Fathers and their descendants. These
included the failure to conclusively address slavery and racism, women,
property rights, relations with Native American tribes including genocide,
whether or not to have a national or central bank and if so would it be public
or private, and the failure to envision the rise of political parties and their
corruption of the political process.
The irony is political factions began early on
in the process to organize people into parties around shared beliefs opposed by
others. The first such political parties began to emerge during the
administration of the first President, George Washington. Eventually those
Founding Fathers who chose to stay in politics were drawn inexorably into these
new political parties. Once in, they embraced them and leveraged them to pursue
their own agendas.
Political parties do have much to offer. They
provide poles of polarity for people with shared beliefs and values to rally
around. Political parties organize people; raise funds, pool resources, and
work to campaign on behalf of their candidates and planks (public lists of
issues they support or condemn). Once in power they have entire teams of loyal,
like-minded people to draw upon to quickly fill positions in government offices
and institutions. And these parties track and monitor each other, plotting to
return to power or stay in power. To some degree they do take the best interest
of the general public to heart or else they would not be elected.
For a secular nation with many different
religions, classes, regions, and ethnic groups political parties served two
additional purposes. One, they served as a secular church or temple of sorts
and those passionate about politics and engaging in games of power came to
regard politics as a sort of secular religion. Two, political parties were able
to pull together people from different groups and in doing so establish broad
alliances and coalitions across the nation.
In doing so they have entrenched themselves in
politics in ways where they do far more harm than good. Political parties have
proven destructive, and it is time for them to go. They embody and exemplify
the worse aspects of tribalism. It may be a Postmodern world, and these parties
have reduced loyalty to blind, violent tribalism. In many other countries
political parties arm their members to engage in violent election campaigns
that resemble mini-civil wars. Many political parties also have armed militias
and even armed forces. In totalitarian nations one political party is often identified
as synonymous with “the state” or “the people.”
In the United States today, the Democratic and
Republican Parties are both polarized within between vitriolic, internal factions.
They have become so broad in their attempt to be the Center many no longer
identify with these parties and are fed up with how both parties fail to
address truly serious and complex issues to focus instead on riling people up
over emotionally-laden social issues. Both parties have been corrupted and are
beholden to the Big Banks, Big Corporations, Big Unions, Big NGOs, Big PACs and
Special Interest Groups, and their swarms of lobbyists. Political parties,
especially when they get big enough to earn attention, serve as routes of
infection into our government by Big Business and the banksters. Yes,
politicians from time to time attempt to overthrow the yoke of the money power,
battle corruption, punish corporations, or regulate the financial sector.
Sometimes it’s all a show. Often the politicians don’t have the power to enact
meaningful and deep reforms.
They work together to squash dissent within the
own ranks from innovate visionaries as well as extremists. Republicans and
Democrats work together to maintain control over the machinery of government
and dominate the electoral process. As such they block reforms and prevent the
rise of any minor political parties to major party status. Viable third parties
such as the Libertarians and the Greens today and the Progressives, Bull Moose,
and Independent parties of bygone eras don’t have the power to seize power and
instead often serve as spoilers to draw votes away from the other two. This is
often glossed over with the justification third parties have the freedom to
highlight controversial stands publicly avoided by the major parties but
eventually coopted by them.
We need to clear out the logjams of political
parties and release their stranglehold on our elections and politics.
Significant reform is necessary in numerous areas now. As long as politicians
rely upon outside corporate structures to raise, capture, hold, and funnel
wealth to then and their election campaigns they will rarely if ever fully vote
for the public interest. They will instead work to benefit their benefactors.
They are beholden to the outside Money Power. Many well-intentioned men and women
become politicians to sincerely make their county, city, state, and nation a
better place. They even want to help make the whole world a better place. And
once inside they find they have to compromise away their values not in the best
interest of the nation for the common good but to betray themselves to uphold
the powers of their benefactors.
We need major reform of our entire electoral
process as well. Political parties already block such reforms and will continue
to block any threat to their chokehold on elections and thus on power. Thanks
to the Democrats and the Republicans and all those parties preceding them in
power Government has become separated in the minds of the people from the
people and instead identified with the party in power. If a hallmark of
Totalitarian regimes is identification of one party with the government, what
would we call it when we see the same two parties in such domination of the
political machinery as to be identified with the government?
Tyranny. Tyranny disguised as democracy because
people were led to believe they had choices they could freely vote for.
Political parties…Abolish them all!
To be clear, the Constitution gives human beings
the freedom to assemble and the right to free speech among others. So people
would have the right to organize into political clubs and parties to discuss
their passion for politics over rounds of beer. Political parties are free to
espouse their opinions and views. They would simply be banned from politics.
What does this look like?
To be effective, abolishing political
organizations from the political process means:
· One cannot hold public
office, an appointed government job, or employment in a government position as
an active candidate of a political party. Similarly, military members have to
resign from the military to serve in civilian capacity in government.
· Political parties cannot
run candidates for political office or support them for appointed positions.
· Political parties cannot
endorse candidates for office or any appointed position.
· Political parties and
their members cannot organize and work on behalf of any candidate as an active
member of any political party.
· Political parties cannot
contribute, loan, donate, or otherwise give funds to candidates and referendums
organizations.
· The ban on participating
in elections and supporting members for appointments include all levels of
government from the national to the state and local levels.
· Political parties
include PACCs, clubs, NGOs, unions, or any group that masquerades and claims it
is NOT a political party yet behaves as one.
· Political parties and
related organizations may not endorse, front, or otherwise have armed gangs and
militias.
· Campaign finance and
other electoral reforms must be instituted as well. Such reforms will reinforce
one another.
In
a long, round about way perhaps the original views and intentions of the
Founding Fathers toward political parties will be vindicated. Perhaps a
Constitutional amendment is necessary to abolish the participation of political
parties in the political processes of our nation. Or maybe this can be done
without such an amendment.
In other countries around the world the people must also find methods to liberate themselves and their political processes from political parties. Such reforms will also empower politicians to take on the Big Banks and the Corporations as well as institute reforms in any area. Political parties clog the machinery of government as tumors from inside a body choke off life.
We the People can reclaim our Government
as one of the people, by the people, and for the people.
by
William Dudley Bass
Seattle,
Washington
USA
Cascadia
Planet
Earth
Friday,
October 14, 2011
© Copyright 2011 by William
Dudley Bass. All rights reserved.
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