Political Parties are anachronisms and stand in the way of progress. That's why I'm supporting Jill Stein and the Green Party in 2016.
I wrote an essay some time ago, Election reform and voter rights: a legislative agenda, in which the first two paragraphs read:
The Party System in America is a corrupt vehicle used by the wealthy and socially connected Elite to discourage and placate the Mass into inaction and acceptance of the status quo. Reform, or the political revolution if you will, is not going to happen by engaging in party politics alone.
Party politics won't even figure prominently: playing party politics is a distraction of the "rearranging deck chairs" variety. That isn't to say Party politics isn't useful, or that engagement on that front is not necessary. On the contrary it must be seen as an important part of the larger campaign for political reform.
I quoted them to reinforce the point: for genuine progress in this country to occur we must leave party politics behind to the extent it is possible. Political parties impede progress. They are generally corruptible and subject to control by aggressive "petty potentate" types. More insidiously, because of the entanglement of party and state, they act as informal, quasi-governmental organizations without the accountability government is supposed to be bound by (but, in our corrupt system, is not in practice).
This can't happen instantaneously, there is no jerk that will accelerate us down a different path that doesn't include violence. This change will require dedication, hard work, and sustained effort on many fronts. It isn't all-or-nothing, either. I'd consider it a big win to have multi-member districts (for example), or significant gains in the area of ballot access and party recognition. It also isn't reasonable to expect party politics to disappear entirely. That isn't my goal.
My goal is to diminish the power and influence of the "big two" parties, and to separate party and state as much as possible.
One way to do this is to take Bernie's campaign as an example. He funded and recruited volunteers on the strength of his message and did so in spite of, not with the help of, one of the big two established parties. He has shown us that it is possible to run a political campaign completely outside the constraints of the party system, and has provided a template upon which to build to do just that. I support endeavors along these lines, and am very hopeful this will figure largely in the organizations Bernie has started.
Another way to achieve these goals is to introduce people to the fact that there are alternatives, and that these alternatives exist in more than some abstract, quaint and fringe group. This means supporting a political party to help get it exposure and increase its footprint in the political landscape. Doing this has other benefits. With sufficient exposure the "big two" will have to adapt or risk losing enough of their membership and voter base to third-parties. There hasn't been a serious effort at that in decades; it's about time to try again.
That's why I'm supporting Jill Stein's candidacy and the Green Party, at least for 2016.
In my experience people who are exposed to the concrete fact of the existence of other parties and who are also exposed to evidence that state-run interference with these parties' attempts to participate tend to take a more skeptical view of the "big two". They become more open to persuasion to support these other parties and of changes that make it easier for these parties to participate and, more importantly, they become open to the idea that it's okay to participate in these alternate ways. People also realize more firmly that no party fits all of one's political beliefs. All the better if the party promoted also has a strong left-leaning agenda.
We need buy-in from folks to move forward.
So here's a call to action:
Participate in the Moneybomb for Jill.
Volunteer for the Green Party, or for Jill's campaign (or both!).
Spread these links on social media platforms you participate in.
Talk to your friends and neighbors about the Greens. Don't forget to include something about how the existing system is set up deliberately to shut them and other third-parties out.
Sign up at Our Reovlution, one of the organizations Bernie has set up for his future efforts, which he has already stated will include supporting non-democrats in some capacity.
Also, if you're interested in the legislative agenda I described in my essay or have suggestions about it, please comment in the essay or send me a message. That's a long-term effort (1-2 years, minimum), but it has to start somewhere and somehow.
Comments
(stomps, whistles)
This is awesome, thank you!
Right there with ya
You appear to be railing on the duopoly but relative to
your title and political parties, isn't the Green party a political party? I ask that because many including myself have had it with the party system altogether, greens, blues, and the duopoly.
Yes, and I've had it with the party system, too.
I think it's necessary to raise awareness of political parties in general and how corrupt the entanglement with the state is.
This is because, in order to get buy-in from people to actually get legislation (via citizen initiatives, referendums, etc.) enacted that scuttles the party system (to the extent it's possible), they have to be aware of the manipulation first.
Take Bernie's campaign as an example: many (most) leftists were already aware of and in support of most of his agenda items. How many folks who didn't think it possible to even dream of Medicare for All or a program to eliminate tuition think otherwise now?
We need to expose people to the extent of the disease (political parties) in order to get them to act against the problem.
Just my humble opinion. Not everyone will agree it's an effective or necessary tactic. It may be that Bernie's organizations are such wild successes that act outside the party system that political parties sort of become vestigial in an "organic" manner, and this effort I've suggested is then rendered moot. That's fine by me.
Not to be picking nits,
but I had the same question, and you have yet to answer it.
If you are against political parties, why are supporting one?
The more people I meet, the more I love my cats.
My support is a tactic to achieve a goal
I think by raising the profile of other parties it helps to highlight how terrible political parties in general.
The more viable political parties there are
The less power that any one of them has.
"I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” —Malcolm X
Parties have multiple components
Voters tend to form clusters in the space of political variables and these clusters turn into parties for convenience. Over time, these clusters can move around in the space or even bifurcate (split) in two. This is why I always found the "true democract" claims of the Shillary crowd so strange: quite apart from anything else, politics is dynamic and theirs is a static model.
Other assets that parties have are more static: infrastructure, branding and the tendency of the existing members to stay near the previous clustering center through ongoing communication and interaction. These are valuable attributes, which is why I am leaning Green instead of new party. Some infrastructure is becoming easier to create and maintain (information in the cloud, branding via social media) so this historical advantage may lessen over time. But those of us who are older have less capacity to constantly absorb new brands, so I expect that existing parties will continue to be useful.
The real need is for parties to be able,to adapt to changing political realities. Those that don't (and I would argue that the big two are in that category this year) will diminish until they learn to adapt. Or they will die.
We can’t save the world by playing by the rules, because the rules have to be changed.
- Greta Thunberg
fixed link
to ourrevolution.com
Thank you. I've updated the link in the text.
Parties will never go away completely
Besides, people are herd animals or tribal in nature at the very least. They need to join. The question is what do we replace the parties with. This is the money quote from your essay;
An example of this is the Spanish Podemos party which went from nothing to the second largest party in Spain in two years time. It is a fountainhead of new ideas and new people and will drastically alter the political landscape in a very short period of time. It is not so much the existence of parties that is the problem, but their ability to change and positively affect the political reality.
I'd rather learn from one bird how to sing than teach ten thousand stars how not to dance. - e.e.cummings
Americans are pitied plus two movies
We were talking about the GOP convention which my neighbors watched last night
Our conclusion in Dominica is that its the KKK vs. the Clinton Crime Syndicate. People here feel sorry for Americans.
Insead of the convention, I watched the movie "Campaign" If you haven't seen that and "Election" you are in for a treat.
Don't let the silly covers fool you, these satire films go a ways towards exposing American elections and are pretty funny to boot. I particularly enjoyed "Election" where a teenage Reese Witherspoon plays a sort of high school Hillary Clinton. Both can be found on torrentz if legal in your country.
Election: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0126886/
Camaign: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1790886/?ref_=nv_sr_1
From the Light House.
I read your title
and the teaser paragraph on the community content page and immediately thought that you should have titled it Political Parties Are Fine for Me But Not for Thee. I hoped that would not be the case, it wasn't exactly, as I found reading the entire essay. There are some very good points and suggested actions worthy of the efforts of all of us. My issue with the essay parallels my issues with a lot of the discussion I've read here the past few weeks. I'm not singling you out to pick on BayAreaLefty. You have presented a good essay. My criticism is that I think you overlook an important point.
Political parties. They aren't evil, corrupt, or any other foul sounding name. They are nothing but a collection of human beings with like interests working together for the common purpose of getting like minded people elected to run our government. Control of our government which affects the lives of all of us and holds a special improtance for us all. Otherwise, they are no different from churches, unions, or any other organization. They aren't human and can't have human traits. Parties get a whole lot of negative attention when we don't like the direction their leadership takes them. Most of us don't think anything about parties until they fail to serve our interests or, worse, begin working counter to the interests of their members. I'll go further in saying that I think a political party's concern is not only the interests of it's members. They have a implicit duty to serve the interests of every citizen and resident of our country. The actions of both parties during the past 30-40 years, but particularly in the past 15 years, suggests this has become a completely foreign idea. The interest of elected officials and their owners is now supreme regardless of Party. What's worse the allegiance to party has so deeply infected our elected officials, party members all, that they no longer understand their explicit duty to serve everyone in the US. Our two major parties have come to almost exclusively serve the interests of their leaders, their candidates, and those who fund their elections. Our argument is with the people who are our leaders, some candidates/electeds, and the donors.
My pointless from the previous paragraph is that the energy we expend in anger and outrage toward parties is actually anger and outrage at ourselves. It is counterproductive and spends energy better used elsewhere. Consider the number of essays on C99P expressing anger, disappointment, and outrage with the Dems and various Dem candidates, including Bernie, who a few weeks ago were worth following to hell and back but are now worthless sellouts or dead to us. Our kind of people feel hopeless and despair over the powerful monolith of the Democratic Party and the Clinton machine. How do you beat organizations who will do anything to win? Nothing is too dirty for them. Many of us just give up. We turn our attention away from taking actions that will further our cause only because though we lost this round. Or some of us become mired in our rage and spend all of our energy venting. None of this is helpful.
My chosen action is to see what Bernie comes up with in the coming weeks. I like his already launched organization focused on congressional races. There will be more. Remember we're in conflict with people the in power. We'll take on one at a time if necessary. Every congressperson and senator peeled away from either major party and replaced by a Berniecrat or Green is one less to prevent us retaking the Democratic Party or building a third party.
I think both can be pursued until one or the other emerges as the better option. I will vote for Jill Stein if she is on my state ballot and I will donate to her campaign as well as whatever Bernie comes up with that looks viable. I will be surprised if the Greens and Bernie don't work together. I think they need each other and I hope the leaderships are flexible enough to merge their efforts and organizations when the time comes.
My final point is that people are our focus. Let me repeat: we're in conflict with people the in power, and add, bringing people to our cause is the solution. Bernie's incredible success has come because he had a message and expressed ideas for public policies and programs that directly benefit most people. He energized people with his message. People engaged in politics who oppose the neocon and neoliberal parties that control the country, those who have never before been interested in politics, those who had given up on both parties long ago, and even some with whom we have major differences. This election is probably done for and we face a disgusting four years. I'd love to go into the 2020 presidential cycle (2016 midterms would be delightful!) with a more liberal acting Democratic Party that can finish off whatever is left of the Republicans suffering a Trump hangover or us having experienced a Trump flustercluck. The teabaggers took over the Republican Party in less than four years and tightened their stranglehold on them in four more. I think Bernie with Green support can do it much quicker. He has the better head start and a larger following but I also think there is a strong possibility the Clintons, especially if she wins, can resist a DNC and Party takeover. Then a third party would be our only option. Regardless, winning over people is the key and Bernie has really shown us how.
Ready for a downer? Taking over the Democratic Party or forming a dominant third party is the easy part. Avoiding the very natural human tendency to become exactly who we replace is far more difficult. Always remember the Party of Lincoln is now the Party of Trump and the Party of FDR has become a neoliberal, neocon Clinton cesspool. You kids will have to do though. My atoms will have rejoined the universe by then.
"Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now..."
I think maybe something more?
Until recently, I had always looked at it the same way. Of course, I still agree that they're not human. But I do think that they have a certain kind of life that exists independently from the currently installed "collection of human beings." I think it's something that we did ourselves, collectively, over decades, but I think the two major brands have some power over us.
Washington's Farewell Address
Washington's Farewell Address was filled with warnings our nascent nation should have heeded. I'll stick to just one pertinent point Washington desired We the People to avoid:
My point is that parties DO corrupt the very notions upon which this nation was founded, and by the time Washington retired from public life had already caused enough damage to merit an alarmed call to action. Maybe by now, with the Sanders Campaign, and the apparent growth in support for both the Green and Libertarian Parties, can it be that cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men won't be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government for their own benefit for much longer?
Vowing To Oppose Everything Trump Attempts.