Maybe Time to Rid Ourselves of Divisive Political Parties and Partisan Destructive Politics
By MG Paul E Vallely, US Army (Ret) and Ray DiLorenzo
Have political parties finally outlived their usefulness and stand in the way of getting anything done for Americans. Maybe we should to turn to electoral, high tech AI approach options. Americans complain frequently that politicians do not work together to get the simplest things done to make American lives easier. President, a non-political leader has led a created a new, very creative populist movement titled MAGA (Make America Great Again). MAGA consumed the Republican Party and proved a popular movement could change the direction of America to restore our America and our Constitution. In 2023, Gallup polling found 49% of Americans see themselves as politically independent. Bipartisanship is mostly a thing of the past because so many Democrats and Republicans now view their political opponents as enemies and even evil. For some time now, I have been questioning the need for political parties in electoral politics.
Perhaps it is time to rid ourselves of political parties allow candidates run not as Democrats or as Republicans but as citizens.
Political parties can have a positive effect on any nation, but they also can be disastrous. The National Socialist Party in Nazi Germany is one such group. It is a natural tendency for people to congregate depending on their political, religious, cultural, or geographical similarities. It would be hard, if not, impossible to prevent people from gathering with such glue.
“The great affairs of the world, the wars, and revolutions,” a young Benjamin Franklin wrote, “are carried on and effected by parties.” (1731) Washington, in his farewell address, said, “However [political parties] 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.” (1796) John Adams said, “The two-party system is “the greatest evil under our Constitution.” (1780)
I am sure some would argue that the problem is not with political parties per se but rather with the two major parties that are controlled by the same corporate interests and beholden to Wall Street and special interest groups. They argue we need to reform electoral politics and make it easier for minor parties and their candidates to compete. I maintain that parties of all sizes and purposes have become problematic because both party leadership and rank-and-file members assume and insist that once in office elected officials are going to adhere to their parties’ financial supporters.
Historically, the Democratic and Republican parties can trace their beginnings back to the Founding Fathers. George Washington, Alexander Hamilton and John Adams were Federalists, much like modern-day Democrats: They wanted a strong central government and a national banking system. Thomas Jefferson and James Monroe instead advocated for a smaller and decentralized government; their views more akin to those of the Republican Party I knew before Donald Trump took office. The issues that later separated the factions, including slavery, are in the past and bear little resemblance to the problems that separate today’s parties, such as abortion, income inequality, a broken criminal justice system, easy access to guns and assault weapons, and huge tax breaks for the wealthy. The Republican Party of Abraham Lincoln died not long after his assassination.
Today’s Republican Party is the party of Donald Trump and MAGA. The Democratic Party has had to deal with its own lack of positive leadership, cracks and fractures. What political parties can do is sometimes frustrating to executive officials. They help elect candidates of the officials’ own party who later become thorns in their sides. “Blue Dog” Democrats limited what former President Obama could achieve during the short window of his first term when Democrats controlled both the House and Senate. Democratic Sens.
The two-party system that dominates electoral politics today has also contributed to grotesque amounts of money being spent on political campaigning. In 2019, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that over $100 million was spent on the Georgia governor’s race between Republican Brian Kemp and Democrat Stacey Abrams. In this year’s race for governor in Texas between incumbent Republican Greg Abbott and Democratic challenger Beto O’Rourke, the candidates together had raised approximately $90 million as of June 30; since the race has tightened, that amount could double by November. And the record of all records was the more than $14 billion spent by and on behalf of candidates Trump and Biden during the 2020 national elections.
Without political parties, everyone would have to run as an a “citizen”. Nonpartisan elected or appointed offices are more common in local government, certainly for school boards, mayors, city council seats and for judges up and down the ballot. When I was elected as an Atlanta city councilman, it was in a nonpartisan contest.
I believe we have arrived at a time and place where political parties have outlived their usefulness and no longer serve productive purposes. It is time to turn our attention to other methods of electing candidates for office. Reforms like ranked-choice voting, “top-two” primaries, nonpartisan elections and other approaches that further democracy and are not reliant on one being a member of a major party should be given serious consideration. It is time to return the focus to the needs of the American people. Political candidates and elected officials who swear to work for the greater good shouldn’t have to swear an oath to a political party as well.
