Archive: Opinions

Last presidential election year I was faced with a dilemma.  For various and very different reasons I thought the two major party candidates would be equally bad for the country.  My son argued that while the Libertarian party candidate wasn't much better, voting for him would at least give the country a chance of having a three party system. The two party system has clearly broken the country.  Perhaps a third major party could fix it.  So I did.  And two things happened.  My worst White House nightmare came to be, and there still weren't enough votes to elevate a third party.

In my opinion things wouldn't be a whole lot better if the other candidate had won, so I knew my nightmare would come true either way.  This year I think we do have better choices, but when I spoke to a good friend who I consider to be intelligent, well-reasoning fellow, he said the same thing I said four years ago.  Oh dear!

The fact is that the two party system is simply no longer capable of coming up with candidates who would actually be good for the country.  The parties have polarized to opposite poles, and the only way to win the primary election is to be extreme.  The general election should be an equalizer, chosing a centrist candidate who is respected by all and can work with both sides... except there is no such candidate.  President Obama was supposeed to be that candidate, but he didn't do it.  Blame whatever side you want, but it didn't happen.

There is a lot of talk these days (and for many days before these) about solving the problem by eliminating the Electoral College.  It should be eliminated.  One person, one vote is absolutely meaningless as long as it continues to exist.  But that doesn't go far enough.

What happens to fraternaty chapters that grossly misbehave?  The university disbands them.  That's what should happen to the political parties.  They have been misbehaving for many many years, encouraged by TV news networks that thrive on bad behavior to fill up their 24/7 of news.  It's time for the parties to be disbanded.

Without polarizing parties, individuals would be required to come up with their own ideas and platforms.  There would be no primary election, and while the general election ballot might rival the size of a Tom Clancy novel, the popular vote (which would be the only vote) would determine the winner.  Theoretically the winner would be the United States of America because we'd have a president who just gets down to business without all the political allegiances that come with it now.

If there were no parties the same would be true for Congress.  This idea could be what it finally takes to change Congress's reputation and effectiveness.  In poll after poll Member of Congress comes out at the bottom of 'most respected profession' lists.  A Moneywise ranking last November ranked Members of Congress as the least respected and the most dishonest. 

"Finally, here's something Americans agree on: Federal lawmakers have terrible ethics. Both Democrats and Republicans in the survey rated members of Congress as the most dishonest profession.  Partisan bickering and personal and political scandals have given Congress a bad reputation. TV shows like House of Cards probably haven't helped," the article states.

Remember the quote attributed to Einstein that says, "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."?  By that definition our whole country is insane.  It's time to make a change.

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