A Plea for National Disunity

I’ve mentioned it in previous blog posts, but there is a constant—and pernicious—tendency in our national discourse to blame the public. Whatever happens, it’s our fault.

Now, I don’t know if this tendency on the part of our media to excoriate the people is inadvertent or purposeful, but it has the very convenient effect of shifting both blame and attention away from the real culprits.

There’s a national childhood obesity epidemic? It’s the parents’ fault—certainly not the food manufacturers, who stuff our food full of trans-fats, high-fructose corn syrup and sugar. There’s a credit crisis? It’s the consumers’ fault, not the banks’ irresponsible and predatory lending practices, and their paid whores, the legislators who yanked away all forms of regulation.

And now, with the biggest budget crisis in our history looming and the credit rating of the United States of America downgraded like a college kid who ran up a bunch of debt on his MasterCard—again, it’s our fault.

Yes, American public, you did this. Damn you and your greedy, gimme-gimme entitlements and your low voter turnout. Why, you miserable sons of bitches would rather sit at home on your fat asses, watching “Hoarders,” guzzling cheap beer and gobbling Twinkies than come out and vote.

Well, malarkey. It’s true that the U.S. does have embarrassingly low rates of voter turnout. Even in the most hotly-contested Presidential election of modern times—2008—only 56.8% of registered voters actually bothered to do so. Barely more than half. And in the 2010 mid-terms, only 37.8 could be bothered to hit the polls. That’s pathetic, all right. But the real question—which I don’t hear, or read, people asking—is why. No one asks why people don’t exercise their right to democracy. It’s just assumed that Americans are too stupid, lazy, and apathetic to exercise their privileges.

But Americans aren’t lazy. We’re the hardest-working people on the planet. We spend more time working than any other nation in the world. And we’re not stupid, either. Its current woes aside, no sane person would argue that free and compulsory public education is one of the great success stories of the species.

The real reason voter turnout is so low is simple. We know damn well that whoever wins, it doesn’t matter. There just won’t be any appreciable difference in our lives. American voters, for all our blowing our own horn about Democracy, Democracy, Democracy, do not really have any choice.

America is stuck, seemingly permanently, with a two-party system. That by itself is bad enough. How in the hell can a meager two parties hope to represent the plurality of opinion and interests in the most diverse and heterogeneous nation in human history?

But it gets worse. We have two parties, but only one ideology. We have the pro-business party, and we have the crazy right-wing lunatic fringe pro-business party.

The Republicans have, throughout most of the 20^th century, had a lock on big business, which means more money for them. Which forced the Democrats to abandon small business, minorities, and labor, and, cap in hand, go begging from Corporate America. Which effectively turned them into the second pro-business party.

Some elected representatives may differ on non-substantive, window-dressing issues like abortion, gay marriage, prayer in school, DADT, and teaching evolution. But at the end of the day, when it comes to what really matters, our political process is tantamount to being forced to eat at a restaurant with only two dishes: fried chicken, and extra-crispy fried chicken. Neither’s good for you. One’s slightly less bad for you, but it really isn’t a choice at all. So you might as well just not eat—which is what most American voters opt for most years.

While some individual Senators and Representatives genuinely care about their constituencies, their parties as a whole do not. If anyone thinks the Democrats still represent labor, then riddle me this, Batman: where was President Obama during the recent walkouts in Wisconsin and Indiana? Why was the White House dead silent on the right to collective bargaining? Or if you think they still give a rat’s ass about consumers, why wasn’t Elizabeth Warren appointed? Why is Dodd-Frank dead in the water? Why did what’s called, apparently as a cruel joke, Healthcare Reform benefit only Big Pharma, the insurance industry, and for-profit healthcare providers?

When our only parties represent only the interests of the super-wealthy, then we no longer have a democracy. We have an oligarchy.

Neither most Republicans nor most Democrats of my acquaintance are whole-hog supporters of their respective party’s platform. They are, at best, uncomfortable members of their party simply because there’s nowhere else to go. Plenty of Democrats, for example, are pro-life. And plenty of Republicans despise Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann, Todd Akin, and the rest of those nutcases, who are pro-choice, and who know that Darwin, not Genesis, was right. But they have nowhere else to go.

The American political system’s devolution into a two-party, one-ideology system was bad for the country. What’s desperately needed isn’t a third party. What’s desperately needed are a third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, and eleventh party—parties which do not claim to represent ALL of their constituents’ concerns, and which DON’T take a stand on every single issue out there, but which, instead, concentrate on specific issues.

1. How about a children’s party—one devoted to protecting the rights and needs of the most vulnerable members of our society? A party that campaigns and pushes for better schools? Affordable and accessible prenatal and pediatric care? The death penalty for child molesters and the producers and consumers of child pornography? More stringent FDA regulation of children’s food? Increased paid maternity leaves?
2. How about an actual Green Party? A party that doesn’t take a stand on abortion, gay rights, and all the other stupid shibboleths of the (in so many goddamned ways ridiculous) American Left, but instead concentrates purely and simply on environmental issues, like subsidies for sustainable energy research, tax incentives for green construction and green rehabs, recycling, reforestation, protection of public lands, etc.?
3. How about an old people’s party, which campaigns for public transportation, reduced cost of medicines, geriatric research, and affordable and accessible retirement homes?
4. What about a Farmers’ Party, which campaigns for agricultural subsidies, more aggressive trade regulations concerning what’s imported and exported, and more federal funding for farmland reclamation and development?
5. Why doesn’t the Tea Party just spin off, create their own independent party and campaign for whatever the hell it is they want?
6. How about a genuine Labor Party, which campaigns for higher import duties on goods manufactured overseas, stronger collective bargaining laws, and against tax breaks for corporations which relocate their manufacturing facilities overseas?

I could go on and on, but you see my point. What I’d desperately love to see happen is the shattering of the two lumbering, out of touch, and imbecilic behemoths that we currently have into a zillion new parties that concentrate on specific interests and which don’t fraudulently claim to represent the interests, in toto, of half the population.

Not only would we have a political system that actually gives the people a voice—we might actually get something DONE. In countries with a multiparty system, in order to get legislation passed, they can’t simply engage in bluster, political posturing and theatricality and histrionics like our government. They actually have to practice politics. They form coalitions based on specific legislation. These coalitions are not permanent. They come together to accomplish something, and then break up, spin off, and re-form on different issues in different combinations. That way, the country and its people, actually make progress.

Wouldn’t that be nice for America? If we had a wide array of parties to choose from, we might actually progress as a nation. We might actually get representation that’s receptive to our needs and wants. And we, as a people, might actually become engaged in the process.

And you know, as long as I’m dreaming, I’d like a pony, too.