I have heard a variation of this so many times. What a crock of crap. As if these people even know the candidate outside of what they've been told by the candidate's campaign. Unlike the candidate, the party is known by its actions, platform and many candidates. A party is the better indicator of the future decisions made by candidates.
Growing up I heard exciting news about Buckley's Conservative party of New York and Libertarians forming their own party and I agreed with them on so many issues. The Republican Party seemed to have become a shell of what it had been and I was ready to join the revolution.
I hated the Rockefeller Republicans, I hated that we weren't being allowed to win in Vietnam and it was apparent that America was going to be socialist soon. I was perfect fodder for the divide and lose party. Young, passionate and hard working, but I pulled back from the brink.
I had heard from family about the perils of multi-party governments and how America didn't need to be like Italy and its revolving door governments of ever changing coalitions. I was told of the ensuing chaos of one newly formed government simply rescinding the policies of the previous newly formed government. I was swayed intellectually, but not in my heart which was guided by passion.
What changed my mind was pure political power.
The two party system of political power is what has made America great. Some call it black or white policy making because they want nuance. Others call the two party system nothing but back room power-brokering because they're not in the back room.
The two party system is the backbone of political clarity in America. Statements claiming that there is no difference between the two parties are the statements of shallow people. There are vast differences.
Pure political power is the power to state this is what the majority of Americans want. Period. Pure political power is the power to chastise or take down the party leadership by party members when they shirk their duty.
Multi-party politics is weakness and vacillation. Multi-party politics is multi-power politics which cannot present a clear course for the country, only a trend, because there is no majority.
These are all true, but they are not what I mean by the pure political power.
What changed my mind is that the two party system of politics is the power of numbers. Diluted, it becomes less powerful in that visions are diluted, purpose is diluted, indeed progress is diluted. The sweep of history is shaped by great movements, good and bad, not the by little snipping of minor players and parties. Large numbers organized to a purpose bridge the bad and the mediocre to continually move forward.
President Ronald Reagan swelled the ranks of the party activists, especially the young, and brought down the wall, Russian Communism and brought vigor and wealth back to America. President Franklin Roosevelt turned a nation weak from poverty and depression into a force that made tyrants tremble. In both cases most people and politicians could argue tactics, but shared common goals, more with Roosevelt, less so with Reagan, but these two Presidents lead powerful coalitions within a two party system that changed America and the world.
Now, an Internet third party called Unity 08 is trying to make its ideas, which I think will weaken America, felt in the political marketplace through smooth logic and false sincerity. I also think the effort is being made to hurt the Republican/Conservative/Libertarian Party. What is their real intention?
Now imagine that America's centrist majority has a way to fight back
instead of simply griping that it's stuck with choices thrust upon it by 300,000
voters in Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina. Allow me to introduce Unity
'08 (www.unity08.com), a third-party movement that may actually work. I'm not talking about another Texas billionaire who says he can save us from our
two-party duopoly, but an entirely new form of political self-help. This time
voters would use the Internet to draft nominees for a virtual convention in
June, by which point Unity '08 will have gotten itself on the ballot in nearly
every state. Names like Bloomberg, Gore, Giuliani, Obama, and Romney will draw
support from vastly more voters than Clinton and McCain may have tallied in
America's low-turnout primaries. To be eligible for nomination, the only
condition these and other contenders must agree to is this: If they win, they
will name a running mate from the other political party.
Meaning, I guess, that we would have a Presidential chaperon to temper bad behavior. This is nothing more than a "can't we all just get along" movement if taken at face value. Do these people really think we'd be better off if Roosevelt had a Hooverite as VP to temper his vision or a Carter to soften Reagan's stance on communism? What rubbish.
Unity '08 is one of the most electorally subversive ideas in years. The
brain behind it is Doug Bailey, a 73-year-old former Republican consultant, who
left the game in the late 1980s before founding The Hotline, an online
newsletter that has become the Beltway's political bible. Joined by former Jimmy
Carter advisors Gerald Rafshoon and Hamilton Jordan, Bailey launched Unity '08
to steer politics back to the underrepresented center.
The center being the "3/5's man" part of the electorate ruled by overbearing masters of the left and the right. Again, rubbish.
Mr. Bailey decries the "negativity" of campaigning today and the hyper partisan nature of the electorate.
Just to take presidential campaigns. You want negative, go check out these campaigns.
Jefferson-Adams, 1800 "He is a mean-spirited, low-lived fellow, the son of a half-breed Indian squaw, sired by a Virginia mulatto father."
Jackson-Adams, 1828 “Don’t Put A Whore In The White House!”
Lincoln-McClellan, 1864 "ignoramus" , a "butcher" and "Honest Ape"
Grant-Greeley, 1872 "not only a drunk, but now drunk on power"
or
Cleveland-Blaine, 1884
"Ma Ma, where's my pa. Gone to the White House, ha ha ha" retorted by "Blaine, Blaine, James G. Blaine, The Continental Liar from the State of Maine"
Comments such as referring to stained blue dresses aren't exactly new.
Unity 08 wants to bring comity to the partisanship of politics, but ignores that the greatest partisanship face offs brought us our greatest triumphs such as Republicans facing down Democrats in the Civil Rights debates, the Republicans winning over the defeatist who said they wanted to split the nation to save the nation during the Civil War and the debates, both legislative and by the electorate, concerning the continued appeasement of Russia or the defeat of Russia.
Third parties? No. They weaken our Republic.
Unity 08 wants to strengthen the Left and help them gain more power. Unity 08 is specifically designed to weaken the Right and squash the vigor with which we experiment in this freedom lab called America.
I'll stick with the two party system.
