MY
OBSERVATIONS ON THE U.S. 2-PARTY SYSTEM
That any country as diverse as the U.S. should have so few
choices in politics stands as an indicator that something is indeed amiss
with our political system. Which of two fungible fakirs takes office is
of increasing irrelevence to the daily issues faced by the public; the
distance between the formal 2 party system (the ivory-tower theory) and
the polity (the grassroots reality) is reflected in dismal voter turnouts,
year after year.
"The two real political parties in America are the Winners and the Losers. The people don't acknowledge this. They claim membership in two imaginary parties, the Republicans and the Democrats, instead." -- Kurt VonnegutAnd yet, with every election cycle, the Demo-gogues and CountryClubicans proceed to trade issues and insults in a farcical attempt to maintain some modicum of differentiation between themselves. As though it isn't bad enough we have to consecrate their coercion with our votes, they insult our intelligence with media side shows, artificial issues, vacuous platitudes and thought-terminating cliches. But after years and years of the same superficial issues being rehashed ad nauseum, the lugubrious cavalcade of hystrionics is, when taken in retrospect, a political pantomime completely choreographed for our 'voting pleasure.'
The Republicans and Democrats could be argued to cast themselves as the 'Old Testament Party' and the 'New Testament Party.' Republicans: "Follow these rules or be punished." Democrats: "Feed the poor and forgive all sins." -- Bruce RodgersJust as with the attempts to rectify the Ptolemaic system with epicycles, previous 'reforms' have not mitigated the crisis of the U.S. republic's winner-take-all system. Past attempts to 'fix' the U.S. system with reforms (such as referendum and recall) have only dabbled at the fringes of the chronic simmering crisis.
When I speak of crisis, I mean a chronic syndrome that threatens at any moment to implode from the gravity of it's internal contradictions. The U.S. voting system of winner-take-all 2-party personality-driven elections suffers from the suffocating non-choice of two main parties. The problems could ultimately topple the system, but probably won't because of the vice lock the Democrats and Republicans have on the country. People are generally disatisfied with a dichotomoy-based system that pretends to be about freedom of choice; politically we have the choice of two evils, the result being that there's not really any choice, only a ultimatim from a duopoly, a framed election. I think the polity senses this, and they simple display their innate - if poorly expressed - skepticism by not voting.
"A citizen of America will cross the ocean to fight for democracy, but won't cross the street to vote in a national election." Bill VaughanHidden behind the din of media pundits speculating on the sexual improprieties of the President, the reality of continued empire-building remains the fundamental underpinning political force driving the republic. The CIA continues to ally itself with foreign criminal enterprises as a means to gain political power abroad, regardless of whether it requires a systematic quid-pro-quo protection of narcotic pipelines that comes to resemble narco-colonialism and afflicts our cities with cheaper and cheaper drugs. The Pentagon now practices urban warfare in our cities, the regular police forces are becoming increasingly militarized, while some rural populations verge on some kind of low-intensity rebellion.
Behind the scenes, the empire continues about the business of expanding its scope of power. NAFTA and GATT were rammed past the normal political process, where concerned environmental and labor groups were given less than 48 hours prior to automatic ratification to comment on the until-then secret pact.
"Criminals and a free people have a lot of "wants" in common; as a result, governments ALWAYS regard a free people as criminal." - UNKNOWNTo get a driver's license, your thumbprint is now required, catalogued in each State's DMV, and shared nationwide. In the workplace, pissing in cups proves loyalty to a fascist/authoritarian mind-set, and will soon be required for driver's licenses.
Under forfeiture laws instituted under the aegis of the War on Drugs, official confiscations of property and money have increased, abrogating the Constitutional protections against such seizures. A large number of traffic arrests which involve confiscation of monetary assets are never brought to trial. Some notorious cases include the confiscation of money and property of innocent citizens, including the planting of false evidence by police (a fully-documented incident in Louisiana). Amongst countless others, there are 2 notable cases, involving confiscation of assets: A retired physician transferred a million dollars from one banking institution to another, unaware that his bank had neglected the customary courtesy of notifying the government of asset transfers greater than $10,000 - the local police seized his assets, and after years of costly litigation, he was able to recoup two-thirds of his savings. Another case involved an African-American businessman traveling to a vendor's business. He was carrying a few thousand dollars in U.S. currency - the entirety of his savings - so he could receive a cash discount from the vendor. The police made the traffic arrest strictly on the basis of racist 'drug courier profiles,' confiscating all of his money despite the fact they found no evidence of drug trafficking. He was ultimately able to recoup his assets (without interest), but only after a large portion went to his personal lawyer's fees.
"(American) Football is a mistake. It combines the two worst elements of American life. Violence and committee meetings." - George Will, commenting on U.S. footballAfter scandalous revelations of attempts to frame Malcolm X's daughter (Ms. Qubilah Shabazz) and a grotesque use of military tactics in Waco, the FBI continues to function as a palace guard, launching a new assault on privacy with plans to turn the internet into a giant surveillence system. Life imprisonments are doled out for stealing as little as a slice of pizza, use of churches for political organizing has been functionally outlawed via taxation on the right to assemble, and property and money is confiscated at whim under the rubric of the War on Drugs. This brings us into a new era of gated communities protecting the oligarchy, while the populace undergoes dramas reminiscent of Victor Hugo's Les Miserable.
"The rule of law devolves in a spiral that starts from the top" - UNKNOWNFor a time, an oligarchy knows its bounds, but the memory of the class-war consequences of public displays of ostentatious arrogance fades and oligarchies become contemptuous of the laws that restrict them. While still President, Ronald Reagan flouted the Constitution when he accepted knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II of England. The entire Iran-Contra scandal (replete with drugs-for-guns barter arrangements) revolved around the office of George Bush's Vice Presidency. Bill Clinton arose from a corrupt Arkansas political machine rife with all manner of corruption involving drug money and illegally managed banks. Even more troubling, under the Clintons, the position of First Lady Hillary Clinton rose to the same level as a cabinet-level position, completely circumventing the Constitutional powers of Congress to ratify cabinet appointments.
"A nation of slaves is always prepared to applaud the clemency of their master who, in the abuse of absolute power, does not proceed to the last extremes of injustice and oppression." - Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman EmpireThis oligarchy of the ruling and explaining class seems more self-absorbed and pretentious than ever, a self-infatuation never even dared during the New Deal and Second World War eras. The daily nauseum of legions of fawning synchophants heaping their adulation on the celebrity of high office is only paralleled by the grand circle-jerks of the Hollywood movie industry. In keeping with that Hollywood spectre, Ron & Nancy Reagan could do no wrong, and the Clintons are apparently surrounded by an entourage of courtiers and courtesans. Alexis de Toqueville cited the U.S. American problem of the fatuous courtier in the 19th century, and the syndrome has fully reemerged in the late 20th with a new and peculiar twist.
With this facade of politics imitating Hollywood celebrity; the media presentation of politics has devolved into entertainment, taudry exposes based on rumor and speculation, increasingly devoid of relevent content. The concept of scandal has been debased to the point that future scandals of real import to the republic may be ignored. Predictably, Kenneth Starr's Independent Counsel investigation has devolved into a witch hunt, whereby a mother is compelled to testify against her daughter, friends betrayed friends. It becomes increasingly dubious that Starr's investigation will yield anything new of import, establishing that the office has become a tool to dig up skeletons from presidential backyards in order to blackmail presidents into some kind of conformance with opposition parties.
"Democracy is America's great nonsense word" - H. L. MenkenThe level of personal representation at the federal and state levels has been dilluted by both the power of monied interests manipulating the politicians and the sheer increase in population. Yet, the winner-take-all system remains protected from calls for proportional representation, the most prominent voice of whom was Lani Guinier. Predictably, she was cast out from the political appointee process, branded as a 'radical' by the Washington establishment.
Ironically, contemporaneous attempts at racial gerrymandering of winner-take-all districts as a means of bringing representation to racial minorities (unnecessary in a balanced system of proportional representation) were ultimately ruled (as predicted in the case of North Carolina) to be unconstitutional, demonstrating that the crisis of the winner-take-all two-party system cannot be rectified within its own parameters, bringing us back to the static crisis, paralyzed by the internal contradictions of the established system. Functionally, our nation as it is defined by the 2-party system, is stuck.
I never note *for* anyone. I always vote against. - W.C. FieldsThe U.S. 2-party system has reigned almost unchallenged for nearly a hundred years. But, for once, a REAL challenge to the duopoly of the Democrats and the Republicans arose in January 1996, only to be quashed by the Supreme Court in 1997. A minor party attempted to overturn restrictive anti-fusion laws that proscribe one candidate running under the banner of multiple parties. The practice arose in the late 19th century, and was banned in 43 states as a response to the challenge of Populist and Democrat fusion votes winning elections against Republic legislatures. Fusion voting is still accepted practice in New York state (Ronald Reagan defeated Jimmy Carter with the conjoined fusion vote of New York's Conservative and Republican parties).
The anti-fusion laws were found unconstitutional by a lower federal district court, but the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the ruling, prompting the dissenting opinion to accuse the majority of 'protecting the two-party system' by preserving the winner-take-all system of voting. It is important to note that the national news never reported anything concerning this landmark case, even though the then-pending decision had tremendous implications for the republic.
"Democracy means the permission to be everybody's slave" - Karl KrausIt seems the polity has enough sense to recognize the problem and has chosen to increasingly ignore Washington D.C. as the locus of control. The party chiefs, recognizing this, call for more laws and more means for exerting more central control, while the periphery continues to drift away and become increasingly indifferent to the inane ramblings and bureaucratic grindings of the machine in Washington. While more and more people have gone to the internet for political news and analysis, the number of US citizens who watch news broadcasts from the major networks has gone from a 60% majority to a 40% minority. The problem is that for the centralized system based in New York and Washington, D.C., this 'tuning out' may prefigure a more threatening 'dropping out.'
America is a country that doesn't know where it is going but is determined to set a speed record getting there. - Laurence J. PeterI have to wonder whether the U.S. democratic experiment has fallen on bad times, and whether it will survive these mounting internal contradictions. Politics has become increasingly local, which is in many ways good, but it is also symptomatic of a situation where the local underpinnings of a national system have become disenfranchised and more inward-looking. At the core of the crisis is the two-party cartel, a juggernaut that threatens to take the country with it. I know I'm not supposed to disparage of the republic, but I'd be surprised if a major constitutional crisis doesn't come to pass within the next twenty years that won't ultimately topple the Federal system. I can only hope that if such a future crisis does indeed come to pass, that the various factions have enough sense to recognize that the many voices of the republic can reinvigorate the notion of unity through true political representation, leading to the implementation of proportional representation. The habit of compromise, respect for social contract and public goods, and the belief that government can be more than a necessary evil, have all suffered for the past two decades from the propaganda and confusion generated by the 2-party political system. Rightfully, we have become tremendously distrustful of our own system, but dare we fall into deeper cynicism, we risk loosing everything.
"The American people never carry an umbrella. They prepare to walk in eternal sunshine." - Alfred E. Smith, 1931