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An American Third Party
Tweedledee and Tweedledum What the United States desperately needs right now is a viable, and broad-based Third Political Party. It is after all, the 233th birthday of the United States of America. [Yes, yes, I know... but July 4th was actually the date that England was served with the colonies suing for divorce. The "birth" of the United States is when the colonies got together in a formal way... as in the Articles of Confederation.] In any case, it's time for something really worth celebrating two years from now... for the 235th Anniversary... immediately following the 2012 national, state, and local elections (now scheduled for 6 November 2012). On the one hand -- not necessarily the left or the right:
This is, as opposed to, meeting in the middle to exchange blows. On the other hand, what are the odds of any such detente happening? How close to zero probability?
One should note, for example, that following the 2008 presidential election, President Obama claimed an earnest willingness to work in a bi-partisan fashion. This was in spite of the fact that the Democrats controlled the House of Representatives, as well as the Senate... the latter in which the De-mocs had the added blessing of a filibuster-proof Senate majority. In essence, there was no political reason for a Democratic President to be nice. And while Obama might have pretended nice, he ended up pushing through such things as Obamacare on strictly party lines. You may have heard about that. You may also have heard that in the 2010 mid-term elections, Republicans won at least 60 additional House seats (the largest swing of seats since 1948) and gained at least six senate seats. And while that might sound like a mandate for change in an opposite direction... it’s probably worth noting that the 2008 vote that swept Obama and a relatively huge number of Democrats into national office represented approximately 61% of the electorate. The mid-term elections, however, that went Republican, constituted closer to 40% of the electorate. [2] Furthermore, if the difference in control of the Congress is based upon a change of 50 or so House seats, and these seats were won with 55% of the vote, then the shift in control of the House of Representatives is due to roughly 2.5%* of the electorate. Even the entire plurality is only about 12% of the electorate. Not exactly a mandate.
To add further anguish to the 80% of Americans who want to have the two parties work together, the new House Republican leader, John Boehner (who will likely become the new Speaker of the House) “has already vowed that there will be ‘no compromise’ with Obama.” [1] Meanwhile, the Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, in an interview with National Journal has said [3]:
Okay, most of this might be simply that the Republicans should 'learn from their mistakes'... and maybe even avoid "some degree of hubris". This doesn't sound like the Republican leadership to me, but the message, taken at face value, is clear: Don’t assume omnipotence in what the election meant. This is a reasonable statement. However... the last sentence -- also taken at face value -- is far more telling. What the Senate Minority Leader... the most powerful Republican in the Senate ... is saying is that: More important than the economy, more important than jobs or foreign policies... as well as being more important than anything and everything that anyone might consider to be important -- the “single most important thing” is for the Republicans to take power. Forget the nation; just fight the President at every turn. In other words: politics as usual... in the same dualistic, adversarial at all costs, dysfunctional schema. Heavy sigh. What can be done? Well, obviously, AN AMERICAN THIRD PARTY. Neal Mueller has made his own long bet and predicted “A third party candidate will be elected President of the United States [during the period 2010-2025].” (i.e. not a Republican or a Democrat) [4] One can only hope that this one-in-four outside chance, aka political miracle, happens even before 2025. Of course, if George Friedman is correct in his supposition of a fifty year Presidential cycle, the timing might more accurately be delayed until 2028 or 2032. Ending the insanity we currently have should clearly be done sooner rather than later. And speaking of insanity...
George Friedman, writing in Stratfor [5], before the mid-term elections, predicted:
I.e., in Friedman's view -- and that of most rational realists -- the mid-term elections are “close to immaterial”... “the practical result will be the same.” Gerald Celente, in his Trends Journal [6], has voiced similar thoughts... albeit with a bit less political correctness (Mr. Celente being extremely adept at political incorrectness).
As part of this pointless exercise, according to William Falk [7],
This suggests that in 2012, something of the order to $6-8 billion dollars will be spent in order to... once again... continue the policies of partisanship. Furthermore, with the SCOTUS ruling of no-holds barred in campaign financing, the economic impact will be far greater than a fair number of wars... most of which we actually won... as opposed to having just more of the partisan brinkmanship we have now. Logically, then, for any viable Third Party to have any hope of being a contender, the party coffers will need probably $5 billion or more, just in order to compete. This is a rather tall order. And yet... the USA really needs a third party, one wholly unlike Tweedledee and Tweedledum! What is NOT needed is the fire fight that will occur between Re-pubs and De-mocs in order to determine who gets to be “dee’ and who gets to be “dum”. They’ll still be Tweedles! The Tea Parties are NOT a Third Party It is essential to emphasize that the so-called Tea Parties are not, in any fashion, a genuine third party. The TPers are in fact a splinter group from the national Republican Party... the former which consists of people, many of whom are as narrowly focused as the religious and social conservatives of your average Re-pub. Many even have a passing resemblance to the intellectual merits of Neanderthals, or their occasional “great minds” being more like “great minds of the Fifth Century”. (You can use either BC or AD; it makes no real difference). The TP is broad based only in the sense that many of its candidates assume all females to be “broads” and therefore to be treated as chattel and/or a subservient species. The possibly more damning indictment of the TP is that it was strongly supported by such billionaire mega-egos as the Koch brothers, and by the FOX news network (under the iron clad control of Rupert Murdoch). As such, the TPers can be guaranteed to never under any circumstances be fair and/or balanced, intelligent, or worth the price of tea in China. Thus, for all purposes, the Tea Parties are NOT any third party worthy of the name, and will henceforth be ignored... except to serve as an exceptionally bad example. (They do that really well!)
As things stand now, elections are charades... full of sound and fury and signifying nothing. It might appear to be a contest, but the actors are all part of the same troupe of illusion creators. Nothing changes when the Media simply cannot divorce themselves from the perks of having access to the Powers That Be. This latest incursion into the mind-boggling display of how NOT to spend good money, will not ultimately change much. There has to be a whole new alternative... not just “Same old, same old; bought the ticket to perdition.” This need for a third choice is in spite of the intellectual merits of:
Amusing as always... Swami... but Siriusly, how exactly are the De-mocs’ gated communities different from those belonging to the Re-pubs? The reality is that both hierarchies live in “gated communities”... and in fact benefit from the gated community of the two party system... where third parties are not allowed through the electoral gates, and instead, are considered as just so much riff-raft. For example, Gerald Celente [9] has forecast:
Thomas Friedman writing in The New York Times [10] has reported that:
Among the political cronies and/or aristocrats from the Re-pubs and De-mocs, there are truly no real differences... just changes in emphasis. Between Bush and Obama there is precious little variance... other than, perhaps... semantics, the ability to speak English, and various differences in methodologies on how the reigning politicians can screw the citizenry. On the one hand, VP Cheney pays off his old alma mater, Haliburton, with no competition bids... while Obama sets up the insurance industry by mandating 30 million new customers. And of course, both have lent aid and comfort to the Military Industrial complex. The fundamental common deceptions of all recent presidential administrations are the statistical lies. The Consumer Price Index, for example, has been manipulated over the last thirty years by administrations eager to make things appear to be far rosier than they are. The con goes like this:
An American Third Party According to Sean J. Miller [12] (October 13, 2010)]:
Rick Gaber [13], has provided some excellent reasons to endorse third parties... and supposedly parties of the fourth, fifth, sixth... and so forth... kind.
Mr. Gaber then goes on to detail many of the good reasons to actively support third parties. For example:
Now, that's an astounding concept... feeling good about voting... knowing that your voice was heard in a form other than Yes/No to two extreme viewpoints. There is the old metaphor of the: Man drowning in middle of a lake, 100 feet from shore.
Thomas Friedman [10] has written that he continues,
Sounds great, Tom. But, gee fella... if there really is the potential for a genuine third party movement lurking somewhere on either or both coasts... then how about telling someone a bit more of the details. Or just let me know! Maybe have them contact me! I’m interested! (And I rather suspect that there are a LOT of others with similar thoughts. Call us; don't wait for us to call you.) Of course... the degree of desirability of any American Third Party is its principles... or its official party platform. Where they stand on the major issues of the day, their philosophy of governing, their preferences for coffee, tea, or milk, and so forth... that's going to be somewhat important. What is really needed, of course, is A Third Party that Knows How to Party. __________________________ References [1] “With a huge win, the GOP challenges Obama”, The Week, November 12, 2010, page 6.
[2] NPR news, 4 November 2010. [3] The Week, November 12, 2010, page 16. [4] http://www.longbets.org/583 [5] George Friedman, “U.S. Midterm Elections, Obama and Iran,” Stratfor.com, October 26, 2010. [6] Gerald Celente, “Tea Time,” The Trends Journal, Autumn 2010, Vol. XVIII. No. 24, page 23. [7] William Falk, The Week, November 12, 2010, page 7. [8] Swami Beyondananda (Steve Bhaerman), “Voting Democrat This Year Is a No-Bahrainer”, October 19, 2010. http://notesfromthetrailblog.com. [9] Gerald Celente, The Trends Journal, Summer 2010, Vol. XVIII, No. 23, page 9.. [10] http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/03/opinion/03friedman.html?_r=1&src=me&ref=general [11] http://www.shadowstats.com/ /inflation-charts [13] http://freedomkeys.com/3rdpartieswhatfor.htm See also: A Third Party That Knows How to Party Freedom of Religion Holy War The Rules of Holy War Racism and Culturalism Multiculturalism Perils of Immigration Free Speech The (9) Supremes The Halls of SCOTUS
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The Library of ialexandriah2003© Copyright Dan Sewell Ward, All Rights Reserved
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