The Problem with Politics

I received an e-mail from one of my state’s Political Parties inviting me to participate in their national convention as an at-large delegate. Something in that e-mail shocked me, and I realized the true problem with the current political parties.

The e-mail had a list of requirements to be considered for either an at-large or an alternate delegate position. The one requirement that made me realize the true problem with having the average person’s voice heard in a nation party was what I would call “the wealth factor”. To even be considered, you had to give them your credit card information, so they could be certain you could afford to attend the convention. The one week long national delegate process was going to cost anyone who went thousands of dollars in fees, travel, and hotel expenses.

For me, taking a week off work, and spending thousands of dollars in expenses is not something I can easily do without careful planning and saving. I can’t see anyone as middle class as myself going to because it's cost prohibitive; let along someone in the poor house. It became clear to me that the people truly running our national parties are either very dedicated to their party or rich enough, with a flexible enough schedule, to be able to take such a trip. The average person’s voice would never be heard in such a venue, and thus I don’t see how we will ever have a presidential nominee from either of the major national parties that truly understands the average person.

What can we do about this? How can the average person ever expect to be heard when it is clear that the well to do have a monopoly on our national elections process? Who can speak loud enough so that the average person can be heard? Perhaps National Parties are not the best way to elect our most powerful public servant after all?

Near the end of the 1700's being dedicated to a party was equated by some to having loyalty to a private selfish faction that stood to conflict with the public good. George Washing himself warned of such loyalties has he left office after his second term as President. He easily would have won a third term (which was allowed at that time), but he knew of one other truth: That absolute power, in the hands of imperfect men, will thoroughly corrupt anyone. Today we have two parties that hold the vast majority of the political power in the USA, a notion contrary to the principle of separation of powers the USA's constitution sought to prevent. This countries loyalty to these factions has undermined this very principle, and that is the real problem with politics in this country today.

These two parties today continue to drive divisions between Americans, and the last time a major party was replaced by a new one was when Abraham Lincoln was elected as the First Republican Party President. Civil war shortly followed. Perhaps the best thing to do is outlaw national party affiliations all together.

Why do we need national parties anyway? The only political office that has any kind of national vote is the one for the executive office, better know as the President. However, the vote of the people isn't really want elects the president, as it really only determines who the individual states will chose to participate in the electoral collage that actually elects the president. Perhaps what we really need is to have people focus on who they are electing to the electoral collage, and let them do the work the way it was intended to be done; without undue national influence from political parties.