It Is Time For The Second American Revolution
I’ve made a decision.
It may make me seem like a “Timmy One-Note,? but for the next two weeks, this space will be dedicated to
The Second American Revolution!
If We, the People, are smart, and I know we are when we want to be, 2006 will be the year we finally, after generations of swinging political pendulums–none of which made a great deal of difference without us–stopped the Republicans and Democrats!
Stopped them, you ask? Stopped them from what?
C’mon, folks, look around. Look in your hearts and minds. When was the last time you really, honestly believed in your government? How long has it been since you were proud of your representatives in Washington? How many centuries ago was it, when Mr. Smith arrived there accidentally, and almost single-handedly changed the political culture?
Oh, wait. That was just a movie. Hopeful? Yes. Realistic? No, much the pity.
Where was I? Right, stop them. Stop them from using us as pawns in a scam they call “holding office.? The two main parties have controlled this land for nigh on two hundred years (occasionally swatting upstarts away like short-lived flies), and most of our progress as a people has occurred in spite of them, not because of them!
Democrats, and Republicans count on us, We, the People, every couple of years, to color the landscape a little more red or blue, but it doesn’t really matter. Orange or green would work just as well for them, as long as they hold power. Notice your congressional districts lately… say for the last forty years? Can each of them be any more skewed toward keeping your current representative in office?
Think there’s a Democratic wave sweeping across the nation, which will at long last put an end to this malarkey? Wrong! Nice thought, but even if Republicans lose the vise grip they’ve had in Washington since Clinton was President, Democrats will only play their opponents’ games upon arrival, securing their own futures first irrespective of most average Americans. Why? Why not?
What have you or I done to discourage them from business as usual?
We go along as a nation for a while, the majority of us (and even that majority is getting awfully hard to find), letting one party control things, until they screw up, or their lies and misdemeanors become public knowledge, and we usher in a new era of corruption. All under the guise of, “Throw the Bum’s Out,? and “A New Broom Sweeps Clean,? philosophies. Folks, it doesn’t work! It never has and it never will!!
This country was not founded under the assumption that politicians, like some judges, would hold on to power for life. Our senators and congressman, and various other civil servants, were intended to be citizen politicians, part-time and short time. No one party was ever supposed to hold the reigns of power absolutely, or any two parties divvy up the political spoils like so much ill-gotten booty.
Today’s politician is a professional. He joins a party, nominally because he shares a general ethic, one that label supposedly represents. Primarily though, his party affiliation is that which he believes will offer his best chance to win office, in whichever place he chooses to live.
The election on November 7 will not be about Principles. Not if you vote either Democratic, or Republican. It will be about Principal. Period.
Follow the money, and it leads straight back to the folks we put in office. It cuts through major party lines, while reinforcing the artificial lines of division the GOP and Demos have placed between us. Yeah, us. We, the People. Maybe that’s why this country is so sharply, often bitterly, divided. Neither major party can afford to try and bring us together as one people, for fear of “losing their base,? and temporarily, their power.
We let it happen every election year. Come November, we abdicate out right–our obligation–as citizens of this great nation, to select people who are genuinely dedicated to “serving their country,? not their careers, their retirement plans, or the elite few that keep them cloistered, well-fed, and obedient.
This year, for a change, let all of us who choose to vote, make the decision to end business as usual in our historic Capitol, and in statehouses and town halls all over this land. Let’s all act together, to make 2006 as historically significant, as the events that brought this nation into being.
Together, let us conduct The Second American Revolution!
No one need spill any blood, or raise a hand against another. We need only to raise a hand of approval for those office-seekers who are neither Republican nor Democrat. This November 7, cast all your votes for “Other.? It doesn’t matter what the ballot indicates as their affiliation, just so its neither Democrat nor Republican. When the dust settles, an army of newcomers will carry the banner of a new American Party into their respective offices. It will not be their party. It will be our party. It is time for We, the People, to once again attempt to form a more perfect union.
And that, my friends, will be a party worth celebrating!
We can do it… Together.
October 25th, 2006 at 4:16 pm
Bah! You yourself said that the Democrats will play the same games the Republicans are playing if they were to take the majority. Do you honestly think that whatever party your “other” campaign brings into power will be different?
They will be exactly the same. Politics is politics. Say what you will, but voting for someone else simply because you don’t like the other parties is a rediculous thing to do. Perhaps if you read up on who the “other” will be, and do the same for the Republican and Democratic party nomine, and THEN decide they are worth voting for you will actually get someone “better”. I doubt good… but better perhaps.
Voting blindly for someone, anyone, other than the people you don’t like is not the answer.
October 25th, 2006 at 5:28 pm
Greetings David,
Far be it from to encourage “blind” voting. I’ve been voting blindly for years by sticking to whomever I considered the most suitable Republican or Democrat, only to discover their spots were stripes and vice-versa, and each was unable or unwilling to exhibit any genuine independence.
I am NOT advocating the election of incompetents. Many of those in office now are NOT incompetent, merely compromised. Some overwhelmingly so.
No, David, I ask you to check your sample ballots. Investigate the “other” party, or non-affiliated candidates. Explore their backgrounds, positions and experience. If you’re truly dedicated, check into their campaign financing. Then… Pick one.
Will one change things in Washing, or around the country? No. But many will.
And David, I’m not saying, “Voting blindly for someone, anyone, other than the people you don’t like is not the answer,” as you suggest. That is no answer. Heck, I LIKE a number of Republicans and Democrats, but the parties to which they belong cannot be changed as long as we keep electing them!
No third party has ever seriously challenged the status quo, and at this point, probably never will. What I’m suggesting is we give the “system,” as it currently operates, a bit of a “shake-up.”
Maybe, maybe… Maybe then, some of the current crop of politicians will find the backbone it takes to really get down to the business of the people, and stop spending most of their time making promises for money 60% to 80% of their time in office.
If my proposals seem a bit “over the top,” I apologize. Trying to be heard over the din of party politics ain’t easy
Thanks for taking the time to read, and comment. I appreciate it!
October 25th, 2006 at 5:32 pm
Please overlook the typos. Just washed my hands, can’t do a thing with ‘em.
October 26th, 2006 at 1:42 pm
Oh, no need to fret the typos. We all make them on a daily basis I am sure.
I really can’t say I agree with you advocating against voting for “a number of Republicans and Democrats” that you “LIKE”. If you like them you should want to see them come into power. You may not like their parties, but agreeing with the individual’s stance is certainly worth a vote.
Look at it this way: keep finding ones you like and vote them in, and eventual the party will shift to what you want it to be. Now I am sure you feel that there will never be enough of the ones you “like” to make such a shift, but how many independants are out there that have the “right” stance? Enough to form a valid third party? A party that can wrestly enough power to be worth the effort of brining it into the light?
They would need to win a lot of seats, and unless all of those seats are filled with competent and uncompromised people, they will do no good.
We have no shot however you look at it.