The End of This Year’s Political Firestorm

3. November 2010 by admin.

And so we come to the end of another political season.  I know for myself and for most friends of mine it couldn’t have come soon enough. Unfortunately we’re going to be hearing a lot of pundits argue semantics about whether this is a referendum on the current president or if this is as I suspect merely a correction in the natural political order.

The fact is, it isn’t good for anybody to have a single political party in power.  And while I, personally, believe that the Democrats didn’t go far enough in achieving their goals, it does the political process good to know that you have to compromise from time to time in order to move your business forward.  Still, I think the problem was going to be that the Republicans will feel emboldened by a string of victories that really has nothing to do with the Republican Party or the Democratic Party, but in fact a general antipathy toward the entire government process.

So, do we really think that much of anything is going to change in Washington?  I’ve been around long enough to know that that will not be the case.  Although, it is my fervent hope that the Republicans will actually begin to stand for something again, instead of falling for anything.  In a recent discussion I had with several friends of mine about the political process, I reiterated my sincere admiration for the political process as it exists in Germany.  Mind you most Western (and some Asian) governments do have a similar democratic structure to them, but as it is here in the United States, too many of these political structures are dominated by one or two parties.  If youWhile the Italians have the same number of political parties as the Germans do, they don’t quite seem to be able to pull together in any fashion to be able to govern appropriately.  Still, it does seem to work for them.  Commentary centered on the fact that there are 3 to 5 major parties and another five or so minority parties and in order for any group to govern, have to enter into alliances and partnerships.  Example that was given was when one of the major parties had to ally itself with the new Greens party in order to form a stable government.  The fact is, the United States doesn’t have the same level of ideological passion that these are the nations do and so instead of trying to develop a party around a specific ideology, we tend to lump ourselves into one of two categories.

The problem with only having a two-party system, is that the parties themselves try to be all things to all people in order to garner the most votes.  Simply put, this does not work.  The fact is that we are too divided to come together under just two banners.  And we, as the people who elect politicians, have to compromise on our own beliefs in order to fit within one of the two political parties.  It also means, that politicians assume that when people vote for them, they are voting for them and their beliefs.  All too often it’s actually the opposite, and they received a vote that was against their competition. 

Still, this is a political system that we have today and until there is the opportunity for the creation of a third and preferably a fourth political party, we will have to figure out how to make the system work for us.  It has been an interesting few months, but I’m glad to see it over.  Now we see the consequences of our actions.

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