Tag Archives: two-party system

Government Of, By, And For The People … Going Once, Going Twice …

Posted on by under Election 2022, Environmental Issues, Law and justice, Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry, voting rights

I have always believed that in order for democratic processes to work properly, we need two viable political parties.  It just makes sense … in theory, it leads to a meshing of ideas and results in compromise that is good for the nation, good for the people.  It also ensures that no one person or party will hijack the power of the federal government, turning it into an autocracy.  Today, those two parties are so polarized that they are destroying the nation and the people are paying the price.  I guess the keyword in my first sentence is ‘viable’.  I don’t believe the Republican Party of today is a viable party, certainly they are not representative of the people of the United States, nor do they any longer even pretend to represent us.  One case in point …

Just over a week ago, on March 11th, President Biden signed the American Rescue Plan, a coronavirus stimulus bill, but also much more to help people, small businesses, and cities recover from the pandemic that has thrown a wrench into our lives and prosperity for over a year now.  Not one single Republican in Congress voted for the bill, though a few are not above taking credit for it.  But now … Attorneys General around the nation are actually suing President Biden over the bill!  Thus far, 22 states’ Attorneys General have filed lawsuits, the latest being Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost.

According to The Washington Post …

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost sued the Biden administration Wednesday over its $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package, alleging the federal government sought to impose “unconstitutional” limits on states’ ability to access some of the aid.

The lawsuit from Yost, a Republican, follows a day after 21 other GOP attorneys general issued their own veiled legal threat in a move that ratcheted up tensions between states and Democratic policymakers in Washington over one of the largest rescue measures in U.S. history.

Republican attorneys general threaten key element of the $1.9 trillion stimulus

The Ohio lawsuit centers on a $350 billion fund meant to help cities, counties and states cover the costs of responding to the coronavirus pandemic. The stimulus law opened the door for cash-strapped local governments to tap federal aid to pay for expenses, including for first responders, although it prohibited states from using the money to directly or indirectly offset new tax cuts.

This is akin to a child suing their own parents for trying to take care of them!  In essence, the argument is that in order to qualify for the federal funding, states cannot pass new tax cuts.  Well, folks, every tax cut that has passed anywhere in the last four years has benefited only the wealthy in our nation, the big corporations and their stockholders.  The tax cuts of 2017 did not benefit the average working class one damn bit, and they did absolutely nothing to help the poor.  As a result, this nation is now in debt to the tune of $28 trillion, which comes to about $223,893 per taxpayer!  Why? Because many corporations and most wealthy people pay relatively no taxes and others pay a lower percentage of their income than you or I do!

It seems unconscionable to me that when we finally, after 4 long, dry years under the former guy, have a president who cares about the people as well as the true economy, not just the damn stock market, the Republican Party is showing its true colours, fighting him at every single turn.  Another case in point …

Mitch McConnell has made threats to “blow up” the Senate if the Democrats attempt to alter the filibuster rule.  McConnell, in a floor speech, called out Senate Democrats who believe eliminating the rule would be a “tidy tradeoff” that would allow them to pass major legislative priorities free of the need for 10 Republican votes.

Nobody in the Senate, McConnell warned, can “imagine what a completely scorched-earth Senate would look like,” asserting that it would make the partisan gridlock that defined the last three presidencies look like “child’s play.” McConnell warned he could gum up the works in the minority by requiring at least 51 senators be physically present in order to proceed, which would grind the chamber to a halt given that Democrats have 50 seats and Vice President Kamala Harris wouldn’t count.

The minority leader also laid out a laundry list of policies his party would try to ram through if they retook the majority, including “sweeping” abortion restrictions, a “hardening” of the U.S.-Mexico border, nation-wide right to work, defunding Planned Parenthood and sanctuary cities and passing concealed carry reciprocity in all 50 states.

In other words, Mr. McConnell would, without so much as a pang of conscience, ensure that not a single piece of meaningful legislation would pass in the Senate for at least the next 21 months, and that if his party wins a majority in the Senate as a result of the 2022 elections, he will pass legislation that would harm every person in this country.  Because to him and his cronies, it’s all a big game … see who can wield the most power.  The 330 million people in this country?  Oh, they’re fine … just as long as they keep paying their taxes, it’s all good.

So, we have the Republican Party suing the president and his administration and making threats against We the People.  If you ever had any doubts before, let me clarify that this is no longer Abraham Lincoln’s government “… of the people, by the people, and for the people.”  That concept has been dead for a while now, largely since we elected a Black man to lead the nation, not once but twice.  If you have any doubt that most of what the Republican’s are attempting has its basis in racism, put those doubts to bed.  Almost everything they support would take this nation back into the Jim Crow era.

I end where I began … this nation, in order to survive as a democratic republic, must have two viable parties, an exchange of ideas, and compromise.  Today, the Republican Party is not working for the people, and therefore is not a viable party.  If they do not clean up their house, come up with a platform that supports the people of this nation, then they must be replaced.  There is entirely too much at stake — voting rights, minimum wage, gun regulation, women’s rights, police reform, civil rights, climate change, immigration and more — to let Mitch and his band of not-so-merry men bring our government to a crashing halt.

Check out what Late Night Comedian Stephen Colbert has to say about McConnell’s threats and other newsworthy events

Justin Amash Speaks; The GOP Should Listen

Posted on by under Law and justice, Political commentary

While I was not familiar with Representative Justin Amash from Michigan until very recently when he, the lone GOP Congressman willing to stand for the nation instead of his own interests, called for the impeachment of Donald Trump.  Suddenly, all eyes were on Representative Amash.  He took flak from Trump & Co., and from his own fellow members of Congress on the right side of the partisan aisle, but he stood his ground, had the courage of his convictions.

The very first news story I saw today was an OpEd by Representative Amash … news that he is leaving the Republican Party, aka GOP.  Thumbs-up to Amash, and the GOP would do well to listen, for We the People are sick and damn tired of the republicans in Congress being naught more than a mouthpiece for the would-be dictator in the Oval Office.

Justin Amash: Our politics is in a partisan death spiral. That’s why I’m leaving the GOP.

Justin Amash

Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan listens as he is introduced during a town hall event in Grand Rapids on May 28. (Jeff Kowalsky/Bloomberg News)

By Justin Amash July 4 at 6:00 AM
Justin Amash, an independent, represents Michigan’s 3rd Congressional District in the House.

When my dad was 16, America welcomed him as a Palestinian refugee. It wasn’t easy moving to a new country, but it was the greatest blessing of his life.

Throughout my childhood, my dad would remind my brothers and me of the challenges he faced before coming here and how fortunate we were to be Americans. In this country, he told us, everyone has an opportunity to succeed regardless of background.

Growing up, I thought a lot about the brilliance of America. Our country’s founders established a constitutional republic uniquely dedicated to securing the rights of the people. In fact, they designed a political system so ordered around liberty that, in succeeding generations, the Constitution itself would strike back against the biases and blind spots of its authors.

My parents, both immigrants, were Republicans. I supported Republican candidates throughout my early adult life and then successfully ran for office as a Republican. The Republican Party, I believed, stood for limited government, economic freedom and individual liberty — principles that had made the American Dream possible for my family.

In recent years, though, I’ve become disenchanted with party politics and frightened by what I see from it. The two-party system has evolved into an existential threat to American principles and institutions.

George Washington was so concerned as he watched political parties take shape in America that he dedicated much of his farewell address to warning that partisanship, although “inseparable from our nature,” was the people’s “worst enemy.” He observed that it was “the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it.”

Washington said of partisanship, in one of America’s most prescient addresses: “The disorders and miseries which result gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of public liberty. …

“It serves always to distract the public councils and enfeeble the public administration. It agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection. It opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, which finds a facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of party passions. Thus the policy and the will of one country are subjected to the policy and will of another.”

True to Washington’s fears, Americans have allowed government officials, under assertions of expediency and party unity, to ignore the most basic tenets of our constitutional order: separation of powers, federalism and the rule of law. The result has been the consolidation of political power and the near disintegration of representative democracy.

These are consequences of a mind-set among the political class that loyalty to party is more important than serving the American people or protecting our governing institutions. The parties value winning for its own sake, and at whatever cost. Instead of acting as an independent branch of government and serving as a check on the executive branch, congressional leaders of both parties expect the House and Senate to act in obedience or opposition to the president and their colleagues on a partisan basis.

In this hyperpartisan environment, congressional leaders use every tool to compel party members to stick with the team, dangling chairmanships, committee assignments, bill sponsorships, endorsements and campaign resources. As donors recognize the growing power of party leaders, they supply these officials with ever-increasing funds, which, in turn, further tightens their grip on power.

The founders envisioned Congress as a deliberative body in which outcomes are discovered. We are fast approaching the point, however, where Congress exists as little more than a formality to legitimize outcomes dictated by the president, the speaker of the House and the Senate majority leader.

With little genuine debate on policy happening in Congress, party leaders distract and divide the public by exploiting wedge issues and waging pointless messaging wars. These strategies fuel mistrust and anger, leading millions of people to take to social media to express contempt for their political opponents, with the media magnifying the most extreme voices. This all combines to reinforce the us-vs.-them, party-first mind-set of government officials.

Modern politics is trapped in a partisan death spiral, but there is an escape.

Most Americans are not rigidly partisan and do not feel well represented by either of the two major parties. In fact, the parties have become more partisan in part because they are catering to fewer people, as Americans are rejecting party affiliation in record numbers.

These same independent-minded Americans, however, tend to be less politically engaged than Red Team and Blue Team activists. Many avoid politics to focus on their own lives, while others don’t want to get into the muck with the radical partisans.

But we owe it to future generations to stand up for our constitutional republic so that Americans may continue to live free for centuries to come. Preserving liberty means telling the Republican Party and the Democratic Party that we’ll no longer let them play their partisan game at our expense.

Today, I am declaring my independence and leaving the Republican Party. No matter your circumstance, I’m asking you to join me in rejecting the partisan loyalties and rhetoric that divide and dehumanize us. I’m asking you to believe that we can do better than this two-party system — and to work toward it. If we continue to take America for granted, we will lose it.

Text dividers

Note to Readers:

Apparently WordPress has mucked up again, for the very minute that this post was published, it showed 24 ‘likes’, and I know that is impossible.  Sigh.  Just thought I’d better let you know so that if you see your picture in the row of ‘likes’, and don’t remember reading or liking it before, you’ll know you aren’t losing your mind … WordPress is!

The Way It Should Be …

Posted on by under Political commentary, Social commentary

The United States of America is comprised of some 330 million people, individuals, human beings.  Of those, 535 are members of Congress, and a few thousand others work in some capacity in the federal government.  When I use the term We The People, I do not exclude the federal workers, but I also do not rank them any higher than the farmer in Iowa, the steel worker in Pennsylvania, or the rancher in Texas.  I do not rank them as being any more important than the person working the drive-thru in a McDonald’s in Poughkeepsie or the teller in a bank in Seattle.  Senator Mitch McConnell is only one of those 330 million people.  Donald Trump is only one of those 330 million people.  They are no more important than I am.  They almost certainly have more money and can afford more things than you and I, but from where I stand, that does nothing to make them any better, any more important, than you and me.

Here is how things are supposed to work.  Each of the 330 million people who are over 18 are to be allowed to cast one vote that counts toward electing members of Congress every other year, and a president every fourth year.  Those people we elected are then expected to make decisions that are in the best interest of those of us who voted for them.  Those people we elected, if acting in the best interest of their constituents, will not always agree.  For example, an elected official from Iowa will have the best interests of farmers on his agenda, as Iowa is a largely agrarian state, while the official from Michigan may have the best interests of factory workers on his agenda.  However, at the end of the day, they make policies that end up helping We The People in one way or another.  That is how it is supposed to work.

Here is how it really works.  Some of us over the age of 18 dutifully cast a vote, while others decide it is too much trouble and return to their television sets and potato chips.  We may or may not be swayed by the ads that are bought and paid for by the very wealthy corporations, ads whose main goal is not to enlighten us about the candidate, but rather to finger-point and tell us how bad the other candidate is.  Then, once a candidate is elected, they promptly forget about those who voted for them until the next election rolls around.  Instead of making policy decisions that are in the best interest of their constituents, they make policy decisions that are directly guided by the large, wealthy corporations who paid for their advertisements.  They forget that we, the taxpayers, pay their salary and they are more interested in the campaign donations they will receive from their corporate sponsors if they do their bidding.

Thus we have seen the introduction of two very similar and very detrimental health care bills in recent months.  The House bill passed, but now the Senate bill is being promoted and any senator who has the cojones to be unsupportive of the bill is being punished by Trump and Company.

Dean-Heller

Sen. Dean Heller

Dean Heller, a Republican, was elected to the U.S. Senate by the people of Nevada in 2012, by a narrow margin.  He will be up for re-election in 2018, and it is expected to be a close race.  A look at Heller’s ideology and past voting record shows that he has voted for some things that, as a liberal-thinker, I agree with, and some that I don’t. However, Heller took a stand and announced that he does not support the health care bill that was crafted by Senator Mitch McConnell.  Here’s what happened next …

A Trump-supporting Political Action Committee (PAC) called America First Policies and sanctioned by the White House ran a 30-second television ad in Heller’s home state of Nevada:

“[N]ow with strong leadership and a chance to repeal and replace Obamacare with patient-centered care that protects American families, Sen. Dean Heller is saying ‘No.’ Call Sen. Heller, tell him America needs him to keep his promise: Vote ‘yes’ to repeal and replace Obamacare.”

They also ran a one-minute ad that went even further:

“…[N]ow with the leadership of President Trump, we have a real chance to repeal Obamacare and replace it with patient-centered care that protects American families and provides health care stability. But Nevada Sen. Dean Heller is saying ‘No.’ ‘No’ to tax cuts to help small business, ‘No’ to ending Obamacare penalties, and ‘No’ to families who can’t afford to see the doctor of their choice. Call Sen. Heller and tell him to keep his promise to repeal and replace Obamacare — before it’s too late.”

Senate Republicans, including Mitch McConnell, were furious over the ads and contacted America First Policies to stop the ads. The ads have since been removed, but not before the damage was done.  In all likelihood, Senator Heller will lose his bid for re-election next year because he attempted to do the right thing, to stand firm for the best interests of the people of his state.

Sadly, in the Trump administration it is not about ‘doing the right thing’, and it is not about making policy that is in the best interest of We The People, but it is about supporting the wealthy, the big corporations, and Donald Trump … at all costs.

In an interview in April, Trump, frustrated with his failure to get any of his legislation through Congress, said that the Constitution, the foundation of our current system that has served fairly well for 230 years, is ‘archaic’ and ‘a bad thing for the country’. One can only imagine what he would like to replace it with.

The two-party system should encourage healthy competition and give citizens viable choices on election day.  Instead, it has led to corruption, stalemate, vile rhetoric, and a complete disregard on the part of both parties for We The People.  In a future post, I will address some ideas for fixing our broken system, but for today it is enough to say that from the top on down, our government under the current regime is no longer a representative government, no longer a democratic-republic, but is an oligarchy … one where the wealthy rule and the rest of us are forgotten.

Filosofa Thinks …

Posted on by under Social commentary

snowflakeI don’t really mind being called a ‘snowflake’ … snowflakes are beautiful, each one unique, delicate and lacy.  The term in itself does not offend me.  However, I resent the meaning that has been attached to the term, resent the fact that people who would call me this assume they know how I think on every issue, when they will not even be bothered to take a moment to listen to me.  Lately I have been doing a lot of thinking about what I have referred to as ‘The Great Divide’ in our society.

In doing a bit of research, I found articles about what is now called ‘hyper-partisanship’ dating back to 2012, during the time of the election in which President Obama was running for his second term of office.  Wikipedia defines hyper-partisanship as “A sharply polarized situation in which political parties are in fierce disagreement with each other.”  Sounds about right. I would add, “… to the extent that neither is willing to listen to the other or even consider compromise.”

Our two-party system has been around since 1796, although both parties have evolved throughout the years.  The two-party system is not, in and of itself, a bad thing, and in fact may well be the only thing that stands between a democratic republic and a dictatorship.  However, even the best of concepts, taken too far, can spell disaster.  Today, the two parties seem diametrically opposed.  There is no longer any middle ground, no longer any place for those who are not radically opposed to all the ideas of the other.  No one side is 100% right, nor 100% wrong, but there is no room in the middle. The space that used to be the middle, the moderates, is gone, leaving in its place a wide chasm – a no man’s land.

great divide-2During the Constitutional Convention in 1787, Thomas Jefferson was away in France, but he nonetheless objected to a formal provision in the Constitution for a two-party system, saying …

jefferson-2“Men are naturally divided into two parties. those who fear and distrust the people and wish to draw all power from them into the hands of the higher classes [and] those who identify themselves with the people, have confidence in them, cherish and consider them as the most honest and safe, although not the most wise, depository of the public interests.’’

230 years ago, yet those words seem to perfectly define today’s two parties, the Republicans and the Democrats.  The Great Divide may be a bigger problem for the continuity of the United States than even the person currently sitting in the Oval Office, for he will be gone soon enough, but the divisiveness in this nation will remain.  What happened to those who, just a few short years ago, were considered moderates?  The went to the left, or to the right … they were actually pushed left or right, as there could be no middle ground.

Though I largely blame the current occupant of the Oval Office for the depth of the divide, in truth, it has been a long time coming.  I could write a small book on the history that has led to this moment, and perhaps I shall do so one day, but for this humble post, I am limited by constraints of time and space, and would prefer to focus the remainder on … how can we fix it?  Or can we?

Obviously the divergence of socio-political ideologies is not going away, so we must find ways to work within that framework.  The solution must come from two groups:  the federal government AND We The People.  Yes … WE. The. People. Obviously there need to be level heads in government to fix that which is broken, but who chooses those heads?  We do.  The heads need to understand that their job is to re-unite a nation divided, to heal the wounds of the past 10 years or so, and to sincerely debate the issues, arriving at solutions that, if they do not please everybody, at least accommodate the citizens.  Healthcare, for instance … no healthcare plan that causes 24 million people to lose their insurance coverage can be considered viable.

The next thing that leaders in Congress and the executive branch must do is remove the influences of big business and lobbyist groups from both the election process and the legislative process.  As it currently stands, big business and lobbyists give millions, nay billions, to candidates who, in exchange, promote the interests of those businesses and lobbyists in legislation.  This is not … I repeat this is NOT … a service or a benefit to We The People.  Elections need to be about what the people of this nation stand for, not what will put more profit in the hands of CEO’s and the NRA.

And then we come to us … me, you, the family down the street.  We played a large role in creating the Great Divide … now it is time for us to put away our petty differences, our greedy desires and try to help heal a nation torn asunder.  We must, once again, remember that we are all in this together and sometimes we may not like decisions that are made, but it is a nation of We The People, not ‘I The Person’.

What can we do?  First and foremost, we can … we must … educate ourselves, at least in the most basic ways in which our government works.  Then we must take it upon ourselves to learn about candidates, not just in presidential elections, but perhaps even more important, in the elections of our senators and representatives to Congress.  We must realize that everything we see on social media should be considered false information unless it can be verified through reliable sources.  98% of it cannot, therefore it is a falsehood.  We must stop listening to friends, relatives, and Facebook groups, take out our brains, dust them off and learn to think for ourselves.  That done, we must then vote for the candidate whose ideology seems destined to help the nation … it may not seem to help you as an individual at the moment, but if it helps the nation, it is still in your best interest. We must all learn to think on a more global, more long-term basis.

The other thing we all must do is learn to listen.  My observation in the past year, and I admit to being guilty of this also, is that we only listen to those whose ideas mirror our own.  We cut off ideas that we disagree with, boycott information that is contrary to our own ideology, and close not only our ears, but our minds to the thoughts of others.  What if, instead of saying “you’re wrong”, we said, “okay, but tell me why you feel that way”.  Or … “but what if …?”  We might just find that our beliefs are not as different as we thought.

Okay, yes, I know that by now you are saying, “Wow … Filosofa done gone and lost her marbles … she thinks she’s Miss Pollyanna.”  No … I am a realist, a pragmatist, and I know this is all pie-in-the-sky for most people.  But the reality is that this nation is ripe at the moment for a strong, autocratic leader to come in and completely change the structure of the democracy (democratic-republic, for those politico purists) that we have enjoyed for 230 years.  Donald Trump is not, was not, that leader, for his flaws are many and his honesty is a joke.  However, if somebody such as Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Vladimir Putin, or Norbert Hofer, someone with intellect, charisma and dreams of grandeur were to appear on the scene, I can easily see the demise of the United States of America that we have always known.  I know my solutions are pipe dreams, but perhaps they make us start to think … perhaps at least it is time for us to wake up and acknowledge that we have a real problem and that each and every one of us must contribute to the solution.  All I ask is that you think about it.