Politics by The Parties

I wonder why the founding fathers didn’t provide for political parties in the Constitution. I think it might be that they saw the danger of partisan politics. Perhaps they foresaw that the House of Representatives and Senator might vote along party lines instead of for the good of the country. Maybe they knew that the majority party would shut the minority party out instead of bringing them into the process, thus disenfranchising a large part of the population. If so it was a very prophetic vision! That is what we have happening now.

The Republican Party voted as a block not to pass the Economic Stimulus package. They voted as a block not to pass the Health Care Reform package. Recently seven Republican Senators cosponsored a bill setting up a commission to bring the deficit under control. And when it came up for a vote all seven of them voted against the bill that they thought was good enough to sponsor. Not one Republican voted for the bill and it was defeated. Why? For party solidarity!

The Democrats are no better. For instance, they accepted very few, if any, of the Republican proposals for economic stimulus or health care reform. When it comes to working together for the good of the country it seems like both parties just aren’t interested. They seem to think what matters most is that their party rules! They do their best to not let the other party get anything done.

The really sad thing about partisan politics is that neither party represents the majority of the American people. Independents outnumber both parties yet there are only two independent Senators and no independent Congressmen. The reason for this is because the parties run the primary elections. In most states the major parties automatically get a candidate on the ballot for the general election. An independent candidate can’t even run in a primary and the parties make it almost impossible for one to get on the ballot for the general election. So the unaffiliated voters have only candidates that don’t represent them or their positions to choose from. Its no wonder the American people have a very low opinion of the Congress, the Senate and the Government in general.