[Election-Methods] Partisan Politics

[Fred Gohlke]

This site focuses on methods of conducting elections, but most posts 
address only a single aspect of that topic; the way votes are counted. 
Is not the object for which votes are cast a matter of even greater 
concern?  When our public officials are not representative of the people 
who elect them and are masters of misdirection, obfuscation and deceit, 
ought we not ask ourselves whether there is a taint in the method by 
which they are selected?  Ought we not consider the role of political 
parties in the political process?

OVERVIEW
Political parties are quasi-official institutions designed to acquire 
the reins of government.  They sponsor candidates for public office by 
providing the resources needed to conduct a campaign for election.  As a 
condition of their sponsorship, they require that the candidates support 
the party, thus giving the party ultimate control of the elected officials.

In the United States, our governmental system is defined by our 
Constitution, and nothing in our Constitution expresses or implies the 
need for political parties.  They are an extra-Constitutional invention, 
devised to advance partisan interest.  The problem of partisanship was 
well understood by the framers of our Constitution:

"When the Founders of the American Republic wrote the U.S. Constitution 
in 1787, they did not envision a role for political parties in the 
governmental order.  Indeed, they sought through various constitutional 
arrangements such as separation of powers, checks and balances, 
federalism, and indirect election of the president by an electoral 
college to insulate the new republic from political parties and 
factions." Professor John F. Bibby
http://usinfo.state.gov/products/pubs/election04/parties.htm


A "party system" developed in our nation because our early leaders used 
their standing to consolidate their power.  Politicians in a position to 
do so institutionalized their advantage by forming political parties and 
creating rules to preserve them and aid their operation:

"The Democratic-Republicans and Federalists invented the modern 
political party -- with party names, voter loyalty, newspapers, state 
and local organizations, campaign managers, candidates, tickets, 
slogans, platforms, linkages across state lines, and patronage."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_Republican_Party_(United_States)

These features advance party interest at the expense of the public 
interest.  They show how political parties are an embodiment of human 
nature; they put self-interest above all other considerations.  They 
function precisely as a thoughtful person would expect them to function.

PARTISANSHIP
Political parties are grounded in partisanship.  Partisanship is natural 
for humans.  We seek out and align ourselves with others who share our 
views.  Through them, we hone our ideas and gain courage from the 
knowledge that we are not alone in our beliefs.  Partisanship gives 
breadth, depth and volume to our voice.  In and of itself, partisanship 
is not only inevitable, it is healthy.

On the other hand, partisans have a penchant for denigrating those who 
think differently, often without considering the salient parts of 
opposing points of view.  They seek the power to impose their views on 
those who don't share them, while overlooking their own shortcomings. 
Communism and National Socialism showed these tendencies.  Both had 
features that attracted broad public support throughout a national 
expanse and both degenerated into destructive forces because their 
partisans gained control of their governments.

The danger in Communism and National Socialism was not that they 
attracted partisan support; it was that the partisans gained control of 
government.  In general, partisanship is healthy when it helps us give 
voice to our views. It is destructive when it achieves power.  All 
ideologies, whether of the right or the left, differ from Communism and 
National Socialism only in the extent to which their partisans are able 
to impose their biases on the public.

Partisanship is a vital part of society ... provided it is always a 
voice and never a power.  The danger is not in partisanship, it is in 
allowing partisans to control government.

OLIGARCHIC PARTY STRUCTURE
The political parties that control all political activity in the United 
States are in no sense democratic.  The American people do not elect 
those who control the parties.  In fact, most Americans don't even know 
who they are.  They are appointed by their party and serve at the 
party's pleasure.  We, the people the parties are supposed to represent, 
have no control over who these people are, how long they serve, or the 
deals they make to raise the immense amounts of money they use to keep 
their party in power.  They constitute a ruling elite above and beyond 
the reach of the American people.

When we allow those who control our political parties to usurp the power 
of governing our nation, it is foolish to imagine that we retain the 
power bestowed on us by our Constitution.  It is a tragedy that so few 
of us recognize (or are willing to acknowledge) that we have 
relinquished our right to govern ourselves to unknown people who 
proclaim themselves our agents.

CORRUPTION
Corruption pervades our political system because the parties control the 
selection of candidates for public office. Candidates are not chosen for 
their integrity.  Quite the contrary, they are chosen after they 
demonstrate their willingness and ability to dissemble, to obfuscate and 
to mislead the electorate. They are chosen when they prove they will 
renounce principle and sacrifice honor for the benefit of their party.

The result is a circular process that renounces virtue and is ruled by 
cynicism:

* Candidates for public office cannot mount a viable campaign without 
party sponsorship, so they obtain sponsorship by agreeing to the party's 
terms.

* The party, assured of the loyalty of its candidates, attracts donors 
because it can promise that its candidates will support the objectives 
set by the party, i.e., the goals of the donors.

* From the donors, the party obtains the resources it needs to attract 
appealing candidates and bind them to the party's will.

This cycle makes political parties conduits for corruption.  Businesses, 
labor unions and other vested interests give immense amounts of money 
and logistical support to political parties to push their agenda and to 
secure the passage of laws that benefit the donors.  The political 
parties meet their commitment to the donors by picking politicians who 
can be relied upon to enact the laws and implement the policies the 
donors' desire.  The politicians so selected are the least principled of 
our citizens, but are the only choices available to the American people 
in our "free" elections.

None of this is a secret.  The parties conduct their business with our 
knowledge and tacit approval.  We know, full well, how they operate.  We 
know about the "party bosses", "pork barrels", "party loyalty", "slush 
funds", "party whips", and the whole lexicon of political manipulation. 
  Since we know these things exist and do not prevent them, we are party 
to the very corruption we decry.

THE MYTH OF CORRUPTIBILITY
Some believe we cannot remove corruption from our political systems 
because humans are corruptible.  Why should we believe such a canard?

We are misled by the high visibility of deceit and corruption in our 
culture.  The idea that it is inescapable leads to the self-defeating 
notion that trying to correct it is futile.

The reality is that the vast majority of humans are honorable, 
law-abiding people.  They have to be, for society could not exist 
otherwise.  By far, the greater percentage of our friends, our 
relatives, our co-workers and our neighbors are trustworthy people.

The reason our political leaders are corrupt is that party politics 
elevates unscrupulous people by design.  It does so by heeding the 
notion attributed to B. F. Skinner:  "The bad do bad because the bad is 
rewarded".  Since the goal of a party is to advance its own interest, it 
rewards those who do so, unfettered by the restraints of honor.  Once 
these unprincipled people achieve leadership they infect our society 
because morality is a top-down phenomenon.

The idea that we can't remove corruption from our political systems 
because we are corruptible is nonsense.  It is a myth.  The problem is 
not the people; it is a political system that demands subservient 
politicians at the expense of integrity.  The vast majority of our peers 
are honest, principled people.  When we make probity a primary concern 
in our electoral process, the pervasiveness of dishonesty in our society 
will diminish.

PASSION VERSUS INTELLECT
Political parties appeal to emotion by applying the principles of 
behavioral science to manipulate the public.  They mount, finance and 
staff campaigns designed to inflame the passions of the electorate.

Communication during election campaigns is one-way.  There is no genuine 
attempt to consult the public interest and the serious issues are seldom 
those raised during a campaign.  Surveys are conducted to find "hot 
buttons" which generate a desired response and professionals use the 
information to mold "messages" which the candidates and the parties feed 
the public in a flood of misinformation.  It is a rabble-rousing technique.

Intelligent decisions require dialogue; assertions must be examined, not 
in the sterile environment of a televised debate, but in depth.  The 
electorate must be able to examine candidates and discuss matters of 
public concern, and, with the knowledge so gained, make decisions.  They 
have no opportunity to do so.

SEPARATION OF POWERS
The U. S. Constitution separated the powers of government in such a way 
as to operate as checks upon each other.  Separation of Powers is lauded 
as a cornerstone of our Constitution.  I'm unaware of any substantive 
disagreement with this view of the intent of our Founders.

Political parties persistently attack the Separation of Powers.  They 
use their immense resources to maximize their power by forcing our 
public officials to vote en bloc on crucial issues, making a mockery of 
the safeguards we rely on to protect our freedoms.  When a single group 
of people with a common interest succeeds in controlling multiple 
branches of our government, it is ludicrous to imagine we have a system 
of checks and balances (as was vividly demonstrated by our recent 
experience with the baneful effects of single party dominance.)

SEEKING IMPROVEMENT
Political parties, in their omnivorous quest for power have, during my 
lifetime, gone a long way toward destroying the greatness of my 
homeland.  Unrestrained, they will succeed.

It need not be so.

Those who seek good government need not tolerate the corruption of party 
politics.  We do not need partisanship, which sets one person against 
another; we need independent representatives who will think for 
themselves and reach intelligent decisions on matters of public concern. 
  In other words, to improve our government, we must change the way we 
select our representatives.

We have the technological ability to support a more democratic method; 
the big hurdle is to get people to acknowledge the problem.  Many fall 
victim to the common malady of believing our press clippings.  We've 
been told so many times through so many years that our political system 
is the best in the world, some of us can't admit it is a cesspool of 
corruption, funded by special interests that buy the laws we endure.

Most Americans assume political parties are legitimate centers of power 
under our Constitution.  That is untrue.  Nothing in our Constitution 
authorizes, institutes or enables political parties.  The laws that do 
so are enacted in the various states.

Breaking the stranglehold the parties have on our political process is 
non-trivial.  It depends, not on our Constitution, but on our will.  We 
must want to build a political system that puts public interest above 
partisanship, a method that responds to vested interests but is not 
controlled by them.

Political systems are always an embodiment of human nature.  Until we 
learn to harness our own nature, we can improve neither our politics nor 
our society.  There is no Constitutional bar to devising a more 
democratic process; the only impediment is ourselves.  Since we can not 
divorce our political institutions from our own nature, we must make 
virtue a desirable attribute in those who seek political advancement. 
That may be difficult ... but it is not impossible.

Such changes occur slowly.  Ought we not start to consider the methods 
by which they can be accomplished?

Fred