Making Political Power More Fluid

On this national holiday, I know that thousands of conservative bloggers will be extolling the virtues of the Declaration of Independence, and Independence Day itself, waxing cliche about Red, White, and Blue, Apple Pie, Mother, and the American Dream. They will talk about America's status as the greatest nation in the world, and oh, if only the Founders were here to tell today's government to follow the Constitution. On the other side of the aisle, the Left wing of the blogosphere will be abuzz with re-written Declarations of Independence, calling President Bush "King George" and talking about his "repeated injuries and usurpations," and labeling him a brutal tyrant.

For most Americans, I do not think this hollow, partisan rhetorical propaganda will ring terribly true. Most Americans are just glad to have the day off, and to celebrate their freedom with little fanfare: BBQ with friends and family, drinking some beer, watching fireworks, maybe doing a little work on the lawn or finish painting the guest bedroom. Most Americans are quite content with their lives; they aren't particularly concerned with world affairs. That is because, for most Americans, life is pretty good. It has its hardships and difficulties, but things aren't bad enough for people to care about politics, or else they have just given up.

As I continue my series on the potential for an Emergent Third Party in American politics, I would like for the reader to consider why voter turnout is so low in the United States. As I just alluded to, I think that there are two primary reasons people do not vote: things aren't *that* bad, and they have given up on being able to make any sort of difference by voting. Now, give us 10% unemployment or 15% inflation and I think people will be showing up to the polls en masse, most likely to elect somebody whose economic policy will even further devastate the country. I pray things don't get that bad.

Our new Third Party can help remedy Americans' belief that voting doesn't matter and that nothing will change. I am reminded of two animal characters in literature who perhaps represent most Americans' attitudes toward the political process: Eeyore, the pessimistic stuffed donkey from Winnie the Pooh who eats thistles, and Benjamin, the cynical donkey from George Orwell's Animal Farm, who was skeptical of the revolution and believed from the beginning that the pigs would be no different than the human masters. Thus are Americans similarly oriented toward the Democrats and the Republicans, with most people seeing little difference between the two parties, and certainly not expecting change in the event of a transfer of power. If anybody needed confirmation of this, 2006 should have been just that. The Left-wing base of the Democratic Party expected Nancy Pelosi & Co. to get the United States out of the Iraq War. Think again.

One of the reasons for our seeming inability to extract ourselves from the status quo is that the dominance of the Two Party System has created, especially in Congress, a Fox-Watching-the-Hen-House sort of scenario. Sure, the Democrats and Republicans hate each other. But that doesn't mean they don't scratch each other's backs when it comes to doling out the pork barrel spending, or voting for Cost of Living Adjustments for themselves, etc. Indeed, one of the essential elements of an Emergent Third Party movement is a system by which power is much more fluid, and where incumbents do not have so much authority and control over the process simply because of the power of incumbency.

Here are some ways this can be accomplished.

1. General party membership at-large should be empowered to elect the leadership in Congress, including the floor leaders, committee leaders, etc. The same would be true going down to the state legislatures as well. This would eliminate the seniority system in Congress, and would allow the public to be much more heavily involved in selecting the people with the most power in government. Party membership would also be able, at any time, to recall members of the leadership with a No-Confidence vote.

2. Candidates themselves, in order to run on this new Third Party's ticket, would have to bind themselves to recall as well, meaning that they will commit themselves to resigning and running in a special election if the party membership in their district goes through the process of a No Confidence vote in them.

These two conditions alone would require officeholders to pay particular attention to their constituencies, and to making good policy. Failing to do so will result in immediate action, unlike in the current system where politicians benefit from the very brief memory of the voting public.

3. Candidates for office would be nominated by the party's general membership, and the party (not the government) would enforce a strict spending cap for primary elections. Candidates would be encouraged and virtually required to court the party's membership through electronic means, meaning name recognition cannot be bought in the primary.

4. The New Party would utilize the Condorcet Method in order to give all candidates an equal and fair shot at getting elected, without the arbitrary nature of run-off elections or first-past-the-post elections.

Democratizing the candidate nomination and selection systems, and by instituting policies that help combat incumbency and entrenchment are essential elements to a successful Third Party movement. They are also essential to the advancement and preservation of our Republic.

Next time we will look at the importance of electoral reform on a broader scale and its place in the future of an emergent Third Party, and the success of our democratic system.