April 17, 2016
Democracy Is Dead: We Must Destroy The Party System To Overthrow Oligarchy
The following article is entirely the opinion of Diana Price and does not reflect the views of the Inquisitr.
Since the United States became an independent nation, we’ve had political parties and processes for electing out politicians. When electing a president, we hold primaries with delegates and superdelegates, so this is nothing new. But unfortunately, we have come to a crossroads in this country where it’s become painfully obvious that the system is no longer working, and in fact, we no longer even have a democracy with both sides shamelessly rigging the system for their establishment candidates.
What we have now are two parties that pander to the wealthy and have created an oligarchy of the rich, and they simply play musical chairs with the Oval Office. If there’s anything that Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump might agree on, it is that the election system is no longer working. The fact that these polar opposites agree on speaks volumes to just how bad things have gotten in the political process.
The Democrats and Republicans have become like gangs of school children in the playground, where winning for “your side” has become more important than the welfare of the United States. And that applies to both sides of the political fence, although the GOP is taking it to new levels by refusing to even meet with President Barack Obama’s nominee for Supreme Court of the United States.
Actually, school children often show more maturity than the politicians currently in office.
We’ve started identifying ourselves geographically as “red” or “blue” states instead of the United States. You hear criticism of “tea party nuts” and “libtards” and other infantile displays of “us vs them.” That’s carried over from politicians to private citizens and created huge divides among the very people that should be sticking together.
The downward spiral of any kind of political civility or code of honor is nothing new, nor is our election process new, but this election has really brought to light how corrupt and how rigged it is on both sides.
The Republican Party wants a brokered convention so they can strip the nomination from Donald Trump. As horrific as it is to imagine Trump in the White House and having access to nuclear codes, the fact is, if he gains the most votes in the primary process, he should be the Republican nominee.
image: http://cdn.inquisitr.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Bernie-Sanders-and-bird-670×421.jpg
Bernie Sanders is the Democratic outsider candidate. [Photo by Natalie Behring/Getty Images]On the other side of the fence, the very organization that is supposed to uphold a fair primary process, the DNC, is doing everything in its power to crown Hillary Clinton as the nominee, including manipulating the process through the use of “superdelegates.” These are often politicians or wealthy citizens and civic leaders who are allowed to cast a vote any way they choose, regardless of who voters chose in that state, and they count as a delegate unto themselves.
Even DNC chairperson Debbie Wasserman Schultz admitted the superdelegates were in place to prevent a grassroots campaign from being competitive and possibly winning the nomination. How much more blatant can the rigging of our political system be? Her open admission proves that they think there’s actually nothing wrong with this kind of gaming of the process.
This campaign season, we’ve now had problems in the caucuses with accusations of Clinton’s campaign trying to steal caucuses with tactics such as telling Sanders supporters it was okay to go home when voting wasn’t finished. Another example is Iowa, where they asked for multiple recounts when Sanders won more delegates, trying to manipulate the final numbers by dragging out the process until many had to leave or gave up.
And then there was Arizona. First of all, reducing polling places so that many people had to wait in line for five or more hours simply to vote is ridiculous and voter suppression in itself. What is particularly disturbing is that many voters for this closed primary had their party affiliations changed to either no affiliation or independent, so they were unable to vote when they arrived at the polls. This smacks of straight-up cheating, with someone going in and changing records to suppress the Independent party vote. And we all know who that hurt the most in that primary.
There have also been accusations surfacing in New York that many voters had their party affiliation changed. So we’re probably going to have problems again in this extremely important New York primary, which is now down to a single digit gap in Democratic polls. You know, just like the single digit gap showing Clinton was ahead in Michigan, which she lost.
Why on earth would we even have any closed primaries where you can only vote if you are registered to one of the two major parties? Why would we have any rules that would in any way discourage people from voting?
Our political system has been so corrupted by party politics and gaming the system that it doesn’t even resemble a democracy in any way, shape, or form anymore. Enough is enough.
It’s time to abolish the party system altogether and get rid of delegates and superdelegates so that one person gets one vote and every vote counts equally, without weighing votes by the rich and powerful as representing hundreds to thousands of other voters with their one vote. Or, in the case of this election cycle — where superdelegates have said they refuse to follow the voters of their state and will vote for Hillary Clinton, regardless of whether Sanders won that state and by what margin — not representing the will of the people and the voters in the state.
The reason that Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders are doing so well on polar ends of the spectrum is because people are sick and tired of the farce of democracy and the bickering infants of both the Democratic and Republican parties.
They are also sick of the party establishment choosing either candidates who want to trample the Constitution by legislating their personal religion into laws, or are so corrupt and beholden to corporate interests they cannot possibly advocate for the working class and the majority of this country. In the minds of political party leaders, and in their game of “us vs them,” you’ll vote for whoever they put on a podium in your chosen color of blue or red, because they think you have no other choice.
image: http://cdn.inquisitr.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/donald-trump-and-supporters-670×442.jpg
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump [AP Photo/Frank Franklin II]Love them or hate them, both Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump have proven them wrong and have shown us that we do have a choice, that we do not have to accept these corrupt, unqualified candidates. Americans have been woken up by this election, and they are mad as hell.
The first thing we have to do is abolish the party system altogether. And I mean in an official capacity, although both parties are spiraling toward implosion with how they’re handling the primary elections.
We need to have one primary season for everyone, where one person’s vote counts equally for everyone else’s, and select either two or four final candidates to face off in the general election. I say two or four to make sure there’s an even number of candidates who lean right, as well as candidates who lean left, so that you don’t have say, two conservatives that split the votes and give the liberal an advantage, or vice versa. Make it a fair fight.
We need to do away with the delegates, and especially the superdelegates, as well as voting districts that politicians are always trying to redraw to favor one party or one candidate over the other.
The American people are sick and tired of the both the Democrats and Republicans gaming the system to nominate yet another politician beholden to billionaire interests that hurt the working class. And they think they can get away with throwing horrible choices like Hillary Clinton and Ted Cruz your way because they figure once they have a candidate, you’ll either just settle for who they crown as the nominee, or stay at home, which is actually what they prefer.
The two-party system of politics in the United States and the voting process are so broken our democracy is no longer that, but an oligarchy of the rich and powerful who are counting on you to stay silent and fall in line.
Don’t do it. Until we abolish the party system, vote them all out until they represent the interests of the majority and put country over party and personal greed. And after both party conventions, send them a message by switching to Independent.
[Photo by Darren Hauck/Getty Images]
Now Read This: It Is ‘Mathematically Impossible” For Ted Cruz To Win The GOP Nomination Before The Republican National Convention
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I feel betrayed by the system: I’m a member of the Green Party, but want desperately to vote for Bernie, so I reregistered Democrat so I can vote in our state of CA in June. I’ll go back to Green after the primary. I feel dirty as a Dem…
1) I’m annoyed that our huge state, that is the 9th largest economy in the *world* votes near last place. With some of the highest taxes in the nation (along with NY, FL, & TX) I feel a little cheated that we don’t really get a proportional say in the primaries. Most candidates are already out of the race by June. There’s no point to vote, so I’m relieved to hear Bernie say he’ll stay in the race until everyone gets a chance to vote.
2) if HRC gets the nomination, I have a lot of soul searching to do – I know it’s just “one vote” but this election it does matter. I would love to vote Jill Stein – another woman in the race!! – but voting 3rd party in the general election would likely hand the win to the GOP, and I’m not sure I’m ok with that.
3) if Donald Trump gets elected… I am excited to see the end of the party system. Our grandkids will study this in school and ask us what it was like in the dark days, before the open system was born. They’ll be astounded we survived, but probably more confused that we didn’t revolt sooner.
Bernie has pushed HRC farther left than she’s comfortable, Trump has pushed the GOP to its logical conclusion.
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The logical conclusion to which the GOP was headed was Ted Cruz. He is an idealogue and a proponent of fascism. He is as bought and paid for as is Hillary. He is a theocrat and an adsolutist. He has no vision beyond his own philosophy. Trump, on the other hand is a populist. He is not an idealogue. He is pragmatic. He is also more progressive than is Hillary on trade, military interventionism, the revolving door between industry and government, and is opposed to Wall Street owning the US government. He is demonized by the establishment because they have no hook in him and cannot control him.
I disagree with Donald Trump on almost every issue, but he is by far the better choice than is Hillary, both on policy and on strategy.
For all the ad hominems and bombast directed toward Hillary Clinton by the Republican field, on substantive issues of military belligerence and interventionism in the affairs of foreign countries, there is little difference between Hillary and the Republicans.
Same goes for such issues as political campaign financing, lobbyists, Wall Street, breaking up the too big to fail banks, and the appointment of industry hacks to departments, regulatory agencies, and even cabinet positions which oversee their very industries,
On most issues, such as immigration reform, women’s reproductive health, national healthcare, voting rights, expanding rights for the LGBT community, etc, Hillary is the far more attractive candidate to Democrats.
So, what’s the problem?
Apart from the power to appoint justices and judges, and to issue temporary executive orders, neither Hillary nor a Republican president can accomplish anything with a deadlocked Congress.
The Democrats are poised to retake the Senate in 2016. The Republicans are guaranteed to hold the House.
The Republican majority in the House of Representatives exists because Republicans controlled the majority of statehouses and governor’s mansions after the 2010 Census, and were able to reapportion Congressional Districts by the odious practice of gerrymandering (drawing district boundaries to ensure control by Republicans).
Congressional reapportionment occurs every ten years. The districts will not change until after the 2020 Census, which means Republicans will control the House until Hillary (or the Republican) seeks re-election for a second term.
Now imagine the political environment in which a President Hillary would lead the ticket in contests for state legislatures and governorships across the country, states that are must wins for Democrats if we are to control congressional reapportionment.
Even a popular president has limited coattails. But an unpopular one has virtually none.
Four years of a presidency that will be as stymied as has been Obama’s second term is unlikely to be popular in 2020. And defending an unproductive and unpopular incumbent will be a burden on both the president’s re-election and winning statehouses.
Basically, both the Republicans and the Democrats would likely do better in 2020 if they are not defending an incumbent president.
The Democrats will have the additional problem of having to defend Obama’s eight years in addition to Hillary’s four, and to make a credible case why Americans should extend Democratic control of the White House to a 16 year run, the longest run since it was held by FDR and Truman from 1932 to 1952.
If the Republicans keep a majority of chambers and governors, they will be able to draw Congressional districts which will give them control of the house for another decade.
If the Democrats run against a Republican incumbent in 2020, they will likely win the White House as well as ensure enough Democratic statehouse victories to end Republican gerrymandering of the House.
But the most important by-product of Hillary losing the presidential race to the Republican would be the opportunity afforded to Democratic progressives to take over the Democratic Party.
The Democratic Party has been controlled by Wall Street since Woodrow Wilson was president. Every Democratic president since has been a Wall Street Democrat.
On economic policy and support of Wall Street and corporate America, Wall Street Democrats are indistinguishable from Republicans. They are free to differ on social policies in which Wall Street has no stake, but they are in lock-step with the capitalists who finance both parties and control the government no matter who is in office.
A threat to that system is currently sweeping in from the left wing of the Democrats with the campaign of Bernie Sanders.
If Sanders manages to win the Democratic nomination and the presidency in 2016, the entire analysis above is invalid!
Sanders would have no more success than would Hillary in the face of a Republican controlled House, but Sanders’ presidency would be spent in furthering his political revolution, substantially growing the party with new young recruits, the disenfranchised poor and working poor, and re-invigorating leftists who have been frozen out of Democratic influence for decades.
A Sanders re-election campaign would be unlike any in recent memory. And it would bring out all those new, idealistic, and enthusiastic voters in 2020.
The difference between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders could not be more stark.
Hillary is a capitalist. Bernie is not.
While Hillary’s public pronouncements sound very much like Bernie’s, their political and economic differences are profound.
When push comes to shove, Hillary will back Wall Street and the oligarchy. She is one of them. She raises millions of dollars from them. Her husband was their president. Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, George W, and every president in modern times has appointed industry lobbyists and executives to positions in their administrations which oversaw those very industries.
There is no indication that Hillary would act differently. Her record certainly suggests that she is quite comfortable with Wall Street lobbyists.
Given that she has raised millions of dollars from Wall Street lobbyists, Monsanto, Big Oil, Big Banks, etc, it is reasonable to question her allegiances.
Sanders could change the future of the Democratic Party for generations. And would have a much better chance of securing the House for Democrats in 2020.
My choice for president in 2016 is Bernie Sanders.
I have no use for the Republicans, but abhorrent as they are, Hillary would be a worse choice for Democrats.
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Actually, you are right, and I missed articulating that point about Cruz. Trump’a role is merely to expose the GOP for what they are, the end product of which is the GOP turning to Ted Cruz.
Everything else: I absolutely agree. I got called a troll the other day on Facebook for saying Hillary is the best republican in the field, but you are right – there is little to no difference between her & their candidates. Why don’t more people see this?
My biggest worry about allowing a republican to win this election is the Supreme Court appointment… Though right now I’m enjoying the 4-4 deadlock on so many cases!!!
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I labored through this opinion piece because it is incredibly superficial. Someone might argue democracy was never more than an ideal yet to be achieved. Ignorance and apathy affect democracy. Some people want to be critical of those who represent us, yet have nothing to say about those who fail to participate in the process–and there are many.
Instead of telling us why the system is “rigged,” why not tell us what you envision for this country over the next fifty years. What responsibilities ought each citizen assume as he or she pursues a good life? and a good life isn’t about satisfying trivial, transitory tastes.
Given our fellowship with the rest of nature, is the introduction of more than two offspring by any individual irresponsible?
We over-value apparent goods, when our lives ought to be more focused on securing real goods and living a virtuous life.
The continued breeding of animals for possession isn’t virtuous. It is prejudicial.
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BEAUROCRACY AT IT’S FINEST, WE HAVE NO MORE DEMOCRACY OR DID WE EVER??
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this is BEAUROCRACY!! Why have 2 or 3 parties if they do not even understand what representation of the people means????? And as I have said all along, why vote if my vote doesn’t count?? And more corruption, super delegates, and delegates who can “choose” who “they want” and not who the people want??
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MASSIVE ELECTION FRAUD LAST NIGHT (APRIL 26, 2016). I wish I could post a picture of graphs posted within minutes of each other last night from ESSEX COUNTY. Bernie’s votes went “DOWN” 2400 and Hillary’s up 3600 in minutes — and of course a mathematical impossibility.
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