Here's why we have parties in the first place. In the U.S. we have a representative democracy. Each citizen has the right to vote for a government official to represent him in government deliberations and decision making. To gain more strength, an individual citizen may join an organization that more effectively represents all its members. 1000 citizens working together, have more democratic power than one citizen alone. A million citizens, geometrically more power. Organizations to boost the political strength of individual citizens are called parties.
Political parties, however, are not the only organizations that try to influence political decisions. All sorts of organizations - religious, ethnic, social, professional, charitable, union, business, international, etc. - poke their heads into the political arena. Which are the most representative of their members and thus should be more influential?
Homogeneous organizations tend to be more representative of their members than nonhomogeneous organizations. A prime example of a nonhomogeneous organization is a big corporation. The owners have goals different from the managers, which are completely different from the goals of employees. And yet we allow such businesses to represent all its members. And we have 2 big Business Parties, Republican and Democratic, to represent these businesses.
Where's the party of the People? Who represents the People? Ordinary People? People who belong to some of the many non-business organizations? People who are members of organizations that are more homogeneous than business organizations?
To achieve an optimum democracy, we cannot do better than to follow Abraham Lincoln, who told us that a true democracy consists of a government
Of the people, by the people and for the people.
- OF THE PEOPLE means Political Representation - Government should be a mirror image of all the different people comprising America. All the people.
- BY THE PEOPLE means Political Influence - All the people may vote. All the people may contact government officials to express their desires
- FOR THE PEOPLE means Political Benefits - All people should benefit, not merely the rich and big corporations
Lincoln did not talk about the need for more or less government, but of the quality of government. He did not emphasize business, but people. He was concerned about how government was run and for whom. He thought there should be several parties representing people. And we don't even have one.
Because businesses contribute so much campaign money, the Business Parties are entrenched. To make sure the rest of us - the vast majority of the country - get decent representation, we need a People Party. Only then will we be able to say that we have a government of the people, by the people and for the people.
Comment here.
