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Speculations on a third party are wasted. We already have one. The mumbling majority party is the greatest political force in America.
John Kennedy once offered a message of indictment to this defacto third party, “There are risks and costs to action. But they are far less than the long range risks of comfortable inaction.”
If we don’t have the juice to keep our existing parties from floundering, it’s naive to believe we have the capacity to build a better new one. We have the parties we’re earning.
The first priority of all political entities, and indeed all organizations, is self-preservation. Minus safeguards, that dedication is toxic. One path to organizational health is the purposeful embrace of transparency, honesty, and accountability as core values. Very few groups have such courage or character. That’s especially true for governmental agencies, crony capitalists, subjugating socialists, and political parties. Even if a third party was established, per our current social model, it would immediately prioritize self-service.
American humorist Josh Billings prophetically summed up today’s Democratic Party, “Some people are so addicted to exaggeration that they can’t tell the truth without lying.” Donkey pitchmen replay their own propaganda so much they’ve lost touch with Mother Nature’s four cornerstones – reality, reason, responsibility, and right. Lose touch with those and you’re doomed to lose everything.
Obama’s promise of hope and change is nothing new. For years his party’s championed the idea that dependency on the least reliable force in the universe – politicians – is a good thing. This contaminated self-preservation tactic condemns the donkey to extinction.
Republicans were thoroughly stripped of their authenticity during the Bush years. Pretend conservatives squandered the opportunities found in holding the presidency, house, and senate for six years. W’s replacement was right about inheriting a mess, but conveniently forgets volunteering, promising the moon, and then making everything worse.
Salvaging the elephant rests on local Republican organizations making sure their party stands for something people can count on and publicly grading the match between their elected official’s words and actions. Anything less is fluff.
Attracting the mumbling majority is important, but not by compromising principles. Republicans libeled as right-wing extremists must remember Alice’s experience in Wonderland. In a crazy world, common sense can appear extreme. We serve America best by standing as an island of sanity sense in a sea of chaos. The muddled middle will swim for something they can count on.
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