Right now Americans are very unhappy with their government. Conservatives are terrified that the Obama administration will bring in a totalitarian government while progressives wonder what happened to that nice, well-spoken man they elected to stop government corruption, end the war, and bring an end to the Orwelian tone the Bush administration brought to our government.
The average American is frustrated because they feel no one represents their interests. Large corporations finance the only two political parties that stand a chance in our current government election system. Most Americans get their news and and political information on television stations financed by large corporations. Americans can vote but they can't tell their representatives how to vote because their representative is too busy talking to lobbyists from the large corporations that financed their campaign.
A clever false dichotomy has been constructed in the political conversation that we see on television. Social issues and cultural wars are in the center of the political conversation fed to us by corporate news networks. But the problems in our government and society have more to do with fiscal and taxation policy than any moral or social issues. Our government taxes the middle class to pay for programs that benefit large corporations, pollute our environment and destroy local economies. Of course the major news networks do not want to tell us this because they make a profit off of this system. So it is in their best interest to focus our political consciousness on trivial, emotional issues and trivial and emotional arguments rather than to have a substantive discussion on issues that have a profound effect on our economies and lives.
Now the average American gets fed up with one political party and switches to the other (i.e. this George Bush asshole is screwing us, I'm going to vote for Obama.) But not much changes because both political parties receive money from the same large corporations (GE makes sure we go to war no matter who's in charge, Monsanto makes sure they make money on food by screwing farmers no matter who's in charge, etc.) Sure there's some third parties you can vote for but then you're just "throwing your vote away."
The problem with third parties is there are just too many for the winner-take-all voting system in this country. On the left there is the Green Party, The Socialist Party, The Communist Party USA, The Socialist Workers Party, the list probably goes on. And on the right there's the Libertarian Party, the Constitutional Law Party, the newly forming Tea Party, and my personal favorite, the Guns and Dope Party. That last one, while not having the most marketable name in current mainstream politics, represents the key to reforming our governmental system. Founder, author, and sometime California gubanatorial candidate, Robert Anton Wilson thought that dopers and gun nuts had a lot in common but inconsequential social differences kept them apart. Politically, however, they both want the same thing: to be left alone. Now maybe not that many people want legal heroin and AK-47's but a lot of people on the right and left do want the same thing.
There was a lot of public outrage on both the right and left over the Bush and Obama bailouts. People were very angry that their tax dollars were being used to create a welfare program for the richest 3%. Conservatives don't like welfare in general and most working class Liberals are not fans of corporate welfare. The Health Care Bill, while lauded by some on the left, is reviled by many for creating more corporate welfare, this time on behalf of big pharmaceutical companies. Many large corporations could not exist without some sort of government aid. So they are financed by us, the taxpayers, yet all of their profits go to the individual shareholders of the company.
If we are to curb government spending that benefits the very rich than everyone who is not very rich must work together to bring down the two party corporate controlled system we have. We need to have one reform party with a narrow national agenda focused on ending government handouts and programs that benefit big corporations. While a few members of the Republican and Democratic Parties are sympathetic toward this goal, the RNC and DNC never will be. Their beuracracy feeds on the money of large corporate donors. Without large corporate contributions many of the political operatives within these two parties would be out of a job. The only way to get money out of politics is to kill these two antiquated parties.
In 2012 we need one nationwide reform party with a moderate platform for reforming our election process, scaling down corporate welfare, ending government subsidies for pollution, expanding freedom of information, and repealing recent laws that have robbed us of many freedoms. An extensive primary process would be necessary for this party to work so that all various factions felt included and represented. This would need to be the only party on the ticket aside from the major two; ideally bringing together such "disparate" personalities as Pat Buchanan, Ralph Nader, Ron Paul, Noam Chomsky, the list goes on and you get the idea.
For congressional candidates, local primaries would have to elect candidates who could compete with the mainstream parties. For example conservative districts would elect a conservative reformer to run against the Republican while liberal districts would elect a liberal reformer to run against the Democrat. The presidential primary would be tricky. Optimally a moderate would be chosen to run. Instant runoff voting, where primary voters rate candidates would be the best system. But a winner-take-all system probably wouldn't keep everyone united. If the various factions (i.e. Green Party, Libertarians, Socialists, Constitutionalists) each chose representatives to serve on the cabinet and the entire administration was chosen before the general election this could keep the various factions feeling as though each were represented and involved in the new government.
Such a disparate group may not agree on much. That is why the first priority of the reformers must be election reform. The goal here is not to establish a long running political party but to fix the system so that a plurality, not a duality, of parties can govern America. The first step would be to establish instant runoff voting or scheduled runoff elections for The House and the President. My proposal would be that the Senate be switched to a body elected by proportional representation. For example if 20% of Americans vote for the Libertarian party then 20 Libertarians would serve in the Senate. This would get rid of regional representation in the Senate, which some may find valuable. However, much government waste is caused by the regional influences in the Senate. For example, California Senator Barbara Boxer constantly votes to build more F-22 fighter jets even though the Air Force says they don't need or want them because the factory that builds them is in California and this brings our tax dollars into her district. Also "bridges to nowhere" get inserted in legislation. These wastes on local pork projects would be eliminated by a Senate elected by proportional representation. Federal government subsidies of large corporations hurt small businesses and lead to a larger gap between rich and poor. We've always had corporate welfare but back in the 50's rich people were taxed 90% of their income. So it kind of (but not really) made sense to have these programs. Really though, these programs are counter to the free market and everything America should stand for. Eliminating them has been a priority for people on both the left (Dennis Kucinich) as well as the right (Ron Paul.) Yet most representatives in both parties take donations from huge corporate donors and write and vote for laws that benefit large corporations. Upending the system and eliminating expensive elections would free representatives from this trap.
This revolution may be partially televised. But if a movement like this is to ever be successful, it must rely on nontraditional media. We need to use media that we can control. The Tea Party has relied too heavily on traditional media and, as a result, they now look more like the "crazy" wing of the Republican party than any serious reform movement. Fox News Corp has tried to act as the mouthpiece of the Tea Party, infuriating many of the libertarian founders. People like Glen Beck and Sarah Palin turn the focus away from government waste on military, prison, and bank bailouts and focus on hatred of Obama. This makes it easy for the more liberal networks to characterize the Tea Party movement as racist and extremist. The more principled and reasonable voices of the Tea Party are not given as much of a voice. Any reform movement in this current political climate must be careful to represent the interests of a majority of Americans and to realize that their message will never reach people via the traditional media which is controlled by the very financial interests whose power we wish to diminish.
Of course the internet is a powerful tool but not everyone uses the internet. Street canvasing can reach many people that the internet can not. In many large cities the independent print media may prove to be our most powerful ally. Word of mouth will also be an important tool. Unfortunately it is sometimes hard to talk about politics without offending people in American culture. This combined with America's short attention span and addiction to corporate controlled television makes it extremely difficult for real political change to occur. Our opponents control their medium as well as the message. Television appeals so strongly to emotions that people often don't even think about politics, they react. A sort of conscious evolution or paradigm shift is necessary. This is not to sound fatalistic. People need to push this change. And the internet could bring about as radical a change as the printing press if used correctly. We need to convince people to start reading and reasoning and blowing up their televisions and voting for a third party.
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