Political parties dominate American politics – But they hardly represent the will of the people.
The Short Version:
- Political parties are a hinderance to America’s Democracy.
- Studys have shown that policy in America doesn’t reflect the desires of everyday people. In fact, which policy is passed or not is largely independent of the opinions of the average American. This is due to corruption that is easily enabled by political parties.
- When America’s system becomes heavily polarized, it incentivizes inaction by elected official. Passing legislation that helps the opposing party doesn’t provide any benefits to the party itself.
- Political parties focus on division as a suppression tactic. As average people focus more on disagreements with their neighbors, they ignore congresses’ inaction on anything but their own interests.
- Fixing our partisan issues will require societal and potentially systematic changes. We can start by encouraging others to break away from political fanaticism and focus on issues.
Politics dominates American life. Most people hate it, but it’s part of living in a democracy. In high school, I had a US Government class where we learned about and discussed political issues. I always thought I enjoyed discussing ‘issues,’ but not ‘politics.’ That’s a misnomer though. What I mean was I like discussing political issues, but not partisan issues.
Political parties are gridlock of traffic on the freeway of democracy. Sure, political parties have fun colors, fancy logos, insults for the ‘other guys,’ entire media networks dedicated to spreading their message… and they make filling out your ballot a lot easier. But is our party-centric system actually fixing problems? Not just the partisan ones, but the ones we all agree on?
I’d say no, because they are too busy looking out for themselves.
Politicians don’t actually do what we want
Before I get started, I want to clarify that a blanket statement like “all politicians aren’t working for the country!” isn’t what I am trying to get at here. There are plenty of very sincere people who got into politics to help the country and make positive changes. Especially at a more local level. My critique isn’t of any individual, but on the political party system of politics and how it allows inefficient governance.
But seriously, if ending bad governance was as simple as ‘vote out the bad candidates,’ then we wouldn’t need to vote for Donald Trump in order to ‘drain the swamp.’ We could do it all ourselves! America’s democratic system isn’t set up to allow voters to drain the swamp. But it works great for party politics and special interest groups. Unfortunately addressing systematic changes is a bit beyond the scope of this post. I want to focus on how the parties are the problem, not the solution.
Most people don’t believe that congress represents what The People actually want. But if you were to guess, what percent do you think legislation aligns with the public interest? 60%? 30%?
Based on research by Martin Gilens and Benjamin Page, public opinion has almost no impact on legislation. The paper examines nearly 1800 cases of policy change and which groups supported those policies. The researchers attempted to determine which group had the greater influence on public policy. They compared different group’s support for policy change and whether the change was implemented.
The groups considered were average citizens (opinions of citizens earning median income), economic elites (opinions of citizens in the top 90% of earners), and special interest groups. In reviewing the policy preferences of these groups, the researchers found that average and upper class citizens tended to have similar policy views. This was not true for the interest groups, which rarely correlated with average citizen’s preferences.
The figure from the research really says it all. It shows that even when a policy was strongly supported by the average citizen the odds of it being implemented was similar to if no one supported it. In the image, the black line indicates how likely the policy passed. More people support measures on the right of the graph. Compare that to the economic elites and special interest groups. You can see how their support correlates to the odds of passing legislation.
Since economic elite preferences align with average preferences about 67% of the time, many of the policies passing aren’t disagreeable. But that doesn’t mean you have a say in your country, just that you are fulfilling your role as a pawn admirably.
There isn’t incentive for parties to make change
Party based politics limits incentive for change. There’s the prevalent idea that an incumbent candidate will need to have a solid voting record or they will be easy to oust. While this may sound true at first glance, it doesn’t pan out in reality. The only time this would really matter is in the primaries. The proverbial ‘swing voter’ doesn’t really exist, so when it comes to the general election, unless the incumbent has really messed up, the voters are likely to follow party lines. Rather than being punished for a poor voting record, usually it isn’t even mentioned.
Why would this incentivize inaction? There are some valid reasons for parties to avoid fixing issues. This doesn’t mean individuals will be directly swayed to inaction, or even recognize why they aren’t taking action. But when a system provides clear benefits for inaction, even subconscious compliance should be expected.
One incentive for inaction involves the president. The president and his party get the credit for any impactful changes that happen. Bipartisan legislation happens, but can you imagine a solution to a big ticket issue passing and the president not getting most of the credit? If congress were to reform healthcare so most of the country benefited, the president and his party would have a big advantage in the next election. When it isn’t your party in charge, supporting beneficial changes isn’t actually helpful. That’s not to say it doesn’t happen, just that there is a fundamental flaw with how the system works. If party lines weren’t all that mattered, maybe that incentive wouldn’t exist.
To go along with that, if congress were to solve all the problems they talk about each election, how would they attain your vote in the next election? Political parties are so good at keeping hold of problems that even their solutions won’t solve the problem.
How often is immigration brought up as a talking point in a debate, but the solution is to either build a wall or give anyone amnesty? Neither of those solutions actually solve the root problem of having a system that is incapable of meeting the immigration demand. Student loans and college costs are large problems facing the country. But the idea of forgiving every loan isn’t really fair nor does it fix the root problem.
I don’t have any evidence to prove politicians conscientiously consider these reasons. But there is evidence they don’t get much done, and I can see why. Along with spending most of their time campaigning, fixing problems doesn’t even garner reelection points.
This problem seems less pronounced the smaller the government gets. Your local city council is unlikely to gridlock on local issues. Unfortunately, national forces have a pretty large say over what goes in a city, even if the local residents all agree.
Political Parties divide to subjugate
The Roman Empire was almost continually threatened by barbarians throughout their existence. The Gaulic tribes, located in modern day Germany, were chief among these. In the height of the Empire there was a period of unusual peace along a border that was typically rife with conflict.
How did the Romans achieve this peace? It wasn’t their prosperity, past victories, or mighty military that kept the Gauls subjugated. The Gauls had revolted while all of those were true in the past. The key was pitting the Gauls against each other. The Empire would play favorites with different chieftains, giving some positions of authority and generous benefits. Even though all of the tribes were subjugated, some were less so, and began to ally themselves with Rome. The separated tribes were no match for Rome’s might. Only when they were united were they strong.
Political parties and the media machines they respectively control do this to the utmost today. It isn’t enough to discredit ideas. Dehumanizing the entire opposition automatically discredits anything they say, no matter how valid. Referring to people as ‘rednecks’ or ‘libtards’ doesn’t really claim, “I respect that this person has experiences I may not understand. I might not agree with their ideas, but that doesn’t make them less valid.” I’m not saying you have to accept everyone’s ideas, or that all ideas are equally informed or thought out. But every idea is held by a human for a human reason.
Far more insidious in recent years is a push to fear anyone who doesn’t agree with your politics. I can’t forget the clip from the last election of Glenn Beck where he said to his audience, in effect, “The people who hate Trump don’t hate just him. They actually hate you.” The blatant disregard for public discourse and safety is astounding in that quote. And it isn’t remotely true. Most people disliked Trump for his brash attitudes, actively divisive commentary, and deep narcissism. Not to mention he was the president and wielded significant control over the country and by extension everyone’s lives. The idea that people who hated Trump for his attitudes would hate people who don’t exemplify those attitudes is nonsense.
Likewise, many people who voted for Trump did so because he was the party pick. As the GOP has become more radical over the years many of the rank and file have had to choose to either leave the party or improve their mental gymnastics. Still, even when they know Trump is dangerous, what other choice do they have? A party they have never trusted? One they believe is out to destroy the country?
None of this is helped by social media, where your friends and allies are hand picked and algorithm sorted. Posts are radical and one sided. Meanwhile your neighbors and community have less and less connection. Suddenly, a flag down the street is a symbol of danger, a broadcast threat rather than just a personal stand. Why? Well the comments online indicate people with that flag want to fight your family and take your freedoms. Meanwhile, the party politicians fuel the flame while passing legislation that benefits the top wealth in the country.
In America we have one party with two heads. The heads scream at each other to convince voters that ‘the others’ will destroy the country if they win. The more polarized the options, the better. I don’t know about you, but I’ve never met anyone who actually agrees with everything the polar opposite parties do. Only a fully gamified and manipulative system could make such radical ideas sound plausible.
But this doesn’t define your neighbors. You might be impressed how much your actual concerns align with the average American, from both parties.
Next Steps
It’s easy to point out problems, and you’ve surely noticed them before. But how can we improve what we have? How can we pull party politics out of our system and support a process less gridlocked on issues that most people agree on?
I’ve expressed why political parties don’t help the average voter. Personally, I don’t mind people taking different stands on different issues. My goal is to pull people out of their love affair with an abusive party that is only using them for votes. You’ll still have your opinion, but it can be based on facts, gathered from multiple sources. The usual things you’d expect for educated voting.
Just doing that isn’t enough though. America will only move away from party fanaticism if we help by pointing out what is wrong with it.
Democracy is great because it spreads political power between the most people. If people are sovereign, they can guarantee their rights. If we trade our right to vote for party rule, then we really shouldn’t go into business. There couldn’t be a worse trade. Parties only care about themselves. The parties work in perfect tandem when passing laws to help themselves or their rich buddies. It wasn’t the other party or the lamestream media stopping your party from draining the swamp or setting up a competent healthcare system. They never cared about any of that anyways.
Politics is always complicated. The country is full of different people with different beliefs. But I believe that rather than going into our shells and opposing anything that is different, we can live together in relative harmony. Once we recognize that we are all human and we all rely on each other this becomes much easier. But we will never recognize that when embroiled in partisan politics.
Along with sharing this message with your friends, I would recommend checking out Represent.Us. Represent Us works on changes to our system to lessen the impact of party politics and influence group impact.
They are a bipartisan group with the goal of ending corruption in politics. Their focus is political reforms to make elections more representative of the individual. They also work to pass legislation to reduce the impact of lobbyists and special interest groups in politics. If you really believe in the sanctity of a country that embraces democratic rule, then you should check it out and see what you could do to help.
Thank you for reading!
Citation / Credits
“Burning Capitol Party” is a derivative of several works comprising “US Capitol” by keithreifsnyder; “Republican Elephant – Icon” and “Democrat Donkey – Icon” by Donkey Hotey, licensed under CC BY 2.0.
Great first post. Keep it up!