Take back the parties
Dear Editor:
The Morgan Messenger editorial of March 3 — “Did Washington See It All Coming?” — cites his 1796 Farewell Address as a case against political parties. Washington argued that they lead to a spirit of factionalism and regionalism instead of “the national interest.” Washington thus predicts our present crisis.
In fact, political parties arose because different coalitions of interests have different views of the “national interest.” Parties, Federalist and Republican, were established by Washington’s advisors (Hamilton and Madison) to organize competing policy visions to achieve majority rule. Parties, however dysfunctional today, have been a voice for the people and a check on permanent majorities.
In a large republic, political parties have been the principal way to establish congressional majorities, elect presidents and change policies. Parties helped end slavery and usher in the New Deal. Parties, when they function well, serve democracy.
Today, our parties are dysfunctional because partisans on the Right and Left respectively dominate them. Why is this so? Gerrymandering of districts into safe ideological seats is one reason. But another is the exodus of moderates from both parties into the camp of the independents.
When The Messenger touts the rising tide of “independents” as a sign of political health, it ignores how independents contribute to today’s morass. By their exodus from parties, independents cede the parties to the extremes, giving them no way to reconcile national political differences, overcome factionalism and practice consensus building. Instead parties play to their base and then sell themselves to special interests to finance chasing those vote-shifting independents around election time.
Some independents are non-voters. Others pay little attention to politics. Pandering to their shifting whims is rampant. Independents who know better should be joining political parties and shifting the balance of power and interests within them toward the center.
The alternative route of third parties has a sorry history. They never achieve majority status and often produce distorted election results. Rather than accept responsibility for this, “My way or the highway” independents feel they are free of political taint having avoided compromise and adjustment. But that is the lifeblood of politics.
I agree with The Messenger that “a lot of people feel in their guts that it’s time for some new imaginings.” Reality suggests we need to take back our political parties. I encourage those who lean one way or the other to make a push from the inside. It’s messy but so is democracy.
Jerry Berman
Great Cacapon
