Let's ditch the Parties!

Should I scream? Should I cry? Should I do both? Maybe I should crawl into a hole in hopes that when I come out all will be well. Alas, it is an exercise in futility I fear, my head is spinning and as a result I fall to my knees and begin to pray passionately. I pray that there can truly be some change realized in this country that we live in. Who is truly looking out for the rank and file American? I am fearful that the crinkle and the pungent smell of the dollar bill drowns out any rational thought of patriotism and thusly Americans looking out for Americans, the only truth is that the people that we have entrusted to represent us will look out for themselves in the quest to procure the Almighty dollar, we are in two party system where the players of it that do nothing but play a perpetual never ending game of ‘gotcha'. Political parties and the American system were seen by many of the Founding Fathers as a recipe for trouble.

 "It serves to distract the Public Councils, and enfeeble the Public Administration....agitates the Community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms; kindles the animosity of one....against another....it opens the door to foreign influence and corruption...thus the policy and the will of one country are subjected to the policy and will of another." These are prophetic words, not uttered by myself, but from George Washington 211 years ago in 1796.

This is the very reason that George Washington warned us in his Farewell Address of the danger of political parties. Realistically speaking parties are here to stay and aren't going anywhere, but with that being the case lets take a critical look at them if we could. With there being two parties that control everything is that really the ideal situation? The common theme between Democrats and Republicans and the political duopoly is that money speaks louder than the American populace; in short, there can be no good from the infusion of the money into politics. Is entertaining the thought of public financing of our elections really a bad idea? What do we have to lose? Don't we owe it to ourselves to think outside of the box?

Many will say that it infringes on the freedom of speech, but with the wealthy having the benefit of being wealthy why should they have the market cornered on the levers of government via lobbying groups and the bankrolling of assorted candidates? It should be power in numbers, rather than it being power in the number of greenbacks propping up or financing a campaign or candidate. Does wealth mean that someone is more inclined or capable that someone to lead, that someone who doesn't have that proverbial silver spoon?

The righteous indignation from the left and the right is maddening at best, because it is all a tiring cycle that never seems to stop. Most recently the Democratic Party won both houses of Congress with a mandate from the public to reel in the excesses of the previous Congress and bringing some resolution to the conflict in Iraq. They waxed poetically about stopping the war, bringing the troops home, reuniting them with their families and ridding Congress of the "culture of corruption", some the issues that the Democrats are having second thoughts about are the following:

• Requiring lobbyists to disclose details about large donations they arrange for politicians.
• Making former lawmakers wait two years, instead of one, before lobbying Congress.
• Barring lobbyists from throwing large parties for lawmakers at national political conventions.

The high profile parties that are convened by lobbying groups skirts the law and they often spiral into the realm of thousands of dollars, buttering our public servants up with alcohol, bringing in live music and the after its all over the content of the next conversation the following day, weeks or months is "So... How about that party in Washington DC? Good, I'm glad you enjoyed it... Now about that bill pending in committee..."

I guess all of that talk was election year pillow talk, but when will we begin to hold our public servants accountable for the things that they say? Is it easier to forget about what we've been told only to have it happen again within the next couple of election cycles? There is so much suspense building up for the Presidential election in 2008. The Democrats are still grumbling that Ralph Nader is at fault for giving the election to George W. Bush in 2000. The true of the matter is that votes are earned not owned, meanwhile the are Republicans walking in lockstep in hurling assaults at Hillary Clinton possibly being the most horrid human being on the entire planet, it is laughable at best especially when looking at the controversies that have burdened both parties, which screams of us needing a third political party or at least citizen politicians versus career politicians in acknowledgement that power corrupts.

Rehashing some of the great scandals always brings tears to my eyes and certain hoarseness to my voice. One of my favorites (insert sarcasm) is the Savings and Loan scandal. Quiet is kept; we "the taxpayers" are still paying for it. The S&L scandal holds the distinction of being the largest act of public larceny in American history the ultimate cost of the scandal totaled out at about $150 billion dollars of that $125 billion of that amount was subsidized by the government, this was a component of the budget deficits that we experienced in the early part of the 1990's. The scandal came about with the deregulation of the S&L's during the Reagan administration, the result was that restrictions were eased so much that owners were able to lend themselves money...

As a side note many of the people involved in the S&L debacle walked away without so much as a smack on the hand, including Neil Bush (brother of the president) who ran the Silverado savings and loan into the ground to the tune of $1.6 billion dollars in three years and the rest as they say is history! Or another doozy is The Congressional Post Office Scandal, which implicated U.S Rep. Dan Rostenkowski (D-IL) and Joe Kolter (D-PA) where they conspired to launder post office money through the use of stamps and postal vouchers. More recently is the investigation of William Jefferson (D-LA) for accepting bribes to arrange deal for tech companies in Nigeria-when the FBI searched his home $90,000 was found in his freezer.

There is so much static and distortion in our everyday lives that it is a struggle to focus on one thing at a time. Such pressing issues as the pending winner on "Dancing with the Stars" someone else getting eliminated on American Idol, or the girl that everyone hates on "The Bachelor" that I heard a client talking about at work today. Are we really content with politics as usual or are we going to make some changes of our own making? The first step should be looking at the candidates that truly have nothing to lose (Paul, Gravel, Kucinich) voting for a candidate simply because we're told that they're a front runner or because they receive the lion's share of the coverage is the true waste of a vote. 2008 should be the year that the American electorate awakens from its collective slumber and thinks outside the box.