Political Parties, Redux

Political Parties

   Has this ever happened to you? One day you look at something that has always been a part of your world and suddenly you discover, hey, why I am still using this? For example, a short time ago I looked at my landline telephone and then at my cell phone and said; why do I have my old telephone hanging on the wall when I have a personal telephone in my pocket? All I ever get from the old telephone is unsolicited calls from the FOP and roofing contractors, so why am I still paying for this thing? So I discontinued the telephone service that has been a part of my life for over #?X!** years and I have not missed the old ring-a-ding thing at all.

    There are a number of other things like the telephone that could be used to make the point, but I think we all understand that we make similar changes every day as circumstances allow and dictate. The point being that time marches on and technology, modern circumstances, personal preferences, etc., all play a role in changing what we need in the modern world to either get along or make life easier. After I wrote the piece, “The Decline and Fall of the GOP”, I suddenly thought, who needs political parties in this day and age anyway? Think about it. What is the purpose of a political party in a Democratic Republic?  

      Perhaps in the old days a political party could provide a needed service to the electorate by distilling a political philosophy into every day terms that could be more readily understood by the people. The party could then promote a doctrine that reflected the stated political philosophy and take positions that a citizen could either support or oppose. Well that was then and this is now and the fact is that people nowadays have much more educational opportunities than was available in the good old days and we all should be wiser about all things political as a result.

    Also, in the good old days, communications was either by word-of-mouth or newspapers, but today we are completely overwhelmed by information coming in from every direction, constantly. So there is no reason on this beautiful blue planet why anyone should not be informed as to what is going on in the world and this knowledge should provide us with all of the wherewithal required to make informed judgments and vote accordingly. So why do we still need political parties telling us what they want us to hear? As a matter of fact, the two party system now entrenched in our political system is more interested in providing misinformation and spin in order to stay in power rather than actually providing an objective political service to the electorate.

    What the hell, we might as well call a rose a rose; the ruling political parties are corrupt and you cannot believe one word they say. So I say; we don’t need no stinking political parties anymore, let them go the way of the telephone! Let’s all become Independents and trust our own judgments rather than let the self-serving political parties lead us to where they want us to go. Enabling technologies and modern times provides us all with the means to be completely independent, and for goodness sakes, now is the time to do so. This is something we can actually do, and by so doing, it (become Independents) could well be the first meaningful step by the people to take back control of our country. Think about it. I can’t imagine a more freedom-enhancing situation than having a completely Independent electorate guiding the country.