[Text updated 9/3/2021]
Lists are my favorite way to think through complex issues, share facts, obvious truths and to make suggestions.
I’d love your advice to learn where I’m wrong. I’m always the first to say that I made a mistake and will listen to or read your opinion.
This list seems solid to me, here goes:
It's clear that America has reached an impasse that requires a collective nationwide campaign to overcome.
Congress is not working for the American people and is blocking progress.
The two party system is a 19th century invention that is most often said to be the problem. It's merely a means to a logic-defying end.
The problem is that the two-party system has been used as a tool to devolve the Congressional chambers into a noisy, high-profile hive of self-professed do-gooders who do no good. Those prestigious rooms were once filled with ingenious humble freethinkers who represented the will of the people—American values. They are now seats filled with fist shaking warm bodies that each represent mocking and opposing ideals about the size of government.
For a period of time after the Korean War in the 1950s, when the downward spiral in Congress began, moderation was maintained by Congress People from each party who were mindful of a constituency who held onto American values as the standard for making policy decisions and setting priorities.
How has Congress devolved to a non-responsive institution, and how do we return to the times when moderation and true representation existed? At the very least when Congress seemed to progress frustratingly slow.
American People have only had a red or blue choice at the ballot box for two centuries.
The red or blue candidates are selected by a party controlled nomination process—Primaries.
Laws written by the parties while in power have allowed districts to be drawn that favored one party over the other.
The result of these factors is that fewer and fewer people have control over who we can vote for in a general election, and from those selected candidates, we choose a red or blue label.
Any election can only result in either the red or blue party having more seats in each chamber of Congress.
This doesn't match up with the true association with parties.
Half of American voters are not associated with a red or blue label.
The half of American voters associated with a party are split near even. Meaning 25% red and 25% blue. Not a majority.
Many of those affiliated voters have expressed discontent with lack of choices, feel disaffected and say their "party no longer speaks for" them.
Some voters are merely affiliated out of habit, tradition, sense of community or perhaps adopted from parents.
Black Americans associate strongly with the Democratic Party from a sense of community.
Unaffiliated and disaffected voters are the clear majority of Americans.
The counter intuitive misalignment of the red or blue party representing less than 25% of Americans, controlling a chamber of Congress makes Congress incapable of truly representing the American values and priorities of most Americans.
This gross mismatch of representation also makes it impossible to hold Congress, Congress People and Congressional leadership accountable to the American people.
That lack of accountability has made it possible for our elected officials to maintain collective relationships with lobbyists, campaign contributors and party leadership for 100% of consideration and party line voting.
Constituents, the public interest, has zero influence on whether policy succeeds or fails.
Summarily, the party with the most seats in a chamber of Congress is the majority.
- Just the fact that this skewed majority represents only 25% of Americans seems sufficient to prove that most Americans are unrepresented.
- In reality though, that 25% is not even represented.The Motive for Manipulating the System
- Majority representation is an illusion that gives Americans the perception that since a party is in control of the chamber, then the will of the American people is being represented.
- Control of a chamber is indeed the party goal.
- The party with the most seats in a chamber gives party leadership more leverage to control what policy is considered.
- The perception that the will of the people is being considered is skillfully prolonged through an artful narrative designed to exaggerate the resistance from the other party.
- The Consortiums of the party leaders, campaign donors, special interest, industry lobbyists and wealthy donors decide what policy to support or not support with an eye on the prize.
- The Jackpot couldn’t be higher. $4 Trillion a year we send the IRS and unlimited and unquestionable borrowing. The biggest cash cow in human history. Nothing else compare.Representatives are told how to vote, or on rare occasions OUR representatives are allowed to "vote their conscience".
Acting in the interest of the American people has no relationship to a Congressperson getting re-elected.
Representation of a Congressperson’s constituency is no longer a consideration. It’s feasible and affordable for Congress, Parties and even individual Congress People to make an Internet page or app available to at least learn the instant yea/nay position on any topic or bill. Yet none exists.
Congress People don’t have any control. Most are good people, and the call to public service is genuine. Yet, they’re caught up in a system. The system that awarded them a job and presented opportunities to prosper. They want to prolong that.
Unfortunately, to continue as a Congressperson, they must NOT do the job we selected them for, to provide representation.
During most of our lifetimes Congress devolved as the jackpot doubled every decade, new generations were raised in a bubble that knew nothing about the horrors that government control “for the common good” had caused.
Congress is a fine-tuned cottage industry where each party works with their respective consortium, that uses every possible tool to exert control.
The only services that parties provide are promises to fix America's problems.
Americans cling to their party's ideals, hoping it will succeed, or at least counteract the ideals of the "other" party. The cycle continues.
The cycle is endless because neither side fixes any problems. If party service is fixing problems, and Americans continue to vote on party ideals with no consideration of successful performance, then fixing problems would weaken a party's position.
Parties create problems, too, then claim to be the solution.
Parties are content to just not appear to lose, never concerned with winning.
Parties perpetuate the thinking that a vote for our party is a vote against the evil party.
There are extreme factions of each party. The extreme red and blue associates are vocal and earn the most focus from corporate news. Their affect and rancor are further fueled on social media.
Conflict between the vocal extremes has been seemingly detrimental to American society.
Ideals gleaned from successful efforts in the 19th and 20th century to divide people by any opposing label possible are indeed influencing Americans who have no knowledge of the misery, hopelessness and death that socialism and communism have caused.
In theory and on the surface, collective societies seem perfect. The mindset though, makes it possible for good people to do terrible things in the name of the common good.
The perception caused by extremes negatively labeling the "other side" makes it seem as though the other half of Americans are evil people. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Most Americans are good people, just trying to live their best lives and loving each other and doing the best for their communities.
It's clear that American values transcend party labels and that over half of Americans want a change to a truly representative Congress and government that serves most Americans, while preserving the rights of the few.
Party labels have no relevance for the American People since none of us are truly being represented.
Parties claim to represent some broad ideas of big government for the people versus a smaller government protecting our rights to succeed or fail on our own. That's what Americans hang their red or blue hats on. Reality proves otherwise.
The only relevance that party labels have is to guarantee each party's consortium is near equal in strength by barring any competition and maintaining the perception that Congress is working for the will of the people because we chose Congress People by label.
The red or blue candidates that we send to Congress participate as colorful pawns that vote the party line. It's on the record and in the news for all to see.
If the Republican Party stands for smaller government and fiscal responsibility, then it's the biggest failure of any association in human history. A government that establishes laws that obliges citizens to enrich the treasury by nearly $4 Trillion a yea without protecting expenditure with an innovative, fine-tuned budget, is neither small nor responsible.
If the Democratic Party stands for progress by extending more government services, then why are there a record 43 million Americans living under the poverty line in underserved communities across the land? Why are millions of children going to bed hungry every night? Why is this party so intent on casually indebting future generations for Trillions of dollars?
The number of impoverished people increases each year as the population grows by native birth and ungoverned immigration.
The ONLY obstacle for America to move forward and cure problems is a functional Congress.
We can overcome that barrier by attaching real meaning to any red or blue Congressional candidate's message.
Since the ideals behind party labels are hollow promises, then what harm could it do to claim association with one or the other?
A collective campaign like the one we're proposing here could set a standard that Congressional candidates could commit to and demonstrate their commitment to taking Congress back and give us true representation.
A majority of red or blue Congress People must be replaced with Americans who will commit to the "affordable priorities" of most Americans, while championing the rights of the few.
Replacing Congress People with humble public servants dedicated to representing Americans and American values will make Congress work for us.
The effort can all be done within the current structure and rules if most Americans take into consideration the real intent of a Congressional candidate's request to serve us. Are they going to Washington DC to fill a seat, parrot their party's narrative and vote party line? Or are they going there committed to a standard that we set before each Congressional election cycle? Will they represent us?
The two party system is a 19th century relic that needs a 21st century retrofit that gives party labels real meaning. The infamous sounding, "if you like your party, you can keep your party" will hopefully age well. Perhaps that hope can extend to a red and blue party with slightly different ideals about how to progress the "affordable priorities" of most Americans, preserve equality of the few and perpetuate American values into policy that helps States succeed and all Americans prosper.
A final question remains that may determine what speed we proceed. Rampart Caucus is proposing a plan that will eventually arrive at a Congress that represents most Americans. How impatient have the American people become? Can we wait for an eventual solution? Or, will the rallying voice of American dissatisfaction call for an immediate no confidence overhaul of the US Congress?
Time will tell.
If you've read this far and you're still not convinced that voting by a red or blue party label is a pointless act, then feel free to cast your vote for a hollow and decaying ideal perpetuated by the system. Now and always your opinion will be valued by the majority.
Let's Add Meaning to Party Labels