I know, I know. Fat chance, right? Maybe. My inner H.L. Mencken tells me those in power will continue to push the buttons on voters to keep themselves in power and that the national dialogue will persist in feeling like a constant flipping of channels between MSNBC and Fox News. Until things really get bad and the electorate demands change at the ballot box.
But something else might happen, something that’s happened before in other countries and at other times when the conditions were right. Let’s say Congress and the president continue to fight, Europe tanks, China tanks. The unemployment rate goes way up; poverty and misery deepen, and to an increasing number of Americans, the two-party system is a failure. Along comes someone who says they can fix it. Maybe this person and his or her allies stoke the flames of resentment, or maybe they just say they know what to do to make it better and won’t let anyone stand in the way of their pure and selfless intentions. Elections are characterized as pointless affairs, as they are already bought off. Only they, motivated solely by the good of the nation, can be trusted to run things. All we have to do to have the kind of country we deserve is believe, and do as they suggest. Soon, suggestions will become orders. Those who speak up or ask questions will be labeled villains and removed from society as impermissible disruptions. If this new order makes things better for enough people, those who do as they’re told will hail the leaders as saviors and leap to amend the Constitution to make things more efficient for the “good guys.” What we have then won’t be a democracy and it sure as hell won’t be rational. But the trains will run on time.
That’s the real danger of the failure of the two-party system. That another kind of third party — powered by a growing sense of despair that Democrats, Republicans or both working together can do the job — will muscle its way in, with the malevolent goal of making America a one-party system. Whether through the rational party described above coming into existence and winning support or through voters holding our current leaders to a much higher standard, somehow, some sense of hope has got to be rekindled in this country. If hope does die, lord knows what spectres will creep from its tomb.
I cursed Green Party candidate Ralph Nader back in 2000 and 2004, as I felt he was the cause of our 8 years of hell with George W. Seems to me that until there is a party or a candidate that presents us with something drastically different from the usual Democrat or Republican party lines, that this is what will happen (i.e., the 3rd party candidate will be too similar to either the republican or the democratic candidate. I yearn for a viable third (or more) party. It is time that we started seeking better alternatives than our current system. However, when I look at the numerous candidates presented on Egypt’s ballot (“I voted for the soccer ball!”), I’m not so sure that “more” is better.