No Party, No Government
Hi! Happy Thursday!
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An excerpt from The Hitchhicker's guide to the Galaxy*
Chapter 36*No lizards were harmed in the making of this blog posting; further my sincere apologies for implying lizards are in any way as slimy as politicians.**
The flying saucer in which Ford Prefect had stowed away had stunned the world [and] there marched from it, down the ramp, an immense silver robot, a hundred feet tall.
It held up a hand.
"I come in peace," it said, adding after a long moment of further grinding, "take me to your Lizard."
Ford Prefect, of course, had an explanation for this, as he sat with Arthur and watched the non-stop frenetic news reports on the television, none of which had anything to say other than to record that the thing had done this amount of damage which was valued at that amount of billions of pounds and had killed this totally other number of people, and then say it again, because the robot was doing nothing more than standing there, swaying very slightly, and emitting short incomprehensible error messages.
"It comes from a very ancient democracy, you see..."
"You mean, it comes from a world of lizards?"
"No," said Ford, who by this time was a little more rational and coherent than he had been, having finally had the coffee forced down him, "nothing so simple. Nothing anything like so straightforward. On its world, the people are people. The leaders are lizards. The people hate the lizards and the lizards rule the people."
"Odd," said Arthur, "I thought you said it was a democracy."
"I did," said Ford. "It is."
"So," said Arthur, hoping he wasn't sounding ridiculously obtuse, "why don't people get rid of the lizards?"
"It honestly doesn't occur to them," said Ford. "They've all got the vote, so they all pretty much assume that the government they've voted in more or less approximates to the government they want."
"You mean they actually vote for the lizards?"
"Oh yes," said Ford with a shrug, "of course."
"But," said Arthur, going for the big one again, "why?"
"Because if they didn't vote for a lizard," said Ford, "the wrong lizard might get in. Got any gin?"
**Apologies to slime everywhere for implying slime could be as dirty as politicians.
No Party, No Government.
No party, no government simply is a reminder that the President is not a dictator, at least not yet anyway. This is why Obama accomplished little as President; the Congress stonewalled him for eight years.
First: the Democratic party is dead.
The Democratic party died in 1980 when Reagan took office. What does it mean to say a party has died? What it means is that there is no coherent set of political ideas being orchestrated publicly and in Congress to create a national character. One telling fact that the Democratic party died in 1980 is the voting record of Democrats during the eight years of the Reagan administration. The Democrats crossed party lines to vote against their own party more times under Reagan then under any other President before Reagan. If memory serves correctly I also read the amount Democrats voted crossed party lines more times also exceeded all the previous years of Democratic party history combined.
When Bill Clinton took office his first two years these were failed years because the Democrats refused to cooperate with Bill. It wasn't until the Republicans took over Congress that Bill was able to get anything done. The Clintons were and still are Washington outsiders and are despised greatly by many Democrats on the hill. Hillary and Pelosi are enemies, just like Obama and Pelosi.
And in this election? Where is the Democratic party? Where are the women in Congress stumping for Hillary? Ever see Diane Feinstein on the stump for Hillary? Or Nancy Pelosi? Or Barbra Boxer? The one lone woman in Washington speaking out is Elizabeth Warren. She is not so much stumping for Hillary as she is working her signature political issue: cooperate accountability. Tweets slamming Trump are not support for Hillary.
Second: the Republican party is dead.
For the last eight years the Republicans have controlled all of Congress and yet have only been able to orchestrate one political objective: to be anti-Obama. If a political party cannot work with an opposition party President then it is a dead party.
Add to this the Republican presidential campaign that has completely destroyed what was left of the Republican party.
And it is not looking good for simply re-building the Republican party as it was. The US is moving to a less religious country every day and it is unclear if the Republican party can survive as a Christian-only, Christian-privilege party.
Third: the immediate future without parties.
What does it mean to be a country? Traditionally the political parties have answered this question by promoting platforms and understanding that politics requires sticking together. Even when the opposing party was President the political parties co-operated. No more.
Let's consider a political-party, best case scenario where Democrats re-take the Senate and the Congress.
What platform would the Democrats roll out? Do we know?
No, because the Democrats do not have a platform. Further, Hillary will not get her personal legislative agenda through Congress either because she is not the party. Need proof? Just look at the first two-years of both Presidents Bill Clinton and Barak Obama. Bill Clinton wasn't able to get anything through Congress his first two years with an all Democratic Congress and neither did Obama.
Now I know what you are thinking: what about Obama-care? See that's the thing: it is not "Obama-care". Obama did submit a proposal for health-care legislation to the House. And do you want to know what happened to that proposal? Pelosi rejected 100% of it. Flushed. Instead the House came up with their "own" version; "own" means written by the insurance companies. This resulted in Pelosi saying, "We'll have to pass it to see what's in it." Pelosi and Obama fought quite bitterly about health-care and in the end they finally decided to not work together. That is not a political party.
So, even if the Democrats were to take it all in 2016 there will be no cohesive political plan of any kind whatsoever. Instead there would just be the same rancor and bitter in-fighting we have seen in the Republican Congress and between Obama and Pelosi.
Fourth: Cruz, Trump, Bernie and Clinton are all party outsiders.
The last piece of evidence I submit as proof both parties are dead is that all of the top tier Presidential candidates in 2016 are political party outsiders.
- Ted Cruz made his reputation calling out fellow Republicans in the Senate. Cruz publicly humiliated many fellow Republicans on immigration and fiscal issues to establish himself. Cruz would need to continue this, would have fought his own party as President the same as he did in the Senate.
- Trump started his Republican campaign calling out McCain as a coward and not a hero for being captured.
- Bernie has spent 30 years in Washington as an independent because he can't find it in himself to be in a party.
- The Clintons have always been outsiders in Washington. It is telling that George Bush Jr. and Bill Clinton do not stump for their respective party and that both represent a shame to the party. It is also telling how there are no Democrats in Washington stumping for Hillary. She is on her own.
Hillary only appears to be a Washington insider. Her relations with Obama have always been strained and the public façade we see on the campaign trail is just that: a façade. Obama is not out on the stump for Hillary. In fact, Obama is not out on the stump for any one in his party.
That's because there is no Democratic party.
Fifth, Irreni World Scale is one solution.
I bring up the fact that both the Republican and Democratic party are dead for two reasons.
- The US government has been built on political parties since the very beginning. Those parties are defunct. Therefore our government is defunct. We need to replace it.
- Irreni World Scale is such a replacement. Irreni World Scale avoids the trap of political parties.
The failure of this political campaign season is about more than a presidential election disaster. It is also the story of walking-dead political parties; no party, no government.
We, as a country, need to start talking about wholesale replacement of our political system. Irreni World Scale is such a replacement.
Politics as Science!
Demand Irreni World Scale!
Anti-theism is feminism!
Think disruption!
Empathy for all!
Moral relativity: think it, breath it!
Prove it or lose it!
Conversations equal consensus!
Welcome to the 21st century!
Scale your empathy, scale the world!
Find your tribe!
Be sexy people!
The future is coming!
Innovate at a rapid pace!
Slow speed ahead!
Well come! and well met!
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