I heard a political commentary describe this year’s
presidential election like this, “Trump is the two party arsonist and Sanders
his helping him gather wood.”[1]
The commentary fairly applauds the current situation, not
suggesting that it is the best scenario in the world but that it may be the
only scenario that can knock down the current two party lock on Presidential
candidates.
I am not fan of the two party system, especially since it is
nothing like our founding fathers dreamed. Washington was opposed to parties at
all. But it does seem to me that the parties are natural outcomes of the
founding of our country and, though they developed into what they currently
are, existed philosophically from the beginning. The two party system became as
powerful as it is because it represented the clear ideals of opposing political
theory; big government versus small government. Each party has developed its
platform, tweaking and refining it for the changing times. Each party also made
room for those who were not so clearly set in the party ideals. We have more
liberal Republicans and more conservative Democrats. The inclusivity has led to
the current firestorm building in the two party world.
Neither Trump nor Sanders are the first to attempt to breech
the two party system. They are, I think, the first to attempt to do so while
claiming to be in the parties. Trump and Sanders did what no other outsiders
seem to have considered; they crept in. Sanders of course in the Democratic
party and Trump into the Republican party and from the vantage of an insider,
they are attempting to break down the party walls. Ideologically the two men
are polar opposites. Fundamentally and politically they are companions.
The commentator speculated that, perhaps our country needs
to survive the tragedy that would be the result of either a Trump or Sanders
presidency so that we can finally replace the two party system with something
more effective. I doubt that will be the case. First of all, things seldom
evolve. Devolution is much more likely. Second, even if the two parties become
somehow impotent, the ideals represented in the most diverse of the two parties
will remain and will almost surely reorganize into the same two parties,
perhaps with new names. Thirdly – who’s to say we can survive the tragedy that
would be either a Trump or Sanders presidency?
Marvin McKenzie
In the Fields
