Imagine a place where there are two groups of people. They sit on opposite sides of the room, divided by a wide aisle. When they want to address the group, they walk up to a podium in the front of the room but there are separate podiums, one for each group. If they want to leave for awhile, there are two separate doors, each leading to a separate room on opposite sides of the main room. If someone from one group should go into the other group's room, they are looked upon suspiciously. You might think this room is in an Orthodox Jewish synagogue or in a deeply segregated community, but it isn't. The room is in Washington DC and is the home of the US Congress, in the case of the podium, the House of Representatives.
Former Congressman Mickey Edwards describes this scene in chapter eight of his new book, THE PARTIES VERSUS THE PEOPLE: How to Turn Republicans and Democrats into Americans. In it, he points out several reasons that the political situation today is so divisive and suggests ways for it to change for everyone's benefit. His main point is it's the system that's broken and until it's repaired, there won't be change because the current method rewards the extremists while doing nothing to encourage cooperation. Imagine just seating people in order of seniority regardless of their political label. They would have a chance to get to know each other as people and talk about issues not as enemies on the other side of a battle zone.
He writes of how our Founding Fathers warned against political parties. In his farewell address, George Washington stated, "They serve to organize faction, to give it an artificial and extraordinary force; to put, in place of the delegated will of the nation, the will of a party, often a small but artful and enterprising minority of the community."
Today, that fear is a reality. Primary elections allow a small group of people, usually those who are focused on the party and one or two key (for them) issues, rather than the citizens as a whole to choose whose names appear on the ballot. In states where the nominees are selected through a caucus, that may be just a couple hundred people making that decision for the entire state. If the best candidates are from the same party or are not either a Democrat or Republican, the chances of them appearing on the ballot, let alone being elected, are very slim. He proposes open primaries to overcome that obstacle.
In addition, the legislative districts are usually established every decade by a group representing the party in control of the state government. Too often its main concern is expanding the number of office holders from its party and protecting the seats of incumbents. Gerrymandering is a typical result.
He recognized that it currently takes a lot of money to run for office, more than the office itself pays. Many of the donors are seeking access to the official and expect to get their money's worth. Appointments are sometimes given as rewards for raising the most money, not for the ability or interest of the official. In addition, the time spent raising money takes away from the time the official is spending doing the job. A lot of money is given by people are not constituents and may live thousands of miles from the district.
The Supreme Court decision saying that corporations are people has had a tremendous impact on who is able to run and get their message out. Think of the Nevada man donating $100,000,000 to help his candidates win this year.
The controlling party uses its power to prevent the other side's ideas from being part of the debate both by picking who can sit on a committee, who can speak, and who can offer amendments.
Members of Congress, as part of their oath, say, "....I take this obligation freely, without any reservation of purpose of evasion...." In reality, many have already made up their minds about how they are going to vote on issues, some even have signed an oath before they were placed on the ballot, before they take the oath and totally ignore this part of it.
Too often members are told how to vote by the senior members of their party and act as a rubber stamp. They should be using their own knowledge and judgement and voting to represent their constituents and their county, not their party.
He points out that Congress and the President are equal branches of the same tree (with the Supreme Court as the third equal branch). When a person is elected President, he/she is not the head of the party but the head of the government and should be serving the interests of all Americans, not just those of his/her party.
Our country talks about being the best democracy in the world Our country talks about being the best democracy in the world and “we promote democracy in other countries but have surrendered it here.” Too many people don’t vote because they think their vote doesn’t count. THE PARTIES VERSUS THE PEOPLE places blame on both parties and provides suggestions on how to improve the situation.