Fertile Ground

Among bipartisan fetishists and apologists of the two party state, it is virtual dogma that compromise between Republicans and Democrats, "the constant push and pull between left and right," results in moderate and effective centrist policy. Yet, as Fear is Tyranny notes, the partisan dialectic paradoxically "never fails to bring more government, more police, more imperialism, and less freedom." With Democrats in control of the executive and legislative branches of government, on the heels of undivided Republican government under the Bush administration, calls for the 'restoration' of the two party system admittedly ring hollow, especially when they are sounded by partisan hacks from either of the duopoly party machines whose primary preoccupation is ensuring the electoral advantage of the special interest groups they represent.

Changing election laws in favor of open primaries to give independents more sway in primary votes, and hence a voice in the choice of duopoly party candidates for political office, as the bipartisans demand, will do nothing but undermine the independence of voters who find that their political views and interests are not represented by the candidates fielded by the duopoly parties. Such voters would be better served by opening up ballot access laws to provide them with a choice other than that between the 'lesser of two evils' in any given election.

The strength of independent affiliation, and the proliferation of new political parties over the past few years (ex. the Boston Tea Party, the Modern Whig Party, the nascent American Moderate Party) lends credence to pleas for the overturning of the two party system. The "realist" response to such proposals (ex. third party candidates are not viable, to vote third party is to throw your vote away, etc.) is often nothing more than a cynical fatalism masquerading as political pragmatism. The most fertile ground for third party organizing today are states and districts which are considered 'safe' for either of the duopoly parties because of a lopsided majority in their favor. Greens and Socialists should be hard at work in solidly Democratic locales while their Libertarian and Constitution Party counterparts chip away at Republican majorities in conservative strongholds elsewhere in the country.