Hostage Negotiations: on the Illusion of Futility and the Enforcement of Duopoly Ideology

Whatever his or her partisan preference may be, it is a conceit of the duopolist ideologue that the Democratic-Republican two-party state and duopoly system of government is a "natural" phenomenon, indeed, that it is a veritable force of nature, that it cannot be confronted politically, that it cannot be defeated and dismantled. On this a-historical view, it is asserted that American politics has always been and will always be held hostage to the factional interests of the ruling Democratic-Republican political class, that we are doomed to suffer the bipolar disorder characteristic of Democratic-Republican Party government for all eternity.

Yet nothing could be further from the truth. The two-party state and duopoly system of government is (re)produced and maintained, first and foremost, by a set of ideological fabrications and mystifications which aim to create the illusion that all resistance to the dictatorship of the Democratic-Republican Party is futile. The rules of our duopolized discourse are not laws of nature, they are artifices actively enforced by the ideological prison guards of the two-party state. Consider but one example. A Red State diarist, Redbirdfan, recently published a post entitled "Time for a third party." Redbird writes:

I’ve been thinking a lot about this and believe me I understand the multitude of problems for a third party in our two party system, but how can it be any worse? Yes, the Republicans might win in November perhaps even take both houses, though the Senate will likely take until 2012. But what does that get us? Boehner, McConnell, Cantor, McCain? I mean these guys were horrible when they were in power and they have been totally bulldozed by the far left since the election-they couldn’t even stop a deeply unpopular entitlement bill like Obamacare. Can you truthfully say any of these people are small government conservatives?

In other words they failed as leaders, they failed in opposition, why in the world would we want to put them back into power? So that they can spend like they did under Bush? We need a party that understands and believes in the founding principles of this great country. We don’t need a party who goes along to get along. We need a party with leaders who are not afraid to say “NO.” Not leaders who seemed more interested in slowing down statism, rather than halting it in its tracks.

It is time to stop thinking about who is the “less worse” and come up with an alternative that is actually good.

I quote the post in its entirety as it is highly likely that it will soon be plunged down the memory hole and scrubbed from the site. The comments section of the post was closed down by its fourth respondent, Moe Lane, who writes:

I really wish that people would read the site rules. Republican and conservative, Sparky. Republican and conservative. Closing comments now.

As I wrote earlier this month, the first rule of the dictatorship of the Democratic-Republican Party is: do not talk about the dictatorship of the Democratic-Republican Party. While it is perfectly reasonable for a site like Red State to censor its content in this way, this small episode reveals quite clearly that the ideology of the two-party state and duopoly system of government is not a "natural" or "organic" outgrowth of the American spirit, but is rather enforced from the top down by the partisans of the reigning Democratic-Republican order and ruling political class.