Taking Our Country Back from the Democratic-Republican Party and Ruling Political Class

Over the past ten years, one of the most common political slogans employed by the supporters of the ruling parties exclaims that it is time to "take back" the country, or the levers of power, or the party itself. During the Bush administration and Republican majority Congress, the rallying cry of liberal Democrats was that it is time to "take our country back from theocrats, neocons and fascist Republicans." Under the Obama administration and Democratic majority Congress, the rallying cry of conservative Republicans is now that it is time to "take our country back from radical leftists, socialists and fascist Democrats." Isn't it about time that the people of the United States finally stand up to "take our country" back from Democrats and Republicans, from the inane politics of the ruling parties and political class, from the corporate oligarchy that they perpetuate and the coalitions of reactionary activists that support them?

In this context, consider two recent articles, one by a conservative leaning independent candidate for governor of Colorado, the other from a Libertarian activist based on Florida. At the Tenth Amendment Center, independent candidate for governor of Colorado, Rich Hand, writes "Independent Thinkers Needed":

There are 1,078,896 Colorado residents that have chosen to be unaffiliated voters. Compared to people that have chosen the Democratic Party, 1,058,785 and 1,048,669 in the Republican Party. The Unaffiliated voter group is bigger than either party. These statistics from the Secretary of State’s office tell a story that must be told. We need to ask ourselves as voters why we continue to invest our votes in a party when we have chosen not to associate with that same party organization. This year I am doing my part to represent the unaffiliated voter; the largest group of voters in Colorado.

This is NOT a third party movement; it is a movement to elect candidates that are not tied to the special interests of either party. In the traditions of one of the greatest political thinkers of all time, Thomas Jefferson, I am reaching out to individual voters of every party to stand as Coloradans against the tyranny of an out of control federal government. We must rally around our founding principles and stop the division fueled by our party system.

At Libertarian Viewpoint, a site dedicated to forwarding liberty and Libertarianism in opposition to "our current two-party system," Jonathan Raof takes a similar rhetorical tack, arguing that the rise in independent voters and increasing calls for alternatives to Democratic-Republican Party government is evidence not of a "third party movement" but rather a "third option movement." Via Third Party and Independent Daily Raof writes:

people are starting to dismiss the Political Party system and turn to a Unique Grassroots system. This Unique grassroots movement is one driven by the politics of a community; it implies that the creation of the movement and the electorate supporting it are natural and spontaneous, highlighting the differences between themselves and a movement that is orchestrated by traditional power structures . . . people are dismissing the Party Name, the silly Cliches, and becoming one common Electorate in search of one common goal, Liberty . . . elections are starting to finally be about the electorate, not the Party, or the Establishment entirely . . .

What is going on in the Status Quo is NOT a Third Party movement, but a Third Option Movement, and it has never been more robust. Candidates realize they cannot engage in the typical, mundane campaign – a campaign in which candidates feel they are guaranteed their base and a percentage of undecided voters; in which candidates can no longer exploit voter ignorance; in which candidates are accountable to their word; in which candidates are called out on a campaign of rhetoric. This phenomenon is the future of the political pseudo-game.

Perhaps the people of the United States would only ever support what is in effect a third party movement if they believed that it was not in effect a third party movement. After all, Americans have long supported a political establishment that is overtly hostile to constitutional republicanism and popular democracy but calls itself Democratic and Republican. On the other hand, once the people of the United States recognize, en masse, the folly of continuing to support the Democratic and Republican Parties in any way, shape or form, and begin to vote for superior alternatives to the stooges of the ruling political class, it is none other than the Democratic and Republican Parties that will be dismissed as the lunatic, fringe, third party groups that they are.