Putting Partisans on the Defensive: Political Independence and Its Discontents

One of the most promising signs in the fight for freedom and independence from the tyranny of the two-party state and duopoly system of government is that the supporters of the ruling parties have been put on the defensive.  Millions upon millions of Americans no longer accept the false choice represented by the opposition between the Democratic and Republican parties, and increasingly choose to identify themselves as Independents rather than associate themselves with the professional partisans of the ruling political class.  To even the most minimally observant individuals among us, it is clear as day that the Republican and Democratic parties no longer represent the interests of the people of the United States, but rather those of an entrenched political establishment whose moral decadence is matched only by its political degeneracy.  Arguably, the reigning party system is no longer accepted as the absolute horizon of our nation's political order.  The proponents of the ruling parties are on the defensive.  Today it is not enough for them to simply make the case that their preferred faction of the two-party state deserves the people's support.  They are increasingly forced to make the case in support of the party system as such, to justify its very existence. 

The most recent Intelligence Squared debate, which aired on CNBC last night, bears witness to this development.  The motion: "the two-party system is making America ungovernable."  One might quibble with any number of the assumptions presupposed by the motion, or with any of the arguments put forward by the pundits who argued for and against it, but the very fact that the two-party system is itself up for debate is significant in and of itself.  (I'll write more on this debate in the coming days.)  As the Independent movement gains strength and power, it is a safe bet that those who are invested in the party-political status quo will become ever more desperate in their attempts to justify the indefinite reproduction of the party-political status quo.  We can thus expect increasingly vicious attacks against political independence and increasingly hysterical defenses of the two-party state.