Let’s Defund Political Parties…

Posted on December 21, 2021December 21, 2021 by Doug Carroll, Ed. D.

“The despotism of faction is not less to be dreaded than the despotism of an individual.”
Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America

Pundits and polls proclaim the U.S. is increasingly becoming a politically polarized society. Polarization leads to more significant civil unrest, dissatisfaction with government, a decline in national pride, and civility. The root causes for this polarization are a wide gambit, from social media to poor civic education to changing demographics or cultural shifts and racial strife. However, whatever you think of social media or believe about the U.S. education system, cultural shifts, or even demographic changes, these are not the root cause of polarization. Instead, they are the symptomatic indicators of a dramatic realignment of the civic and civil beliefs of American democracy. So who are the beneficiaries of societal polarization? Political parties – specifically the Republican and Democrat Parties.

In 2020 more than 14 billion dollars was spent on elections of Congress, Senate, and the Presidential candidates. Fourteen billion dollars is more than 15 states spent in their state budgets in 2020. The amount is only the reported donations and does not include so-called dark money or gratuitous in-kind contributions or pocketed untraceable and unreported cash. It also doesn’t include state, city, county, and other local elections across the United States. With redistricting the result of the Census on the line, the two political parties spent tens of millions of dollars influencing voters in different elections. All to what end?

“Government of the people, by the people, for the people,” as Lincoln expressed at Gettysburg, is now the government of the party, by the party, and for the party. The definition of monopoly is “a company, group, or individual having exclusive control over an activity.” The Republican and Democrat parties are unregulated monopolies. Congress makes laws that apply to every individual and organization except Congress. The institutions regulating political parties like the Federal Election Commission are neither impartial nor independent.

The body that determines the district you vote in is the majority party at the time with little or no interest in competitive elections. Political parties are sophisticated street gangs, imposing their will on the locals through bribery, intimidation, and fraud. Reapportionment is an exercise in political gang warfare where each side lays claim and marks territory. Both parties decry the redistricting process but know that if they wait long enough, the tides of political fortunes turn in their favor – the minority party becomes the majority – then they get to carve out exclusive feudal territories and assume the position of elected Noble or Baron.

In his farewell address, George Washington framed the worst impulses of political parties in this way. “It serves always to distract the public councils and enfeeble the public administration. It agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection. It opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, which finds a facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of party passions. Thus the policy and the will of one country are subjected to the policy and will of another.” Earlier in his speech, Washington warns against the tendency towards behaving as despots of political parties. Yet, is this not the condition we find American democracy in today?

Alexis de Tocqueville’s insight into the nature and character of political parties mirrors that of Washington. “Great parties” are those that “dedicate themselves more to principles than to consequences.” Political parties need a vision for leadership more than the ideology associated with political cult worship. “Such parties generally have nobler features, more generous passions, more genuine convictions, and a franker, bolder manner than others.” Contrast great parties to minor parties. “Minor parties are generally without political faith. Because they do not feel ennobled and sustained by any great purpose, their character bears the stamp of self-interest, which clearly manifests itself in every action they undertake. They always become hotly passionate for coldly calculated reasons; their language is violent, but their course is timid and uncertain. Their tactics are squalid, as is the goal they set for themselves.” Is there is a more accurate picture of modern twenty-first-century political parties?

So, what can be done? First, remove the source of political party power – money. We must demand greater accountability in how political parties fund campaigns and spend donations. It’s time to hold corporations responsible for the behavior of the politicians they support. Refuse to buy from, invest in, or support corporations donating to candidates that misrepresent and defraud the American public through incivility and intentional misrepresentation of facts. Defunding the political parties should be the next great national movement.

Next, break up the monopolies Republicans and Democrats hold on the electoral politics. While the court system may be the worst antidote to the anti-democratic activities of political parties, the courts may hold the only viable solution to breaking the stranglehold political parties have on candidates and elections. Bypassing the entrenched elite political class is the only way to create honest and fair elections.

An overhaul of how districts are reapportioned is the greatest threat to political parties but is the only way to restore democratic elections in the United States. We can’t have independent and fair elections when districts are so blatantly aligned to represent politicians, not the body politic. In the age of technology, there is no reason not to have independent organizations use the best demographic algorithms possible to draw inclusive voting districts. Along with redistricting, ranked-choice voting may offer the best solution to encouraging people to contribute as candidates and seek elective office.

Finally, there is a reason why revolutions begin at the base and not at the top. The most entitled occupy the top and have the least to gain from any upward mobility from the bottom. The Republican and Democrat parties are no different. The electorate’s gain is at the demise of the monopoly from which both parties have no desire to let go. Thus when a political party or politician begins to talk about election reform, you can believe it is no different than a business promoting corporate tax reform. There is nothing altruistic or otherwise un-blatant about self-interest and self-promotion. Election reform is code for we are losing our grip on power and have to change the rules to prolong it. Do not fall prey to the idea that election reform will enhance democracy in the United States. Political parties can not be trusted to regulate themselves.

Democracy is too precious to be a commodity regulated by the Republicans or Democrats. Let’s defund political parties…

Let’s defund political parties…

Democracy, Liberty, and Equality

Posted on October 11, 2021October 11, 2021 by Doug Carroll, Ed. D.

Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word, equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude.
Alexis de Tocqueville, Essays in Democracy

For too long, it seems, democracy has been under assault. For some, this assault is entirely a new phenomenon – though history proves otherwise. In Greek history, the story is told of sea nymphs, part female and part bird, who lure mariners off course with a seductive song to crash into the rocky coastline, meeting their death. Socialism is the modern version of the siren’s song.

On its face, socialism seems reasonable. No sensible person rejects the notion that government should be about the business of equality, justice, and equitable treatment in all things related to its citizens. Even the least compassionate, most indifferent know intuitively there are people in far worse condition than their own. Allowing an impartial and dispassionate government to distribute wealth, position, and property ownership can not wholly be without merit. When left to their own devices, humans will not satisfy their wants, reject any notion of the common good, and hoard wealth to the disadvantage of others.

Moreover, collectivism appears very democratic. What can possibly go wrong in a system where everyone owns everything equally and where the governing authority makes those decisions for you? Isn’t everything produced in a sense a social product? Does not society benefit from the contribution of everyone in the society and, therefore, entitled to at least partial ownership of what is produced? And while the modern progressive, neo-Marxists, democratic socialists, or social reformer distorts language to articulate the dissolution of the democratic capitalist state in the name of equity, they all understand full well the ultimate goal – the end of democratic state sovereignty and personal liberty. Marx wrote, “If you can cut the people off from their history, then they can be easily persuaded.” Persuaded to what end, you may ask – the siren’s song.

Are we not living in a time when history is not presented as a series of facts, but rather as a series of interpretations, political in nature. If we are to take history at its word, then history demonstrates the difference between the progressives in the nineteenth century and those who claim their position today. The progressives of the old are not of the same character or ilk of the neo-progressives of our time.

Unlike their modern progeny, the early twentieth-century progressives were sincere in their desire to reform society. Though some would prefer socialism over capitalism, the conflation of democracy with capitalism did not require dismantling the ballot box, the wholesale destruction of representative government, or penalizing the entrepreneur. On the other hand, the modern progressive has little qualms or hesitation in dismantling the guardrails of democratic practice. Under their utopian vision, society has little need for law enforcement, a Constitution, freedom to express an oppositional position, or basic civility. While they constantly harp on the oppressor, they don’t hear the siren’s song, whose lyrics lead them to be dashed upon the rocks. They are deaf and blind to comprehending the destruction of democracy can only end in one way – more oppression, not equality.

The only path to liberty is equality. But, how then can freedom and equality be best progressed? Is it through an artificial system of forced communal sharing? Or through free men and women expressing their unheeded common interest and desire for a better future through the democratic process? One might propose a socialist revolution will bring upon the desired change more rapidly than the glacier pace of democracy. But, history yields a far different conclusion. Social revolution stoked by Marxist ideology, even covertly packaged for media consumption as social democracy, social justice, equality, or progressivism, replaces the people’s choice with the oppressor.

No time in history or no place on this planet has socialism produced anything other than oppression. Nowhere is economic disparity, social degeneration, oppression of thought, and opportunity greater than in countries where democracy is a shell for socialist or communist regimes. If equality is the goal, then why would you trust the very people to look out for your best interests once they are isolated from the prospect of being removed from power by the democratic process?

Liberty and equality only exist where democracy is treasured. Yes, the democratic process takes time. Yes, the democratic process sometimes results in less desired and ineffectual outcomes. Yes, there is inequality that must be rooted out. Yes, democracy has failures, but not of the process or system. Rather, democracy’s failures of human nature. “The issue today is the same as it has been throughout all history, whether man shall be allowed to govern himself or be ruled by a small elite,” wrote Thomas Jefferson.

Notice the difference. Do we choose equality in liberty or equality in restraint and servitude? The answer is clear. Do not heed the song of the socialist siren!

Generational Sacrifice

Posted on July 8, 2021July 8, 2021 by Doug Carroll, Ed. D.

“There are two things which a democratic people will always find very difficult – to begin a war and to end it.”

Alexis de Tocqueville

The road I run bisects a small cemetery. Recently, as I was running through the area, I stopped to pick up trash someone had tossed onto the graves nearest the road. Picking up trash put me at eye level with a simple, unadorned plain headstone and marker that I would not have paid attention to had it not been for the trash strewn nearby. The burial was relatively new, as evidenced by the mounds of dirt where the grass has yet to take root. At eye level, I could read the headstones and plaque in front. The person buried in this family plot is a Vietnam Veteran and a Prisoner of War. Next to him is his father. A similar plaque except the inscription is Korean War Veteran. Small American flags are next to each site. Two generations served and sacrificed to preserve democracy here and abroad. It will not surprise me if there is a third plaque with a World War II inscription with the same family name. A heritage of service and generational sacrifice.

I know nothing about the family or the family history except what the inscriptions read. Unlike some graves with towering stone testamental monuments and quotes etched as permanent memorials, the words chiseled into these stones are plain. Maybe the message needs little adornment. I was born, lived, fought for what I believe, and passed to the next world without fanfare or much ado.

It seems generations that serve in combat say as much by their silence, by deed, than can ever be captured in word. Yet, we can claim unequivocally these men risked their lives for what some today cynically say is “a fool’s errand, a war without purpose, or a cause that death and destruction are too costly to justify the result.” I, for one, most vehemently disagree with the cynics!

The cause for democracy is just; it is moral; though the cost is terribly expensive, liberty (the most precious of all ideals) will always be paid for with the currency of generational sacrifice.

Those who cynically believe democracy is at its sunset and wars for principles, ideals, moral causes are nothing more than imperialistic attempts to maintain the preeminent position that world powers enjoy, are the same folks who can’t comprehend generational sacrifice – giving up something dear to oneself to protect something greater than ourself. Generational sacrifice is the voluntary surrender of something of great personal value today in exchange for something more valuable to a future generation.

Democracy is a gift, a moral imperative given willingly to someone without an expectation of the reciprocity of the gift. We give to those who come after us, and to those, we may not know or see. Democracy transcends the problems of the day, portends a better future. The only guarantee of future liberty and freedom is that the present generation must generationally sacrifice to contribute towards it. We are not just in the business of preservation or conservation. We must engage in the business of elevation – elevating the ideals, concepts, precepts, and principles to the next generation to live freely, without fear of tyranny or freedoms lost. After all, why preserve something worthless, the cynics ask? To that end, we must respond, because freedom is the most valuable and prized of all ideals.

I am no expert on war or military service. I claim no special gift or talent or authority to answer on behalf of my generation, those born after Korea and before Vietnam. It is interesting to note that since the Revolutionary War, the United States has fought twelve wars and several battles all across the globe. More importantly, since 1942, Congress has not exercised its Constitutional duty to declare war even though Americans are involved in conflict worldwide. Americans can argue and debate whether our soldiers should be involved in so many different hotspots in the world and what the purpose is. What is unmistakable, and de Tocqueville is right, “There are two things which a democratic people will always find very difficult – to begin a war and to end it.” I would add a third statement to de Tocqueville’s quote. It seems in our case, for our leaders to acknowledge and publicly debate the merits of combat actions on foreign soil.

Meanwhile, families, sons, daughters, and friends in our military dutifully sacrifice voluntarily as our military is all-volunteer, engage in combat while the political leaders of my generation shirk both the duty of Constitutional public debate and vote. The question is, is democracy on the wane because my generation has contributed little by way of generational sacrifice? Do the enemies of democracy have little or no fear of America because they observe a decline in a generational sacrifice they perceive as a decline in democratic values?

Maybe the question is not what has my generation contributed, but what have I contributed. That question we can all answer. Robert Kennedy wrote, “Every generation inherits a world it never made; and, as it does so, it automatically becomes the trustee of that world for those who come after. In due course, each generation makes its own accounting to its children.” Each generation is a trustee to the next. Democracy succeeds because we are individually part of the trust for the next generation.

We should not fear the democracy cynics. Nor should we place much stock in what the forces of tyranny think. The difference between tyranny and democracy is tyranny uses power to constrain liberty. The power of democracy is unconstrained liberty; the nightmare of every despot in history! Generations of history bear this point as valid.

Singularly, we must evaluate and come to terms with our willingness to generationally sacrifice. There will always be those who contribute more by serving dutifully in the military, public service, or volunteering. The little league baseball coach is to be celebrated for their contribution as much as the public servant. No sacrifice is too small. A free society will always contain a portion of folks who contribute little but are the beneficiary of the hard labor of others. Cynics see only the non-contributors and smugly think they represent American democracy. They are wrong. A stroll through a veteran’s cemetery says otherwise. Generational sacrifice is American democracy’s dawn, not democracy’s dusk.

Democracy in America 2.0

Posted on June 29, 2021June 29, 2021 by Doug Carroll, Ed. D.

“The health of a democratic society may be measured by the quality of functions performed by private citizens.“
Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy In America

I live in a small town – small enough to walk nearly the entire city in under an hour. The town has more churches than restaurants, a post office with five employees, a physician’s office, four police officers, and neighbors that know each other by name. There are no more than 1700 folks who live here. Small enough to hold a town meeting in a nearby former refurbished warehouse that at one time was part of a farm. It was at a town hall meeting that got me thinking. What has happened to American democracy?

If you were lucky enough to have a real history teacher at some point in your education, then you know who Alexis de Tocqueville is. He was a French sociologist and political theorist who journeyed from France to America to study American prisons in 1835. Instead of writing a book about prisons, de Tocqueville wrote one of the most influential books in history, Democracy in America, compiling his observations about life in America into two volumes. It would be easy to dismiss de Tocqueville’s observations if they were not as pertinent today as the nineteenth century.

Skeptics will say 19th-century political observations have little to do with modern America, politics, and democracy. Life was a whole lot less complex in the 1800s than today. Consider this; the 1830s was the age of the populist President, Andrew Jackson. Jackson was as anti-establishment as you could find in 1829. He was unabashedly pro-slavery, a proponent of state rights, and railed against what he viewed as an elitist wealthy establishment class that valued wealth over the welfare of its citizenry. Elections were raucous events; corrupt to the core by vote-buying, unsupervised counting, and the victor most often the political handiwork of closed-door deal-making. At Jackson’s inauguration, a mob stoked by whiskey and pent-up anger fueled by years of perceived disrespect by the political establishment flooded the White House, overwhelming the staff, though by most accounts, did minor damage to the White House grounds and interiors. Not so in the media’s eyes that sensationalized reports of drunken vandalism and disrespect for civil authority.

William James wrote, “The world we see that seems so insane is the result of a belief system that is not working. To perceive the world differently, we must be willing to change our belief system, let the past slip away, expand our sense of now, and dissolve the fear in our minds.” Is James right, we view the world through a faulty belief system? So, is democracy in America faulty and broken? Or have we lost our belief in democracy? One answer to that question may be found in de Tocqueville’s quote, “The health of a democratic society may be measured by the quality of functions performed by private citizens” – the town meeting.

Every day thousands of Americans volunteer to serve on nonprofits, in churches, mosques, temples, and schools. Every day, thousands of Americans serve on juries and volunteer to help their community in some capacity. Town meeting democracy is real, tangible, and exists. The belief is not broken, nor is democracy. We simply need to reimagine what democracy is and how it functions in our modern society. The answer is not found in political parties, Congress, or Washington, DC. The answer is civic engagement reaffirming the belief in American democracy. Forged by the first town meetings in the 1600s and reconstructed in volunteerism, charitable works, and civic education. This is Democracy 2.0.

To those who believe Democracy is at its end: “We the People” Respond…

Posted on June 29, 2021June 29, 2021 by Doug Carroll, Ed. D.

“The greatness of America lies not in being more enlightened than any other nation, but rather in her ability to repair her faults.”
Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America

Regardless of the current situation in our nation, we have not only survived catastrophic events but as a nation, been strengthened by them. Several lessons in American history substantiate the resiliency of the American people when confronted with challenges. “We the People” is not just a catchy phrase in the Constitution. A clear call for action united against the forces that believe American democracy cannot withstand the onslaught of external forces intent on fermenting internal strife. Rest assured, we can, and we will.

From “We the People,” leaders will rise. Reconciliation, restoration, and reunification will replace dismay, disunity, and disenfranchisement. And therein lies the immediate problem in America; the failure of the political leadership to rally “We the People” to the great cause of equality, civic duty, and community service.

For too long, the Democratic and Republican parties have ignored “We the People.” They have place petty politics over the people’s business. They have forgotten the simple truth that democratic governance is a human endeavor designed to protect and enrich the lives of citizens, not their positions of power. To be elected to Congress, Senate, or any office is a privilege, an honor – lately much besmirched by the daily antics of the two parties who seem content with allowing the government to operate like reality television or some chaotic game show.

Unfortunately, the winners in this show are almost always the politicians and the losers, “We the People.” The founders warned against political elitists replacing the egalitarian virtues of equality in rights, positions, and opportunities for all citizens. Political power does not confer a special privilege but a special duty and obligation to others. Unfortunately, in modern times this is no longer the case. The Democrats and Republicans have managed to construct a monopoly on privilege, power, and access. These are the very things the founders feared most. The very ideals disdained since the founding of America.

The Democrats and Republicans choose deceit over honesty, sow discord rather than encourage unity, and conflict over cooperation. They ignore and disdain the very implication of “We the People,” we have a higher expectation for civility, cooperation, and decency in how the political parties act. Sadly, they fail on all accounts. They have forgotten the sacred oath of their offices, and public service is a sacred honor.

And, while cities are in turmoil, school systems flounder, systemic discrimination permeates many public organizations, the health of the most vulnerable citizens is at risk, millions without work or inadequate housing or food; the best the Democrats and Republicans can do is to point blame to the other. The only point of agreement between the two is the other is at fault, or if we throw enough money at the problem, “We the People” will forget the problem exists. In a land of more than three hundred million people, can we not find better representatives of America? Is America without men and women who rather lose an election doing the right thing than win just because the winner retains power? Where are the leaders to be found? Certainly not in the ranks of the current political parties.

Fortunately for “We the People,” leadership is found in our ranks. Daily, people risk their own health to work in healthcare facilities. Churches, mosques, and synagogues attend to the spiritual needs of members and non-members alike. Community organizations have risen to the challenge of providing meals, housing, clothing, and necessities to those in need. Small business owners are finding ways to utilize their services to support the less fortunate, even when their survival is precarious and threatened by recession. The military and reserve units have stepped up to deliver meals, medical testing, and protect citizens. Police officers continue to show up for work and patrol neighborhoods knowing there exists an element of society that believes they can use the crises in leadership to their nefarious advantage. Firemen and EMT’s answer the call in emergencies when others dare not leave for fear of injury. In the ranks of the most virulent protests, several protesters have stepped from the line to assist their fellow citizens without regard to their political beliefs and predispositions. Even children are giving up their weekly allowances to comfort people they have little in common and do not know. Yes, “We the People” are the empowering spiritual force that drives America forward.

Suppose there is to be a revolution in America. In that case, it must be like that of our founders and like those of the generations that faced the Great Depression and turned the tide of world war to democracy’s favor. It must be a revolution by those who met the challenge of 9/11, not by shirking civic responsibility by running from the collapsed towers but sprinting towards the inferno and toxic fumes. It must be a revolution of people like those on Flight 93 sacrificing their own lives by overpowering terrorists and crashing the plane into an empty field so that other families would not suffer the loss of loved ones. Their cry of, “Let’s roll!” should be our call to arms. Not the components of weapons or violence, but that of locked arms in a common belief that American democracy is still more reliable, moral, and of higher purposes than any alternative. For all our faults, transgressions in history, and flaws, democracy thrives because liberty is best at resolving strife.

The revolution begins at the ballot box. It will be a revolution of ideas, values, and ethics. The revolution is a call for the most basic of all human rights, equality and respect. “We the People” expect better. “We the People” demand better. It’s time for political parties to become part of the solution and no longer the problem.

Essays in Democracy

Reconstructing Democracy in America

Tag: democracy

Let’s Defund Political Parties…

Generational Sacrifice

Democracy in America 2.0

To those who believe Democracy is at its end: “We the People” Respond…

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