By M. Francis Mirro
Fundamentally, I believe a multiparty system is necessary for the proper exercise of a democratic government. Being neither Democrat nor Republican myself, I have urged the progressive side of the left to break away and assert themselves as an independent entity; and firmly, I believe a so-called “Centrist Party” could serve the United States well.
The stagnant, rock solid, two party machine we see today was never meant to be and, while they’re often presented as such, the parties are not monoliths. They are made up of individuals, individuals with different thoughts, ideas and values than those proposed by the two-party system.
Now, I want to make a case for another, perhaps equally essential breakaway party: that of moderate conservatives.
I imagine, or maybe I just hope, that a portion of the more moderate Republicans feel some sense of the horror the rest of us feel at the current administration. Understand, you don’t need to become a Democrat, you can exercise your political power through action and create your own party, one that embraces true conservatism while rejecting the nationalism and white supremacy which has infested the party from the bottom up.
Make no mistake, I can, and do, respect a genuine ideology that opposes big government and demands economic frugality. But you cannot be against “tyrannical” taxations and at the same time support your tax dollars going to private contractors to run prison camps along the border. You cannot be against the accumulation of national debt and support a president who has exponentially expanded that very national debt.
The GOP is currently a party that demands towing the line. One disagreement and you’re out, just like what happened to Congressman Justin Amash when he dared question the frequent and dangerous misconduct of President Donald Trump.
People are dying by the hands of this ideology; from the sick and cold on concrete floors under aluminum foil blankets in crowded cages, from a hail of bullets in an El Paso Walmart, from the blunt force of car in Charlestown.
If you believe so thoroughly in individual liberties, tell me why you can allow this party, so obtusely dedicated to the accumulation and maintenance of personal and fraternal power to dictate your thoughts, to tell you what news to watch, what clothes to buy and what people are good or bad?
Democracy works best when individuals come together to fight for what they believe in. What that requires is not a surrendering of individual beliefs and morals for the sake of mass party continuity, but an exercise in the power of citizenship: the vote. To simply vote along the party line because the party demands it is to surrender the sanctity of that privilege.
The political spectrum needs to be chopped up on all sides but what comes out of the Republican Party’s conflagration will be critical to the next chapter of this country. Who decides for this nation? Do the people command the parties or the parties enslave the people?