JANUARY 6, 2021
It is Wednesday morning, January 6, 2021. In a few short hours, Congress and the Senate will begin the process of certifying the electoral votes of the 2020 election. There is a planned objection by Republican members to several swing states’ electoral votes. This is their constitutional right and the process will play itself out with the likelihood of a President Biden and Vice President Harris certified as the new administration.
This 2020 election cycle saw the partisan divisions grow deeper. Americans are in agreement in their distrust of partisan politics and our political parties have failed its constituencies election after election. In their own distinct ways, The Republican and Democratic parties have become increasingly weak, whereas, the parties were designed to focus elections on policies rather than personalities. What went wrong?
I recently completed reading an article, “The Rise and Fall of Political Parties in America,” by Joseph Postell, PhD, provided through the Heritage Foundation, No. 70, September 30, 2018. Postell detailed the history of political parties through three periods, 1) during the early years of our government after its founding, 2) the Era of Good Feelings, a period of contentious party infighting beginning with President Monroe’s presidency, and 3) the Gilded Age, a time of party government and patronage was a significant tool of incentive to maintain power. Postell concludes by stating that over the past one hundred years, American political parties have been replaced by “presidential, administrative government.”
From my unique perspective in Florida, state and local political parties here are weak. Specifically speaking, the Florida Democratic Party is quickly being made irrelevant by its Republican counterpart as evidenced by the 2020 election cycle. Voters are disengaged and disenfranchised by both parties. Voting for party principles and issues give way to personal attacks and negative campaigning. Voter participation in local party activities and events, campaigning for party principles, and, most importantly, voting is increasingly on the decline. Government gridlock is the norm!
In closing, Postell states that, “the consequences of party decline, in short, have been candidate-centered elections in all of their ugliness, the rise of marketing in political campaigns rather than focus on serious issues, and gridlock as individual candidates and officeholders have fewer incentives that ever to work with members of a coalition.” Candidates, their campaigns, politicians, political parties, and their operatives, need to return to where their voters are, in their homes and communities. Putting the community’s interest ahead of narrow special interest groups, benefits us all.
Your thoughts?
When we forget where we truly came from and what are real purpose on earth is, the negativity and personal attacks come out. We are all Americans. All Human Beings. It's time for elected officials to go home and be a person living in the America that they have made laws for and Live in those laws. Perhaps then, they will remember their purpose. In the meantime, we should be looking for those who have a Servitude attitude to lead us.
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