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 The ubiquitous Joe
Trippi has been saying since
long before the election that the next four years were going to see
the demise of one of the major political parties in the United States. Bold
words, considering the Republican
Party, as presently constituted,
has been around 120 years, and the Democrats 50
more than that.
For over a century these two monolithic parties have dominated the
American political panorama, and until recently were expected to continue
their primacy ad infinitum. However, the ideological
bankruptcy and inability to connect with disaffected citizens on the
part of the Democratic Party exposed in the just-completed elections
has got us thinking Joe might have a point.
The Republicans Rule the Roost, and from where we are sitting it seems
much more likely that their primacy will be threatened by a schism within
rather than by any resurgence of an aging and exhausted Democratic machine.
We would not be surprised to see a Republican Resistance coalescing
in the next few years around the incredibly popular and trustworthy figure
of Collin Powell.
It has been increasingly obvious to astute observers that Powell has
been acutely uncomfortable with the positions he has been forced into
by the Bush Administration, presenting trumped up intelligence to a
skeptical Security Council, defending America’s go-it-alone gangsterism
after a decade of alliance building and international cooperation, defending
the prosecution of a war about which he has had grave misgivings since
the start. The smart money says he has been begging to leave for a year,
and was only barely convinced by the Vice-president not to announce his
resignation until after the election.
He is not alone. Moderate Republicans are abandoning the administration
like nervous Mormons who just discovered that their Prayer Breakfast
is being held in a Hooter’s. Alarmed by ideological interventionism,
profligate spending and deficit denial, they are backing away from a
manic and emboldened neocon cadre convinced of the righteousness of their
cause and enamored of the historical opportunity to smash their enemies
and create a Conservative Camelot.
Such monstrous hubris is almost always rewarded by tragedy, sooner or
later. We are convinced that saner minds in the Republican Party, moderates
like Powell, Mc Cain and Snow, will eventually realize that the Bush
zealots are a bigger threat to the American way of life than John Kerry
and Saddam
Hussein combined.
Is it so absurd to imagine that the mighty Republican party could fracture,
and its moderate elements, uniting with millions of independents and
some traditional Democrats, could form a New Republican Party? Independents
looking for a real change from business as usual and ingrained party
corruption would join in droves. Values oriented Democrats sick of their
party’s moral bankruptcy and old-politics mind set would cross over in
an instant.
They could call themselves Republicrats, perhaps, or Republicants, to
adapt a term from our favorite flick, Bladerunner. And they could nominate
as Party Chairman and eventual presidential candidate none other than
the recently departed Colin Powell.
It is not
as far-fetched as it sounds. Powell is obviously a capable
and ambitious man. His options within the existing Republican Party
are nil, and will remain so as long as the radical neocons are in charge. He
has already turned down the Democrats, and clearly believes that American
democracy needs to be restored. And he could easily win.
Imagine, if you will, a three way race in 2008. The Republicans will
nominate Jeb Bush and some gray, older Cheney-clone to mind the back
office. They will be saddled by the busted legacy of W; multiple lingering
foreign military quagmires and a monstrous deficit. The Democrats
will put up poor Hillary Clinton and some testosterone-drenched trophy
VEEP,
who we believe are doomed to go down in flames in the final, definitive
defeat of the Democratic Party. And the Republicants would nominate Colin
Powell and John Mc Cain!
It wouldn’t even be that close. Hillary would come in a distant
third. Powell and Mc Cain would be given the chance to make a truly
fresh start, free of the decades of corruption and inexpugnable ties
to the special interests and old-line power centers which cripple the
mainline parties of today.
Millions of Americans would jump at the chance to vote for an honorable,
resolute and morally unimpeachable ticket like that, regardless of their
positions on individual issues. They have our vote already.
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What is going on here? is it the breakdown of the american political system? will the worlds premier house of democracy crumble upon it’s own foundations?
What is happening can be termed political over maturity such as in putrified fruit. The gig is up, America needs an overhaul, America needs a NEW and IMPROVED version of the old system to cope with modern times.
What I am saying is not a Phoenix bird call for some new political system to rise from the ashes of the old, for a new miracle cure that will fix the problems that bedevil the USA and are fast becoming obvious, but for some honest good old fashioned American tinkering that will invest new ZEST into the tried and true system of representation of the masses thru popular vote.
For instance, the Presidents office should be divided in two. One president for internal, economic matters, and another president for external, diplomatic affairs. The first stays with the four year term, the second is elected for 6 years to give some continuity to US foreign policy.
The political parties should be sectionalized into areas, like the American and National beisbol organizations, whereas canditates first win the support of their local constituents (Western states, mid east states, etc)and finally face off in a national convention for the parties support for the finnal election. The country, as is the world, is not one homogenous land with similar problems. Each region has its own knicks and knacks. This is why it is called the United States. BTW, why not open the club to other regions? (and yes, I am aware of the situation in Puerto Rico).
Of course something needs to be done about financing but I dunno what to say about this other than restrict candidates to a soap boax in the park in order to promote their ideas thru oratory, and/or eliminate advertising a la tabacco ads.
These are some ideas I am throwing out at the spur of the momment and there are many others that need to be addressed as well but you get the idea. I hope. With some tinkering the American political institution we know and love may work and survive for another couple of centuries. Without some kinda fix it will become inessential, and by becoming superflous, you will have a revolution, of the armed kind.
Powell? Powell whored himself for the Bush administration, and lost whatever admiration I had for him when he demonstrated he was a snivelling weasel rather than resigning in protest.
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