It’s been a busy day, and for maybe the first time in two years my opinion center feels burned out. However, while attending a concert by The Fairlanes with my Arts Editor tonight, it occurred to me there’s another weakness to the team politics position that I’ve harped on a couple of times.
Briefly, and it doesn’t require anything more, team politics is simply voting straight ticket for your Party, regardless of how you feel about any particular candidate. I’ve critiqued this position previously, as you can see if you click here. But as we watch the debacle in Washington continue, I’ve been rather dismayed that its continuance is not reflected in the polls.
I would expect sober citizens, observing the self-indulgent antics of the President, as well as the frantic lying of his support staff, would have stepped away in droves, so an approval rating near 40% is dismaying. But this is also profoundly illustrative of the point I’d like to make.
Think about how difficult questions are answered – through debate, intellectual confrontation, argument, and dissension. That last concept is important, because it embodies a very important corollary – the willingness to take a disagreement right to the end point, to break ranks and walk away.
And team politics forbids that.
The very tactic asserted as highly important by Party leaders takes away an important tool in critiquing and improving Party ideology. If you’re staring at the circus in Washington and wondering just how Representative Ryan and company can pass the AHCA and celebrate it, here’s your answer. There is no criticism they need really fear. Oh, sure, the first try failed, because it was too moderate – the extremists are least susceptible to the Party ideology. But they took a little time to work over the moderates, amended the Bill slightly (let’s not pretend it was improved) to get the extremists on board, warned everyone about Party discipline, and rammed it home while everyone was wavering.
So what are left with? A wee bit of discussion, but the elite of the Party dictate, because the general membership cannot pick and choose. They’re in or they’re out, on their honor.
And so they elected honorless politicians who tell their base what they want to hear – and not the truth. There is no picking and choosing because of incompetency or worse. He made it on the ballot with the ‘R’ following his name, he’ll be voted for.
And the consequences, so far, are that we are the laughingstock of the world.
And what do I fear? That the Democrats will stalk down the same path, the un-American path of unending loyalty to some Party – rather than principle.
The independent voter may be the savior of the United States.
