Issue of the Week

Issue:

Are political parties at risk of becoming disconnected from the People?  At this time, both of the major political parties in the United States are facing disruption deriving from populist movements.  In both cases, the party regulars (“the establishment”) and their processes for choosing presidential candidates are being exposed and challenged by insurgents.  These movements are raising the question: “Do the parties represent the will of the people, or the interests of the party leaders?”

Analysis:

Several of our founding fathers expressed strong opinions about political parties.

John Adams: “There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties, each arranged under its leader, and concerting measures in opposition to each other.  This, in my humble apprehension, is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our Constitution.”

Thomas Jefferson: "I never submitted the whole system of my opinions to the creed of any party of men whatever, in religion, in philosophy, in politics, or in anything else, where I was capable of thinking for myself. Such an addiction is the last degradation of a free and moral agent. If I could not go to heaven but with a party, I would not go there at all."

George Washington in his farewell address warned of the “continual mischiefs of he spirit of party” making it the “interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it.”  …..and finally, he warned, "The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself afrightful despotism."

 and the list goes on….and on.

 In short, our founding fathers were greatly concerned about the motivation of political party leadership.  Is this the situation we are facing at this time?  The leadership (or “establishment”) of both the Republican and Democratic parties are acting in a manner that is highly protective of their role in and control of their respective parties.  Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders have strong popular support, i.e., they are “Populists”.  Because of the leaderships’ concerns about control, they have both put in place processes and mechanisms that minimize the opportunity for “outsiders”, i.e., candidates who are not part of the party establishment to become the candidates of “their” party.  Let’s understand that Webster defines a Populist as “a member or adherent of a political party seeking to represent the interests of ordinary people.”  So, the party leaders fear that the desires of the People will lead to a loss of their power.

Our Founding Fathers expressed their concerns that the dominance of political parties would subvert the will of the People, i.e., ordinary citizens like you and me, to the interests of the party leadership; and that is exactly what is being challenged right now.

So, will this be the year that the people throw off the power of the party establishments and have their will in one or both parties?  Will the two established parties be broken up and “reform-ed” due to deep differences among the factions?