Theoretically, when it comes to political parties, you have a choice. In totalitarian countries, one had (or has in the case of North Korea) only one party to choose from. Here, in the US, we have only really two. In most truly democratic countries, they have several viable parties from which to choose. If democracy is about choice, what does that make us? One step up from totalitarianism… When we hold political debates, how many parties are invited to speak? How many parties have the millions of dollars needed to pay off the media to get their candidates names out to the public? Even if (by some miracle or disaster) 99% of the American voting public voted for a third party candidate for president, why is it that the choice for president would come down to whichever of the two (Republican or Democrat) got the majority of the 1% of the vote that went to those two parties? And how many Americans are aware that our vaunted democracy is so clearly out of alignment with what democracy is supposed to be?
Essay Question: How would you fix it? How would you give all candidates for all public service positions, and all parties, an equal chance to stand before the people, to deliver forth their ideas and plans for the future, and allow we the people to choose which from among them to believe and to follow? How would you make our democracy one that other countries might actually consider following, rather than laugh at, or fight tooth and nail against?
(Please keep in mind that this is an exercise in free thinking, which is still guaranteed by the first amendment of the Constitution. Your instructor’s basic hypothesis is that our system is set up primarily to prevent any real change, with the power switching hands quite regularly between republicans and democrats, and nothing really fundamental ever changing. We still have huge numbers of homeless, of poor, of uninsured, of undereducated, and a proportionately minute number of extremely rich people protected by the very rich and powerful leaders of both parties. This protects the corporate interests that foot the bill for this system, and benefit disproportionately from it, and we are left with the illusion of a democratic system, which obeys the general will of the voters, as long as we remain ignorant of the truth. I’m asking you to rock the boat now, while you can, if you wish to take up the challenge, because when most of you finish college and join the system, you will be rowing the boat, rather than rocking it. On the other hand, if you disagree with this hypothesis, please have at it as well, but do read the chapters in Parenti before plunging in.)