I asked myself a few weeks ago, "what political party am I affiliated with?" I'm from an immigrant family, so maybe I'm a democrat. On the other hand, I am for having english being the official national language of this country, so maybe I'm a republican. I'm all about tax cuts for the middle class, so maybe I'm a donkey. At the same time, the economist in me says that tax cuts for the rich do indeed trickle down in the long run, so darnit, I must be a elephant. I am a political conundrum, but I like to think that deep down, most of us truly are.
We tend to see political allegiance as being 1-dimensional. Imagine, if you will, a number line going from -20 to 20. Looking at this line, we define democrats as being to the left and republicans being to the right. at about zero is a true moderate. But, how is our political affiliation in any way, shape or form, 1-dimensional? More accurately, our political identity should be represented in some grandiose n-space, where there are n issues we care about and have opinions about. With such a space, it would be near impossible and, if possible, impractical to attach some name to each and every set of political identities.
Our political views should not be defined as being either republican or democrat. Quite the opposite, our political identity should be defined by a summation of our political views. I, myself, see my identity as being politically moderate. Not moderate in the ways that it is used today, implying that I ride the fence on every issue, but moderate in the sense that there is always a gray area that is a better solution than the black or the white.
The problem here in lies with the inherent flaw of the two party system. The two party system relies on marketing extreme ideas. It is in a party's best interest to take a absolute stance on an issue, showing their fortitude and conviction. In response, the other party takes stark the contrast of that view and viola, the right and the left. If two parties are so alike, what would motivate a person to choose one or another? Rinse, repeat, rinse, repeat, and we've got our most liberal of liberals and our most conservatives of conservatives preaching absolutes.
Absolut is a pretty decent vodka but makes for horrible policy.
to be continued...
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2 comments:
haha :) That's why I'm an issues voter. I'd really be quite happy to vote for things instead of people, except then I think we'd have even less voter turnout than we already do because you can't criticise what a policy is wearing.
This is great info to know.
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