Tuesday, October 13, 2009
It's time for a third party
From the RoundTable blog
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Patrick Touart
Touart, of Pittsylvania County, is the lead social studies teacher at Tunstall High School.
As I write this, we are a nation adrift. We have to look no further than the nightly news to see that there is overwhelming anger and distrust concerning our government. In 2008, Americans turned out the party in power and focused their hope on a candidate who offered change. It is clear that while change was on the minds of Americans, support for any other agenda was not.
The Republican Party had clearly lost its bearing, and many Americans felt they had no alternative but to vote for a Democratic candidate. I am gravely concerned about the direction our country has taken, not only under the present administration but in the past ones as well.
America is hungry for a new path, but a viable alternative has yet to present itself on a national scale. If ever there was a time for a new national party, it is now.
This may strike many as naive or impractical, but it is not without historical precedence. In 1854, the Republican Party was born, and by 1861, it held the White House. Many Americans define themselves as independents, and many others are wholly disaffected with both parties and the political process as a whole.
My inspiration for this writing is none other than perhaps our greatest president, George Washington. In 1796, he wrote a brilliant farewell address to warn our infant nation of the potential problems he envisioned. His ideas may be more than 200 years old, but they remain as prescient and as true today as they were so many years ago.
He wrote, "Let me warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the spirit of party generally." He saw governance not as a partisan enterprise, but as a patriotic duty. Today's spirit of partisanship is so divisive that the business of governance is a sham. I believe most Americans feel that neither party represents their best interests.
The benefit of a major third party would be immediately felt as Americans who are disgusted with the other parties would finally have a viable alternative. Any new party must reflect the desires of most Americans and not the extremes of either faction.
The current administration was able to capitalize on the mantra of change, but clearly failed to articulate a particular vision that resonated with Americans. A third party must champion an agenda that can be supported by the majority of Americans. This agenda must address many of the glaring problems our nation is facing.
A new domestic agenda must feature a substantial reduction of the size of the federal government, including ending the annual increase in government spending. It should feature the elimination of a host of federal entities and a revamped, smaller cabinet. At the same time, it should see rigorous enforcement of existing regulatory laws. The Republican dogma used to claim government was the problem, and to a degree that is true. But the government must be a muscular watchdog of the nation's interests as envisioned by Theodore Roosevelt.
This party should seek to eliminate the influence of lobbyists, corporate welfare and pork-barrel spending. A major overhaul of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid is an absolute necessity. The notion of adding to these entitlements while they are going bankrupt is absurd.
Washington wrote, "Cherish public credit. One method of preserving it is to use it as sparingly as possible." The national debt is a looming catastrophe, and neither party has any credibility in addressing it. We in Virginia understand sacrifice because of our balanced budget laws, but we are also one of the best-governed states in the nation because of this regulatory austerity. We also must see the development of a fair and simpler tax code while rigorously pursuing banking, corporate and other tax and legal abusers.
Any new party should focus on the issues that most threaten our nation and avoid the peripheral red meat that fires up partisan ideologues, but ultimately fails to address the gravest problems we face. I have no illusions that this is perhaps a quixotic dream, but the present course is a prescription for the collapse of our nation from within.
