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The Democratic-Republican two-party system is undemocratic, anti-republican, and tends toward one-party rule. Cross-posted at Poli-Tea:
1) No party system whatsoever is mandated by the Constitution of the United States.The Democratic-Republican two-party system is undemocratic, anti-republican, and tends toward one-party rule.
2) To maintain that political representation in the United States cannot function otherwise than by means of the reigning two-party system is to imply that the Constitution of the United States does not in fact constitute a functional representative government.
3) It is commonly asserted that, in the two-party system, the Democratic and Republican Parties each act as a check and balance against the other. Such statements are not only false, they are dangerous fabrications, confusing an extra-constitutional political convention with the constitutional construction of the United States of America.
4) Plurality voting may tend to produce a two-party system of political contests in a given polity, but the Democratic-Republican two-party system of political representation has degenerated into a one-party state in polities across the United States.
5) The monopolization and centralization of political power by the Democratic and Republican Parties represents a threat to constitutional republican government. The Democratic and Republican Parties are nothing more than the political organs of narrow factional interests.
6) The politics of the Democratic-Republican two-party state are primarily reactionary in character. Support for the one is predicated, first and foremost, on rejection of the other.
7) The reproduction of the two-party state is justified by means of nothing more than a set of ideological mystifications: lesser-evilism, historical determinism, the virtue of political impatience, etc.
8) Presented with the false choice between a Republican and a Democrat in the majority of elections – when they are provided with a choice at all –, the majority of voters reject both, opting not to vote rather than vote Republican or Democrat. The Democratic-Republican duopoly system of government is a crisis of democracy.
9) The US electorate is composed of a highly diverse body of individuals and groups comprising a multi-polar social order. The bi-polar order of the two-party state is structurally incapable of adequately representing this multiplicity of interests.
10) Political independence is the condition of political freedom. Insofar the the people of the United States remain dependent upon the Democratic and Republican Parties for their political representation, the people of the United States are not free; rather, we are subject to a "frightful despotism."
4 comments:
Everyone who is interested in this topic should define "two-party system" in his or her writing, near the beginning of the piece. The irony is that confusion over the true meaning of this term helps perpetuate the very evils described in this blog post. "Two-party system" was coined in 1911 to describe the British party system. It didn't mean a system in which the government tries to squeeze all parties other than the two dominant parties out of existence. It just meant a system in which two parties are larger than all the others. But enemies of third parties have changed the definition on us. We should fight back and point out the semantic trickery, instead of swallowing the new "definition".
Here's one potential definition, Anon: the "two-party system" is the institutional and ideological straitjacket that has been forced upon the people of the United States by the entrenched establishmentarian interests represented by the Democratic and Republican Parties to further solidify their monopoly on political power and representation. What do you think? btw, do you happen to have the source for that coinage?
The American Political Science Association Journal - one of the 1911 issues. Each issue has an index of terms.
Thanks Anon, I'll try and track it down.
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