A New Political Party?

The words have been blaring at me for the past few weeks. "What happened to our country?" "Our increasingly unrecognizable civilization." "Where has my country gone?" And more. The past few years have made an incredible (and I don't toss around that term as loosely as most) transformation of the United States. It may be hyperbole, but much of US society might well be "unrecognizable" just a few short decades ago. We all know about the government response to CoVid, it's often arbitrary, contradictory, and even ridiculous orders. I don't know if the politicians and bureaucrats have "saved lives" or even brought the virus to a quicker end. More recent revelations, often ignored by the mainstream media, strongly indicate thinking people don't either. ("Believing" is not "knowing.") There's no need to recount in detail what we do know, that the government and bureaucratic orders have caused irreparable damage to the US--economically, socially, psychologically, and more. Only the willfully blind can deny that. Businesses, jobs, and income lost. Increases in suicides, spousal violence, and drug and alcohol abuse. The harm, educationally, socially, and psychologically, to our youths. All this in the guise of something that we don't know, "saving lives." For whatever reasons, too, Americans have shifted their attitudes, being increasingly acquiescent to government, well, dictates. A recent article describing oppostion to government mandates decried it as "rebellious attitude." Hmmm. "Rebellious" for trying to stand up for rights and liberty? Americans are far more tolerant of dishonesty and other formerly bad behaviors, especially if it comes from their guy/side. We have accepted inequality before the law. Our government has become decidedly unrepresenative. I, for one, have become convinced of the bankruptcy of the philosophies, principles, and policies by which we've been governed. There is a gigantic chasm between the reality of my life and the thoughts and actions of our elected representatives, those chosen to govern us. It may be arguable, but many Americans believe they have been deprived of a place in the present political system. (I acknowledge that much of American history shows that many groups have also been deprived. That was wrong. But it's also wrong to deprive others while tryng to "fix" that.) For people in this new group which feels deprived, the "representative" part of representative government doesn't exist for them. American democracy has developed an unrepresentative character. Are the only viable alternatives for this large mass of people to either retreat further into a state of apathy, accepting the modern verson of the Roman "bread and circuses" (government handouts, television and movies, sports, etc.), or assaulting the system, perhaps violently? This has been done by the rioters, er "peaceful protesters," in many of our cities. There have been assaults on government properties and even officials, well, if they are members of the wrong political party. But perhaps there is another option. To me, the Democrats and Establishment Republicans do not conform to the traditional two-party system employed by the US from the late 1700s and early 1800s. As noted, they have become bankrupt in their philosophies and principles. The Democrats submit to the craziest, looniest members of their party. To justify their undemocratic, authoritarian, etc. policies (and goals), they often redefine terms to suit themselves. The Republicans have lost their soul. For instance, where the Democrats urge the spending of trillions of federal dollars, the Establishment GOP counters with spending only a lesser amount of trillions of dollars. If we are not too far gone, the answer might lie in a new political party, one that represents more of the people than either the Democrats or the Republicans. I'm not talking about a splinter party (The Bull Moose Progressives, the American Independents) as we've seen in the past nor a third/minor party (The Libertarians, the Green Party). Sometimes they have been sigificant, but usually only in helping to determine the outcomes of Presidential elections, for instance in 1848, 1912, 1948, and 1992. (We might even argue that in regard to Lincoln's election in 1860.) It's apparent the Green Party candidacies of Ralph Nader in 2000 and Jill Stein in 2016 affected the results. No, a real major party. We haven't had one since the current Republican Party was founded in 1854. In its own way, the early Republican Party satisfied, at least in part, old Whigs, the Freesoilers, and unhappy Democrats (over slavery). The Republicans offered new philosophies and principles. It was remarkably successful almost from the start. In 1856, its candidate John C. Fremont (The Pathfinder, what a cool nickname!) narrowly lost the Presidential election to Democrat James Buchanan. And of course, the Republican Abraham Lincoln was elected four years later. This will not be easy and, frankly, I don't see it happening for many reasons. Roadblocks include the vast infusion of money into the political system, a lapdog media, and, well, the apathy of American citizens. Additionally, can we find men and women who are willing and courageous enough to search for and promote alternatives to the obsolete and bankrupt policies of the current two major parties? Unless they embrace "wokeism," people with new ideas or ideas that return us to more traditional American princples are attacked, even dishonestly. They are assaulted by the two current parties and by the media, often dishonestly. Donald Trump did this with a number of possible hopes, destroying their futures with lies. We'll see and I can hope. More later.