Chris Berry On The Net

Conventional wisdom says that the close results in our recent presidential elections indicate that we are a deeply divided nation. I believe it actually tells us something quite different. If American voters were not constantly and deliberately distracted by divisive fringe issues, I believe we would find that we have more in common than not. This is exactly what the established parties don’t want to happen, since a broad moderate consensus on meaningful issues would seriously diminish their power and influence.

The political parties as they exist today bear no resemblance to the Democrats and Republicans that our parents and grandparents supported. They simply no longer represent the core values and constituencies that brought them to power in the first place. Today’s political parties are nothing more than unholy alliances of divergent interests, cobbled together for the sole purpose of clinging to power. It doesn’t seem to matter what they stand for, and long as they are in control.

The Republican party of old stood for strong national defense, a pro-business approach to regulation and taxes, and above all, fiscal restraint. In an effort to continually broaden it’s coalition, the party has allowed itself to be hijacked by the so called social conservatives who would wall off our borders, teach our children creationism as science, and deny abortions to rape victims. Republicans today are more concerned with banning gay marriage than keeping our fiscal house in order, and their reckless spending habits put drunken sailors to shame.

It’s not just the Republicans who have lost their way. The Democrats were once staunch defenders of American workers, but now welcome illegal immigrants with open arms. The party that championed civil rights and a color blind society, now works diligently to preserve group identities for the sole purpose of keeping us divided. The party of education worries more about appeasing unionized teachers than on providing our children an opportunity for a decent education.

Unfortunately, both parties are now entirely beholden to their own fringe elements, since they represent the additional votes needed to put together a winning coalition. If either party ignores the strident voices of their most extreme members, they risk losing their tenuous grasp on power. While this may be a winning strategy for the short-term, over time the parties risk alienating the majority of their members by kowtowing to the extremes. Eventually, voters will recognize that the parties are no longer worthy of their continued brand loyalty. Like the Federalist, Whig, and Bull Moose parties before them, perhaps it’s time for the Democrats and Republicans to fade into the history books.

The combined fringe elements of both parties probably represent no more than 35% of the total electorate. That leaves a large majority of potential voters who could be swayed by reasonable and responsible positions on issues that really matter. Since the established parties seem to be no longer capable of presenting us with reasonable choices, there is an opening for a candidate with the courage to ignore the extremes and reach out to moderate voters from both camps. Centrist elements from both sides could form more sensible and more productive alliances with each other than with the extremes within their own parties. There is little doubt that the Blue Dog Democrats share more in common with fiscally conservative Republicans than with MoveOn.org.

Third parties rising from either extreme of the ideological spectrum are generally doomed to fail. They may garner sufficient votes to swing the balance of power from one major party to the other, but only in very rare instances will they represent a sufficient number of votes to establish a power base of their own. The only real threat to our current two-party system comes from the center. If enough moderate voters realized that the parties no longer reflected their interests and beliefs, a successful third party could emerge.

If we are to have any chance of overthrowing the established parties, we must focus on the important issues we agree on, rather than continuing to fight the same battles over those we don’t. Instead of continuing a decades long stalemate over divisive issues like abortion or gun control, let’s set these concerns aside for the time being so that we can make progress on more pressing issues. If you as an individual voter lack the knowledge or intellectual curiosity to escape your single issue mindset, do the rest of us a favor and please stay home on election day.

Here are a few ideas that could serve as the basis for a broad moderate consensus. If we took the time to examine all of the critical issues that we face, I suspect we would find many more ideas that we could agree on. We might not choose the same approach to solving some of these problems, but at least we can agree that they require our urgent attention. If we focus on the important issues that we can agree on, rather than continuing to squabble over those we don’t, we might actually get something accomplished in this country.

We must figure out a way to reduce the corrupting influence of special interest money on the political process. We must become responsible stewards of the earth, and work to develop commonsense environmental policies based on sound science and thorough cost benefit analysis. We must recognize that energy independence is an urgent matter of national security that we ignore at our peril.

We must immediately address the looming insolvency of our Social Security and Medicare systems before we pass along a debt that future generations cannot possibly pay. We must maintain a strong military to be used as a last resort when our national security is directly threatened. We must conduct our affairs in such a manner that we never lack the moral authority to promote our interests throughout the world.

We must negotiate agreements with our global trading partners that are both free and fair. We must recognize that employment trends are changing rapidly, and new alternatives are needed to take the place of employer sponsored health care and retirement programs. We must accept the fact that we cannot simultaneously lower taxes and increase spending.

These are my humble suggestions for a common sense consensus. I encourage you to add yours to the list.