Dear Editor:

When it comes to political parties (i.e., party for party sake), I wouldn’t give five cents for today’s Democrat OR Republican brand.

A Mr. Bill King, writing for National Politics on March 22, 2018, echoes so well my own take on the matter of political parties monopolizing and dictating our supposed “representative government” affairs, that I simply quote him here:

“The current ruling two-party duopoly is so ubiquitous that we take it as a given. We teach the ‘two-party system’ in government classes. Taxpayers pay for their primary elections, notwithstanding that, legally, parties are private associations. We have allowed the two ruling parties to institutionalize themselves in our political and governing systems. They get preferential ballot access and legislative committee assignments, and campaign finance laws are rigged in their favor, just to name a few of the advantages they are afforded.

“Given this dominance, one might conclude that the two-party system arises from our constitutional roots. But in fact, the opposite is the case. Virtually every one of the Founding Fathers eschewed the idea of political parties, and fretted over what might happen to the country if political parties were to come to dominate the country.” – then sharing the following sample quotes:

* President George Washington, devoting nearly a third of his Farewell Address to this concern, concluded, “Let me now warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the spirit of party….It opens the door to foreign influence and corruption.”

* President John Adams: “There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties, each arranged under its leader, and concerting measures in opposition to each other.”

* President Thomas Jefferson: “If I could not go to heaven but with a political party, I would decline to go.” ( 😛 !)

* Thomas Paine: “A man under the tyranny of party spirit is the greatest slave upon the earth, for none but himself can deprive him of the freedom of thought.”

One of the best things that could happen to improve the functioning of our Constitutional Republic would be the passage of a national referendum outlawing all political party affiliation as relating to elected public office. Will it ever happen?!

Carol Asher
March 21, 2022