When I first registered to vote in the latter half of my sophomore year of college, I did not understand a thing about politics. I just wanted to learn and to have my voice count for something. I registered as independent, not knowing what I stood for just yet. Reading article after article about republicans that refused to make the necessary changes to make this a stronger, happier and healthier country for the sake of greed and corruption, I decided I was a Democrat. As the presidential race started to pick up heat, I began supporting Senator Bernie Sanders from Vermont and made the switch to Democrat in order to vote for him in the New York primaries; sadly New York has a broken system and I was confirmed as democrat after its primary. Nevertheless, I was a Democrat on paper, but I could not regret that decision more. I will be submitting my voter registration for the third time in the course of a year to become Independent once more.
I am doing so for several reasons. The most important reason is the understanding that the party you join holds its values and it is almost impossible for the people to morph it into anything better. Consider the Democratic Party. The entire presidential race was geared towards making Hillary president nearly a year or more before the primaries even began. Before any other Democrat even decided to run, those of great power in the Democratic Party were bought off, forced, or told to support Clinton. The use of media to uplift Clinton while tearing down Sanders and practically hiding his existence by never showing his speeches unless the podium was empty, by never talking about his positions in a positive light, and by never mentioning his name unless necessary made it impossible for him or any other potential candidate to stand a chance, and it was orchestrated by the party regardless of what the common man wanted. As a matter a fact, he gained more air time on television after ending his run for presidency when he began to speak out more against trump, which in turn benefited Clinton, the candidate of the elites. For countless reasons one candidate was preferred by the masses and would have been better for the party and its progress, but parties are often fueled by corruption and run on what the elites of the party desire, rather than what the people want or need.
Furthermore, joining a party often creates dependence and ignorance in the layman. For example, I know many people including my parents that are not well versed in politics and have no plans to learn or understand it better. Yet, they joined the Democratic Party because they are more progressive than the Republicans. At the same time, I know similar people who join the Republican Party because they hear of the corruption and lies of the Democratic Party. In the end, many of these people don’t understand why they are a part of their party and joined simply to vote based on information they heard rather than what they have researched. I like to call these people, in the least disrespectful way possible, “party slaves.” This includes my parents who were originally going to vote for Clinton before I discussed facts with them. Many people voted for Clinton simply because she is the most well-known Democrat and nothing more. Many people voted Republican or will vote for Trump simply because he’s Republican and that’s what they are expected to do. Thus parties gain advantage from these types of party members that will vote for their nominee regardless of who it may be. They benefit from having uninformed followers who have faith in them. This is dangerous and allows parties to put politicians in power that are not beneficial for the people or this country, but many will not realize this before it is too late.
To a greater extent, parties are a problem because they divide us. Along with the aforementioned uninformed people, many informed individuals will also stand divided simply because they are from different parties. Rather than listening to each other on valid points and working together to elect leaders that move us in the best, we argue on whether it must be a Democrat or Republican. That cannot even be said for the lesser known parties whose voices are never heard outside of the faint roars of the Green Party which has quickly been surging in this presidential race with their incredibly progressive candidate, Jill Stein.
This may make you question why I say these things since I clearly supported and continue to support Bernie Sanders, who is now a Democrat. To clarify, Senator Sanders is the longest running independent politician in congress. He joined the presidential race to promote progressivism and make positive changes in this country, but the party system has owned politics for ages now and running as independent would have been a quick demise. Thus he ran through the Democratic Party in an attempt to create a political revolution, which he most definitely has. So while Sanders is technically a Democrat, he is the exemplar of a politician that was never owned by the corruption of the party system and is instead utilizing it to create the change we need. His views are vastly different and more progressive than the standard Democratic platform, but he is using the party as a mean to achieve the necessary goals.
What I wish is that it wasn’t necessary to use a corrupt party system to achieve goals that would better this country. Bernie gained voters during his run, yes, but he also lost Republicans that may have views that align more with his than they may initially believe; that, however, they may never know. At the same time, uninformed Democrats may never have heard his name because of the way the Democratic Party controls everything they can to achieve what they please rather than what the people do. For all these reasons and more, I do not believe in the party system. I truthfully believe that without these intangible bonds that bind countless Americans, there would be more unity among us and a need to research and understand politics so that we may make the best possible decision rather than trusting the often corrupt herd of elites.
When our first president, George Washington, left office and set guidelines to help lead this country down a road of success and unity, he explicitly said to not create parties as they would destroy that unity. For far too long it has done just that. Parties have become too powerful and too corrupt. Our voices are silenced in favor of what they please, and they feed off our lack of knowledge. They often tell us what we like to hear and deceive us through rhetoric. Unity is what we need now more than ever with so many problems arising that will affect us, this country, and this planet. That may never be accomplished through what we have now, and thus I ask for people to reconsider where they stand. Are you a member of a party? For what reasons? Do you trust them? Let this be one of the few splashes in the water. Let this create the ripples that spark attention to this matter. Let’s begin to change for the better, to make our own decisions, and perhaps one day revolutionize a long-broken system.
