One of the first things my fellow citizens who are either Republicans or Democrats or just beaten down by the 2 party system say when I tell them I’m an Independent and a Centrist is “well sooner or later you are going to have to pick a side. The two party system isn’t going anywhere”. I usually counter that I vote for the person, not the party, because I believe that good ideas can come from anywhere on the political spectrum and don’t want to be stuck to one side or the other. They then usually try to pin me down and declare which side I really am secretly for based on where I stand on particular issues, but not before trying to burst my bubble that the two party system can ever be done away with. Talk about your buzz killers!
It is a lesson that took me until my early 40’s to fully accept and learn how to handle, but there will ALWAYS be negative people full of negative thoughts and ideas all too eager to try and bring you down and “back to reality”, or at least reality as they see it. And in truth, they actually serve a great purpose in life, and I’ve begrudgingly (on my best days) come to appreciate their existence….somewhat.
Because what it means is that only those ideas and dreams that are backed by hard work, perseverance, and a little bit of luck will ever become reality, and that is how it should be I suppose. No one ever said life was easy or fair, and as the saying goes “fair is a place where they judge pigs”. And as much as I hate to admit it, there can be some measure of beauty in overcoming the hard parts of life, to have tested your ideas and dreams in “the arena” that Teddy Roosevelt once spoke about.
When it comes to inspiration to get up each day and fight the good fight against the forces of “no”, there are a few voices from the past that give me chills every single time I hear them. JFK giving his famous “moon” speech is one of them. Even just reading the transcript gives me a goose bump or two. See for yourself…..
“…..But why some say ‘the moon’? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask, why climb the highest mountain? Why 35 years ago fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas? WE CHOOSE TO GO TO THE MOON!! We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard!!…..”
Now tell me you didn’t get goosebumps, even just a little. We are Americans. We do the hard things. On purpose.
Will bringing about the end of the 2 party system be an easy or quick task? Certainly not. It has had a 225+ year head start and has everything going for it, not the least of which is money and organization. And it will not go without a fight. An ugly fight. But in the end it will go, it is just a question of “when”, not “if”.
How can I be so confident in that assessment? Two things.
First, for many years now more and more Americans have been registering (as I have) as “no party affiliation” or as Independents. Today, as I write this, more Americans are registered as something other than “Republican” or “Democrat” than are actually registered as either of those. People vote with their feet, and their feet are saying ‘no’ to the 2 party system.
Second, in a word, gerrymandering. The very fact that political parties in power feel the need to resort to tinkering with electoral maps in order to win is a sign of weakness. Let that sink in for a minute. Deep down it is a sign of weakness, not strength. If any party truly believed it has the best ideas out there, it would not need to resort to playing games with maps, it would be confident enough to withstand and win out in any discussion of ideas with their opponents.
Suddenly, our ‘moonshot’ isn’t feeling so out of reach now, is it?
Perry Waag 