Command Briefs: The Problem With Political Parties

The Problem With Political Parties:

Shortcomings and Limitations

by MG William Flatt

I have seen the rise and fall of many "3rd Party" organizations that shared the goals and vision of the patriot movement; in particular the restoration of our constitutionally limited representative republic. I have long wondered if it would be even possible for such a political party to think and operate "outside the box" in the way that our founding fathers did. They were willing, at least, to resort to force after being properly motivated by Thomas Paine and his pamphlet, "Common Sense". Today's third parties do not appear to have the same level of motivation. They seem more concerned with their organizational well-being and self-interest than with the good and well-fare of the People.

I wonder, though, if even a party infused with the original "spirit of '76" can long endure without falling into the partisan trap we were so presciently warned of by George Washington. If I were put to the task of writing a new constitution with much stronger safeguards on Liberty than what we have had in the past, I think that I would support the complete abolition of parties. Not only have knowledgeable Americans in this late hour seen that the major political parties have become the epitome of tyranny, they have justly become distrustful of all political parties! We cannot afford to make the mistakes the federalists did in 1788 and presume that our basic law should be "written as if good men will take office", as Patrick Henry told the Constitutional Convention.

Parties Perpetuate the Status Quo

I like the Patriot Party, as well as the Libertarian Party. Yet I believe that even the Libertarian Party, having been incorporated under the Internal Revenue Code, is an entity that would entirely discard the need to resort to other means should peaceful remonstrance and petitions for redress ultimately fail to restore a constitutional republic to our nation. Once the evil genie of tyranny is released, it does not willingly return to its bottle. Force must be employed to return it to its confinement. Any party established and commited to working solely within the system, no matter how corrupted the system may be, is a party that has compromised its first responsibility to the law of Liberty. Only when we resolve without reservation to abolish something that has become utterly destructive of Liberty, can any organization establish Justice; and that is why the mainstream media and statist elites are so afraid of the militia movement. The militias of the states want to restore lawful, de jure government obedient to our Constitution, and we are for the most part not afraid to commit to the legitimate use of force in self defense - should peaceful measures be exhausted and we are in imminent danger of being reduced to abject slavery.

The trick, of course, is to know when is when. Since no political party has the legitimate authority to say "when", a representative body is needed that can exercise the authority of initiating active resistance to the establishment of absolute tyranny. In the beginning of our nation, this body was called the Continental Congress, and such a body exists today, and the Third Continental Congress is dealing with the same issues of freedom vs. tyranny that our forebears contended with. Like the first two Continental Congresses, 3CC exists without a "center aisle" dividing two major parties, or a multiplicity of parties or philosophies. It simply has one goal: the restoration of a limited representative republic and the attendant freedoms that such a form of government is designed to protect.

A Party System is Bad for Everyone Concerned

As the traditional method of electioneering usually restricts a candidate to one political party, that candidate becomes chained to the platform of that particular party. It is to the detriment of that candidate and the public at large, that in an election, party affiliation and its related policy positions determine the opinions of the voters. It hurts the candidate because the party may advance positions that the candidate may oppose, and therefore slants his reputation with the public. It hurts the public because they may develop the false perception that a candidate may support all of - or particular - positions of the party (solely by virtue of that affiliation), which in turn causes people to not vote for that candidate even though he or she may in fact be the individual best suited to serve the electorate.

We can ill afford to fail in our mission of re-establishing a constitutional republic, and we will, if we adopt the mistakes of the past. Nowhere in the Constitution, Bill of Rights, Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation, or any of the Declarations and Resolves of the first two Continental Congresses do I see any mention of parties. They have been the bane of our national existence, driving public debate into a Hegelian dialectic of thesis-antithesis-synthesis, a manipulation of the issues that has consistently worked against the public good over the long term. Parties have given us an Us-or-Them mentality that has led King George XLIII himself to say "If you're not with us, then you're against us".

I aver to each of you that the future well-being of this nation depends on the abolition of organized partisan politics and a return to the selection of individual candidates for office, based on their qualifications and individual positions on public issues. Candidates to public office should no longer be allowed to hide behind the mantle of parties, where power is traded fatcat bosses and secretly employed to direct the tenor and direction of public debate.

If my words alone haven't convinced you on this matter, then look no further than today's news and the (mis)behavior of the Democrats and Republicans. They represent the end product of any party-politic system.