The two-party system provides checks and balances so that one sector of citizenry don't end up dominating the political system. In recent elections the American people have tended to vote for a conservative President and a liberal congress or vice-versa, thinking that one branch of the government can deal with controlling spending while the other can dole out the welfare checks. This is not the best use for the two-party system. Also, choosing a President based on the current world political situation is not a healthy way for us to choose our Presidents. In the 20th Century the Democratic Party controlled both houses of Congress for the longest time. Until the present day administration of President George W. Bush the two houses of Congress were perennially in Democratic hands.
Historically the Democratic Party grew strong by representing the poor, the dispossessed, and the new immigrants. Democrats are fond of saying to newly naturalized citizens, "Join the Democratic Party, we're for the small guy." The naturalized immigrant is usually so appreciative of becoming a full-fledged US citizen that he or she is likely to be flattered and feel welcomed. It has been generally suggested that if you're a newly naturalized citizen the Democratic Party is your best bet. This trend has been with us for over half a century. The Republicans have abstained from this practice of inviting new citizens to join their ranks for too long. They hold out for those individuals that value independence, freedom and loyalty to the old American values. I suppose that's why they're called the Grand Old Party.
Meanwhile the Democratic Party has continued on its merry way of catering to the immigrants, promising them everything under the sun. However, by absorbing the newly naturalized immigrants, the Party has been gradually shifting its focus toward serving the interests of these still not quite assimilated citizens. These interests, at times of international crisis, such as we have now, essentially represent foreign interests, because for many immigrants from diverse cultures it takes longer than five years to get assimilated into the American way of life. I'm not saying that this is a deliberate or conscious effort on the part of the Democrats to represent foreign interests, but it's the upshot of the natural process in representing the great majority of the newly naturalized immigrants.
And it's not just the effort of the Democrats to represent this sector of the population almost exclusively that creates this anomaly, the Democrats have carried this approach to politics with respect to all other groups, so they're on the forefront clamoring for the rights of gays and lesbians, the rights of the illegal farm workers, the rights of women to abortion, the rights of minorities in the job market, the rights of underprivileged students, and so on and so on, until they've been called the bleeding heart liberals. They've overdone it and there's no way they can deliver for all these groups where there's oftentimes a conflict of interest as to which group to serve.
You can't raise gay and lesbian relationships to the level of marriage and still uphold the American standards of morality.
You can't help both the resident farm workers and the illegal farm workers at the same time. The resident farm worker will end up in the street, while the illegal farm worker draws on the benefits of the tax payers.
You can't allow everybody to abort their babies at will, because then the parents will end up telling their children someday, "I should've never brought you into this world!" The marriage contract and the rights of the children should be emphasized over real estate contracts, government contracts and multi-million dollar contracts, if we want to have a decent society.
You can't hire minorities on the basis of their race and ethnicity, because you'll end up turning down highly skilled individuals that can compete with the great industrialized nations, such as Germany and Japan, in the technological sector. It's more worthwhile to train and educate the minority students at the top level and treat them equally with non-minority students. This way there will be no need to even favor one group of applicants to higher education over another. It's been a well-proven fact that minority students are just as intelligent as all other students regardless of race or ethnicity.
Treating the minorities and the newly arrived immigrants to this country as special cases that require help is detrimental to their success. Putting newly arrived immigrants on welfare encourages them to stay at the poverty level much longer. Giving doctors and nurses that come from foreign countries, that don't speak English well, dishwashing jobs is a waste of their abilities and a detriment for both them and the American patients who receive substandard care. It's these practices that drop the level of American doctors and nurses. When competition is based on knowing a language and not based on skill, this is truly discrimination of the worst kind. There are ways to solve such problems and get the benefit of the great experience that comes to our shores. Let's not worry about discrimination only on the lowest level. Democrats are so eager to get everybody to vote that they don't even care if the person understands anything of what he or she is voting for. They want people just to be able to vote for them and then they pretend that democracy has been achieved.
The Democratic Party has dropped the level of participation in political life to such lows that educated people don't even bother to vote. If every vote is to count, the people have to value their privilege to register and vote. That means they must take the trouble to study the issues by reading the pamphlets supplied by the election officials and study the reports from the media and participate in whatever forum they can attend.
But the Democrats play on the fear of the people. Vote for us and we'll make sure you'll get your welfare check, your social security benefits. They create such an atmosphere of suspicion among the lower income classes and the poor immigrants that the newly naturalized citizens feel that the Democrats are the party of the poor and that the Republicans are the party of the rich.
The Democrats also pretend that they're for peace. Kerry is now campaigning to pull the US forces from Iraq. Imagine the depth to which the Democratic Party has sunk; they're not even aware that we're the last hope of peace and freedom in the world, because the United Nations has been shown to be a complete failure in the last decisions it made on Iraq. We would've left Saddam Hussein in power if it were up to the Democratic Party and the UN. Thus the Democrats call for peace at any price has seemed the best policy to parade to the great majority of Americans from an immigrant background and the lower income classes who are still under the influence of their old country regimes.
Besides the issue of foreign policy, the Democrats haven't served well the cause of the poor and the immigrants. With increased taxation to meet the demands of the unemployed, uneducated and unskilled workers from Third World countries, the Democratic Party has lowered the standard of living for all Americans. The net result is a social democracy that seems at times to be a panacea for the lower income families.
As a result of the long years of dominance in politics, the Democrats have increased the number of the lower income families. And now with health care costs beyond the means of this great majority, the health and well-being of a large sector of the population is in constant jeopardy. The Democratic Party can no longer provide even the minimal standards of welfare for anybody. The eight years of President Clinton ironically saw the dismantling of the Welfare System. The situation now is terminal.
The conservative element is now in a difficult position. The whole system has to be reformed and there are no shortcuts.
If the two-party system is to survive, the Democratic Party has to be reformed or replaced by a coalition of the other parties vying for representation, namely the Reform Party, the Libertarian Party and the Green Party, together with the non-pledged Independents.
Ideally speaking, the best representation for the Two-Party System would be a balanced conservative-liberal equation. There is after all a legitimacy for expecting the government to do everything for the people; there are less independent thinking people among us. This is the main liberal agenda; therefore, all these parties in unison with the leftovers of the Democratic Party can represent this view for their constituency. The Republican Party then can cater to the more independent of the citizenry. This is what I think. I believe that the Democratic Party is on the verge of losing most of its seats in Congress in the next two elections. Frankly, as a pre-Reagan Democrat, I won't shed a tear for them; they've had their chance and now it's time for a better party to balance out the two-party system.
May 26, 2004