I was born in Washington, D.C. not too far from the center of the political power of our country. Perhaps that is why I have always been fascinated by politics and politicians. And perhaps why I spent several years as a legislator in the Student Government at the University of Maryland and why I ultimately ran for the Florida Senate some years ago.
In the past few years, however, my positive feelings about the world of politics and political parties has been tainted by well publicized influence peddling and corruption on the local, state, and national levels from both Democrats and Republicans. It has become apparent to me that the needs of the voters have finally become a distant second to those of the campaign contributors, lobbyists, and political power structure.
Political parties have become no less of an industry onto themselves as are manufacturing, retail, and service companies. These political parties are major sources of job generation within their large staffs and to their favored vendors. They collect revenues from their members and vendors and they dole out those monies in the most efficient manner to yield them more members and the resulting power.
These political parties write emotional fund raising letters to ordinary citizens telling them the sky will fall if they do not win elections or if their opponents are able to pass certain bills into law. Yet in most cases both parties fail to listen to their voters anyway. The current soap opera that has been ObamaCare is the ultimate proof as a majority of voters were against the bill but the Democratic Party had too much at stake with its contributors, lobbyists, and its own power structure to not try and pass that bill regardless of the tactics used.
Much has been written about the latest trend for trying to change political parties. This so-called Tea Party movement is certainly sincere in its goal to support politicians who will again focus on the needs of the voter and on the original intent of our government. It has been a fantastic process for getting new people involved in the political process. But I am afraid they, too, will become cynical and apathetic when their efforts come up short. Despite all of the positive energy within that effort, the Tea Party groups have not had much success with their preferred candidates. Just read about the recent Texas primaries for more details. And what happened in upstate New York several months ago. While they did play a part in the election of Senator Scott Brown in Massachusetts, they did not play the deciding role – it was Democrats who crossed party lines who decided that election.
There has also been much talk about litmus tests within each party to ensure that their candidates loyally represent the party ideals and platforms. The State of Florida will be a good test for that process within the Republican Party this coming August when Marco Rubio faces off against Charlie Crist to be the Republican candidate for the US Senate in November. The grass roots activists and most of the county parties are fully behind Rubio while Crist - who has run away from the party ideals to support Obama’s stimulus plan and anti-growth environment efforts – still has the media spotlight as the sitting Governor.
But there is one other factor at play which I believe may force both political parties back to reality and may even force true bi-partisanship in Congress and in many State capitals. The fact that the largest percentage of registered voters are now “Non-affiliated” or “Independent” gives them the power to pick and choose candidates from both parties who will best serve the public. And that possible coalition of Independent supported Republican and Democratic elected officials may ignore the power structures within their political parties to work together to get the peoples’ business done. It will be up to the pollsters and media to prove to those politicians that it was the Independent voters and not their political party machines that put them in office. It may take a few election cycles but I can see the day when a party Whip will not be able to apply the traditional pressure to get its members to vote the party way without them first getting the pulse of the Independent voters.
Until that day, we will have to accept the reality of power hungry partisans controlling Congress and our State legislatures. And the probability of bigger government and higher taxes.
