That’s a message being shared online by @rejectingrepublicans.
Except… the democrats are not a solution.
The actual problem is the two party system. How can 2 parties possibly represent a nation as diverse as the United States?
More American voters vote for one party than the other. And that party is the winner.
But when they annoy too many voters, the other party begins to win more votes than the first party. So the other party becomes the #WinnerWhoTakesAll.
When democrats tell you they aren’t voting democrat because they’re democrats, they neglect to mention that they actually are democrats.
What they aren’t telling you is that you don’t have to vote democrat to vote out republicans… all you need do is elect third party candidates who will represent you.
Granted, I’m a Canadian, but it seems to me the reason it has become so hard to elect democrats is because democrats have spectacularly failed far too many Americans.
Some voters who used to vote democrat simply stopped voting.
Other voters who used to vote democrat began voting republican.
Not because they like republican policies any better than democrat policies, but because the democrats have spectacularly failed them.
Seriously, why don’t Americans have universal health care? President Obama was going to deliver it… which was why it was dubbed “Obamacare.” And yet the healthcare he delivered was hardly universal.
President Obama was sold as “hope” for positive change, and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for getting elected. And yet, this president approved more drone strikes in his first year in office than President George W. Bush carried out during his entire administration. Obama had no trouble passing a law giving American Presidents the power to order extra-judicial killing of American Citizens abroad, but rolled over for the powerful Insurance Industry.
Seriously, why did the social movements “Occupy Wall Street,” an extended protest against economic inequality and the corruption of corporate law, and “Black Lives Matter” (seeking to address police brutality and racially motivated violence against black people), and the Standing Rock #NoDAPL Dakota Access Pipeline Protest movement, arise on President Obama’s watch?
Seriously, why is the quality of life for many Americans in parts of the United States equivalent to third world countries?
“In his new book, The Vanishing Middle Class: Prejudice and Power in a Dual Economy, Temin paints a bleak picture where one country has a bounty of resources and power, and the other toils day after day with minimal access to the long-coveted “American dream.”
"In his view, the United States is shifting toward an economic and political makeup more similar to developing nations than the wealthy, economically stable nation it has long been.”
USA: Most Citizens in 3rd World Conditions - HLRN
The Obama “hope” was dashed by the harsh reality that American politics – American democracy – has been captured by special interests. The view from here, in Canada, suggests that Donald Trump is the ultimate protest vote. The people who elected him weren’t any better off under his presidency, but electing him sent a message the democrats chose to ignore.
The American people are not being well served because neither of the two parties represent “the people,” unless, of course, one considers serving the billionaire class to be serving the people. This time around, the Trump presidency is looking more like an existential threat than a middle finger salute to the elites. But re-electing the democratic party next time around is unlikely to change anything.
Much has been made of American democracy, but it has never been farther from delivering “government by the people, for the people” than it is now.
I’m certainly no expert on American politics, that country was built on a revolution intended to overthrow the control of foreign monarchy, but in many ways, the presidency has become monarchy 2.0 And yet, in the earliest years of that nation, there were no political parties at all. The directly elected president was given a great deal of power with which to govern, and their elected representatives that supported the president sat on one side of the aisle in the legislature, while those who disagreed with the direction of the president’s administration sat on the other.
And yet ordinary Americans might still vote themselves out of this mess, if only they abandon the two party system that’s abandoned them, and instead start voting third party for actual change.
But that means really voting them *all* out… republicans and democrats.
I wish our American friends the best of luck for the future.