Contradictions Among Political Parties
Today, we are a country divided. Our ideals and values collide; refusing to accept any other but our own. We may even hate a person because of a group or ideology they’re associated with. A very prime example of this is the feud between political and social parties. Democrat versus Republican; liberal versus conservative. It fosters a hatred towards the other simply because they align themselves with the opposing party. This “Us vs Them” mentality is holding us back and should be discarded. People should not be set under these exact parameters of thought and belief. There are some extremists who truly align with the far right or left ,but for the most part people have mixed views and a variety of stances on different topics. Which is why I’m proposing to dissolve all political parties.
George Washington, this nation’s first President and founding father, warned us of developing political parties. Here are the words he had on the matter in his farewell address,"However [political parties] may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion." Essentially he is saying it may be convenient to congregate with those of similar belief to your own and label yourselves, but in the end it is likely to be exploited and corrupted thus imploding. Leaving those who exploited in a position of power by using the group thought to their advantage. And the exploited manipulated. An extreme example of this would be the Nazi party in Germany, officially lasting from 1933-1945, the Nazi party was one of the most brainwashed organized groups of people in history. It all began with small gatherings and as the group grew the more extreme they became, devoting themselves to the Reich and their Fuhrer, Adolf Hitler. They all simply went along with it until the party had become too powerful to oppose. Realistically speaking there is no way that they believed the things they were being told at first, but it was all exactly what they wanted to hear. Instead of thinking for themselves they just nodded along with the crowd and adopted the Nazi’s doctrine, this lead to the horrific acts carried out by the Nazis in World War II.
Each party has an agenda, to further that agenda major media and news outlets with political bias will twist the truth or try to subconsciously influence the masses. Even the social media titan Facebook was compromised and exposed as biased. Some platforms, like Facebook, are very subtle and secretive about their bias while others are much more open. My two examples of open bias are Fox and CNN news networks. Fox being conservatively biased and CNN being liberally biased. If you have ever watched someone from the opposite party be interviewed on either network they always attempt to give them trick questions and make them look bad . There is a stale animosity behind every unassuming question or smile. You can watch both networks cover the same thing but will come away from it with two totally different impressions of what happened, because they spin it to further an agenda. When if there wasn’t an agenda to further, politically at least, we would get more of the complete story. People could debate and simply disagree based on how they each feel on the matter, not because it’s what everyone is supposed to feel if they’re Republican or Democrat.
The biggest problem with political parties is that they encourage groupthink. Just like the Nazis people can be coaxed into believing anything if that’s what they’re “supposed” to believe. It strips away individualism and replaces it with one banner of idealism that covers the entire group. Groupthink also leads to a dysfunctional and irrational thought process due to everyone being so submissive to the group. Psychologist Irving Janis wrote an entire book on the phenomenon that was published in 1972. Here are some words he had on groupthink,”The advantages of having decisions made by groups are often lost because of powerful psychological pressures that arise when the members work closely together, share the same values and, above all, face a crisis situation that puts everyone under intense stress.” In a system where you are all supposed to be alike it is very difficult to speak up or make positive change. Groupthink breed sheeple who can’t think for themselves or have their own feelings about anything. There are people all across the United States that will only vote for one political party. Not based on the moral character, policies, or qualifications of the candidates, but solely on which group they align themselves with.
What good is free speech if you never use your own words? We as Americans have the right to speak and think for ourselves. Not only socially but politically also. The system of political parties is flawed and has several negative effects on the majority populus. It causes us to hate, feud, stop thinking, and lose our individuality. A much more effective way of voting and politics would be to simply state your opinion on a topic. Then others could juxtapose your opinion with their own. From this we could reach the best course of action through simple debate and discussion without the looming presence of a party's agenda. The same course of action would be more effective with electing officials. Without the banner of a party’s endorsement to hide behind ,their views and policies would be what they were evaluated on. This is why I’m proposing to dissolve all political parties.
