However combinations or associations of the above description 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. George Washington’s Farewell Address 1796 1
When I was a shavetail lieutenant, a presidential candidate came to Augusta, Georgia where I was stationed. A couple of LT’s decided to swing by the rally to check it out. While there, a national news team filmed them and aired a clip of them on a national television network during the evening news. The next day the commanding general called them to his office and summarily dismissed them from the service. They had no particular party affiliation and went to the event simply to gawp; however, they attended in uniform, unwittingly giving some the impression that the Army sided with a particular candidate and party, something the Army steadfastly seeks to avoid. Throughout my tenure as an enlisted soldier and commissioned officer the Army eschewed any linkage to party. It was not until late in my career that the Army summoned the temerity to encourage soldiers to vote. Consumed with day to day mission efforts, normally you had no idea of the political leanings of those around you and those who commanded you. We served at the pleasure of the president, whatever party they came from. I served every president from Ronald Reagan through Barrack Obama and did so without a qualm. Each of them did things I liked and things I did not like. Party did not matter. Now as a retired officer, I look out on the landscape of a country convulsed and divided by rampant party affiliation.
President Washington addressed party affiliation and various other issues in his final missive. With the help of Alexander Hamilton and James Madison, Washington composed in his “Farewell Address,” to provide guidance for the new nation. With great prescience, Washington understood the seductive nature of political parties and their attendant perils, particularly the lever they provided “cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled” individuals in tearing down the institutions of our government while maintaining the façade of democracy. We see this sad inclination at work every day.
Sooner or later parties seek to gain and maintain power as their primary goal. Born out of the desire of like-minded individuals to band together to secure change, they eventually become focused on continued existence and continued control of the levers of government. When this occurs, they shift from being a legitimate participant in the exercise of government to something else. They no longer serve the people, they serve themselves. Unscrupulous individuals exploit them, and their unsuspecting supporters by mouthing party-line platitudes all the while taking actions primarily designed to consolidate power and influence unto themselves. Washington understood the threat this posed to the healthy development of democracy and the overall health of the nation.
Intense feelings of party affiliation shape the landscape of contemporary American culture. According to a Public Religion Research Institute poll the percentage of Americans that would be unhappy if their son or daughter married someone of a different party has grown from the single digits in the 1960s to forty-five percent in 2016. 2 This percentage exceeds the percentage of religious people who would be unhappy if their children married outside their faith by a substantial margin. The Army measured my worth by my competence and willingness to do what was required to secure mission accomplishment. Now in the civilian world, many, if not most, judge my fitness based on perceived party affiliation. I know that in the teaching field, teachers carefully measure what they teach against the prevailing party yardstick in their community. They understand that should they depart from the community “norm” they will have to answer to belligerent parents, a hostile school administration, or some combination of both. Instead, they engage in self-censorship, degrading classroom instruction, and students suffer. All of this in the name of party, a failed human institution. This ought not to be.
No party gets everything correctly. Each party, conceived of and constructed by humans, espouses certain things incorrectly. When I join a party, I join all their platform. I cannot in good faith do that. Recently a major party added a “plank” to their platform that promulgated belief in something demonstrably false. If I were to join that party, I would join myself to something I know to be untrue. This would be the case for any party. We are human and we are failed, anything that proceeds from the mind of man bears the indelible imprint of failure, which is why I choose to be an independent voter. Washington understood the perils of factions, as parties were known then, and counseled for nurturing an independent American political landscape. Most would enjoin that the world Washington inhabited was fundamentally different than ours today. In Ecclesiastes, the writer addresses this idea.
9 What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun. 10 Is there a thing of which it is said, “See, this is new”? It has been already in the ages before us. Ecclesiastes 1:9-10 English Standard Version
While our world differs greatly from the world Washington knew, people have not changed. We still connive and grasp after power. Parties do simplify things. The party leadership sits down and determines the appropriate response to various issues and then promulgates the party platform and all the associated planks, saving you and me from the difficult task of research and thought. We place our trust in men and women far removed from our daily walk and individual belief structures. We do not know them or what their personal motivations and beliefs. And we incorrectly assume that those who wear the Donkey or Elephant on their lapel, bumper-sticker, or yard sign hold to the things we think are important. We also make the invalid assumption that those who wear the opposite trappings are somehow the enemy. Parties serve to isolate us in intellectual laziness, prejudice, and ignorance. We do not know the other and assume that we do. We spend our time and effort policing what we think is doctrinal purity, while failing to address the pernicious issues which confront us. We evaluate our elected officials based on perceived adherence to some sort of party litmus test instead of their ability to get things done. We glare at each other across the canyon carved by party purity and fail to lift a finger to solve the challenges we all face as a community. We fall into the trap of pursuing power and influence over working toward actual solutions to the problems that vex us. Washington saw this day coming and warned us. We desperately need to work on the problems we face, not savage each other for belonging to the “wrong” party. We need to resurrect the idea of an independent voter who carefully examines the issues and holds their elected officials accountable for their actions, not their clever sound bites.
1. https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/resources/pdf/Washingtons_Farewell_Address.pdf
2. https://www.prri.org/research/american-democracy-in-crisis-the-fate-of-pluralism-in-a-divided-nation/
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