“Pollyanna.” It is the title of a 1913 novel by Eleanor H. Porter and is considered a children's literature classic. Twelve sequels were later published, most by other authors. You may not have read the books, but you likely know what it means to be pollyannish. Blindly optimistic. Rose-colored. Auspicious. Utopian. Maybe even naive.
Many who hold true to long-standing systems, traditions and processes find those who suggest change to be pollyannish. Fair enough. But change doesn’t happen without the suggestion of new ideas. Some of those ideas may appear radical at first but are often later considered reasonable when they catch on with the masses.
So, let’s get this started. It’s time to dismantle our country’s two-party political system. Despite most Americans being independents or considering themselves moderates or centrists, the extremists are pushing the buttons for both the Republican and Democrat parties today.
Samuel James Fry, a political science student at the time, penned a wonderful essay on this in 2016 for Odyssey. Six years later, it seems even more logical. He pointed out how the two-party system has been “a staple of American politics since the earliest days of the country,” noting how “prior to the modern day Republican and Democratic parties, the Whigs and Democrats dominated U.S. politics, and the Federalist and Anti-Federalist factions before them.” As such, the two-party domination is hardly new.
Unfortunately, many Americans — included me — feel unrepresented and left out, or, as Fry states, “abandoned and manipulated by both major parties.”
Fry shares how George Washington first recognized the threat to the U.S. posed by political parties, warning Americans of the “alternate domination” of one party over another and the “tendency of political factions to seek revenge against each other, building up their own power while tearing down the U.S. Constitution.”
Our elected officials are often hellbent on breaking up large corporations but seem to overlook that their parties have become monopolies as well.
Fry wrote that the ongoing war between Republicans and Democrats is “political theater at its finest,” and that “legislation implemented when one party achieves a majority, only to be overturned when the other party wins four years later, does not benefit the American people.”
He is right on all accounts, and this is maybe more obvious today than ever before in our nation’s history. So, let’s dismantle both parties. In fact, let’s eliminate all political parties and let each candidate campaign on his or her own personal merit.
It’s pollyannish, I know, but the push has to start somewhere. Why not here?
Have a marvelous Monday, and thanks for reading.
Shane Goodman
President and Publisher
Big Green Umbrella Media
shane@dmcityview.com
515-953-4822, ext. 305
