As I type these words late on election night, I steel myself to the realization that the American voter has just elected Barack Obama as President of the United States. My initial impulse is to wax cynical about the troubles that lie ahead for our nation; yet I marvel at the cunning delusion of the two-party system and how once more it has betrayed my beloved America. Once more, the wheel turns. Again, the pendulum swings in a relentless oscillation. Yet again, the tiresome farce repeats. I watch in stunned disbelief as the American voter pounds the ground and claws the air like the proverbial squirrel in a cage—jubilantly proclaiming progress when there is none.
How did such a charade begin? Toward what sort of future is it leading us? In their book, Two Parties—Or More? The American Party System1, John F. Bibby and L. Sandy Maisel puzzle over a curious phenomenon afflicting American politics:
"According to a Shorenstein Center poll taken in December 1998, 45 percent of those polled expressed dissatisfaction with the two major party candidates and wanted a third alternative. But fewer than 5 percent of the voters chose any of the alternative party candidates running less than two years later. The showing of the Reform Party, founded by Ross Perot, was so poor that it lost the federal funding it had achieved in the 1996 election. Ralph Nader’s Green Party did not receive the 5 percent threshold necessary for federal funding in 2004, one of its stated goals."
In the midterm elections of 1994—so great was the dissatisfaction of American voters with the corrupt, high tax, and big government policies of the Clinton administration, that they turned Democratic candidates out of office in droves. Scores of Republicans were elected in the hopes that "the other guys" could do a better job for the nation. In the years since, the Republican Party has become just as corrupt, high tax, and big government as the Democrats they replaced. And what of the Democratic Party in the interim? Has it reformed? Not on your life! The Dems have merely spent the last fourteen years obstructing and tearing down the Republicans—in anticipation that the American voter would eventually return their party to power.
And so they have. On Election Day 2008, the wheel has turned once again. The pendulum has swung, and America has turned to the "other guys." Barack Obama will lead his Democrats back into power—the same ones who wearied the voters back in 1994. What of limited government? What of personal responsibility? Sadly, America believes government is the answer rather than the problem.
Lovers of liberty—take heart! Steel yourselves and strengthen your weak limbs. Be not afraid in the days that are ahead. Ours is the cause noble and just. We are the steward of an immortal creed. Our light will never be hidden beneath a statist bushel. No socialist, utopian delusion can withstand us. Liberty will have her day!
1 John F. Bibby and L. Sandy Maisel, Two Parties--Or More? The American Party System (Boulder: Westview, 1998).
©2008 Mike Blevins, all rights reserved. You must have written permission from the author in order to republish this work.
Published: Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Last modified: Wednesday, November 5, 2008
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Reader Comments:
Posted By: Jahfre Fire Eater
Date: 2008-11-05 10:48:37
Great perspective, Mike. The struggle for the defense of liberty has no resting points. It is a life-long endeavor that must continue regardless of current events and trends.
Regards,
Jahfre Fire Eater
Posted By: David S
Date: 2008-11-05 13:30:48
This is like watching a ping pong game. First the voters get whacked by Democrats so they go to the Republicans. Then they get whacked by the Republicans and they go back to the Democrats. Maybe one day they will get tired of getting whacked and vote for 3rd parties. But so far they seem to be quite content with the whackings. Those of us who believe in freedom will have to do the best we can to protect our rights for at least the next two years.
Posted By: Mike Blevins
Date: 2008-11-05 18:40:15
Everything in me wants to rejoice at the election of the first black president in American history. I just wish it was a different black man with different values and philosophies.