The Two Party System

"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" - George Washington


America is politicly divided.  That's not the problem, disagreement is necessary in a heathy democracy.  The problem is it's politically in to two sides that have a stance on every issue.  You no longer vote on issues or candidates, you vote democrat or republican.  Sure, there are third (fourth, fifth, sixth, elevendysecond) parties but they are viewed as impractical for not acting within the two party system, and are usally way out of the realistic range of political actions anyway.


If we want to sustain democracy, this cannot stand.  A two party system is just a civil cold war between two one-party systems. 

I honestly belive that most people would vote for a third party if they thought it was a viable option, but settle for the party they are closest to.  So how can we solve this problem of inviablity?  My answer: start small.  On a local rather than a national level the stakes are lower and you have more political power preportionaly.  So by consideing your national vote to the "Lesser of two evils" third party voters can have their cake and eat it too, in a practical compromise that slowly shifts our country in a more democratic direction.
 
Meanwhile you can sign this petition to let thrid party canidates on the oklahoma presidential ballot:
http://www.change.org/petitions/state-of-oklahoma-allow-third-party-candidates-for-president-on-the-oklahoma-ballot

In Defense of Labels

In Defense of Labels

“I think putting labels on people is just an easy way of marketing something you don't understand.” -Adam Jones

I Respectfully disagree.

Labeling (and by labeling I mean labeling chiefly with regards to personality traits and beliefs of individuals) has been branded a problem in society. I have been told its silly for me to label people as nerds or class clowns, green libertarians, or paleoconservatives, metalheads or punk rockers. Many people make the case that humans are much to complex for use to fit into a single category. This is not an assertion it’s reasonable to disagree with, so a defense of labels is an unpopular stance.

However, the problem of pigeonholing is not innate to labeling. The argument is based on two false pretenses. First, it is wrong to discount that if you are labeled, you then can have many other labels to describe yourself. The second pretense, is a mistake in the definition of labeling, our collective amnesia to the fact that a label in this kind of context is a generalization. At the same time we also seem to have forgotten that a generalization is by definition not to be followed adamantly, but a trend to be factored in to decision making.

Now this all probably seems really abstract at the moment, but if you put yourself on the lookout, you will see yourself and others knee-jerk rejecting things because they are labels. It may be hard to visualize now because a label has so many meanings, but I am confident it will make sense.

I want to apologize for my absence, I told you in my last post you could expect my next post to be more lighthearted. I had some difficulty meeting that end.