By STEVE PRICE
December 4, 2006

I will be as straightforward and succinct as I can here. The United States of America, as we have come to know it, will no longer exist by the end of this century. The cause of death: partisan politics.

There exists in this country today a growing split between the two dominant political ideologies: the liberal Democrats and the conservative Republicans. This gulf of separation between the two factions can be traced to a pair of sources.

First, the fundamental differences between a conservative and a liberal political ideology will obviously lead to a degree of differing viewpoints in a political body. However, a second and more dangerous difference lies in the notion of “partisan politics” -- that a politician will place the will of the party on the whole ahead of all else, the good of the country be damned. Political dissention is one thing; such partisanship is something else entirely.

Allow me to present a paradox that can be associated with partisans. A group of twenty Democrats and nineteen Republicans are charged with deciding on the establishment of a new tax. Republicans feel that a new tax would be detrimental to the interests of the country, whereas Democrats feel that the tax would be beneficial in the long term. Nineteen of the twenty Democrats are in favor of this measure, while the twentieth Democrat is undecided. Hypothesizing that all nineteen Republicans are committed to voting against the tax, the lone dissenter among the Democrats will feel pressured to vote for the measure to help secure the measure for his party, even if his own feelings would lead him to vote down the tax. The measure, therefore, passes and becomes law.

Following the next election, the number of Republicans now outnumbers those of the Democrats. In turn, the Republicans would then use their numbers to vote on a proposition that is disproved of by the Democrats, even if certain Republicans feel that the proposition in question is ill-advised. This creates a continual cycle, which in turn creates a rift between the two parties that widens over time, to the point that it becomes a detriment to the functions of the country as a whole.

Now, one might argue that the solution to this paradox would be for a Democrat or Republican to vote against the consensus of his or her party in the interest of what he or she feels to be the best proposition for the country. On paper, this solution is feasible.

Unfortunately, the real world is not so kind. By voting against their party, the dissenting members would alienate themselves from their fellow politicians, thus destroying their chances of getting support from their party in their bid for re-election. Instead, the party will offer support to a politician who is more willing to put the beliefs of the party ahead of everything else, regardless of the nature of those beliefs held by the party. To this extent, our fatal flaw as human beings will come into focus: our need for power outweighs any moral obligations we may hold.

A large factor in the dangers of this paradox can be traced to the change in our understanding of the political party. While the idea of partisan politics was evident in the earliest days of the United States, Washington, Jefferson, and others saw the system as a way to provide a forum for debate. Unfortunately, their view has become perverted over time to the extent that we no longer see it as a positive check on political power, but rather a means for one party to gain control over the other. Objective debate has been replaced by the partisan conflict, while the aims of our government are geared towards the good of the political factions, not the common good.

The debate in government today is not for the common good, but who will rule over the commonwealth. This affliction to the democratic process has divorced the American people from the principles of the United States Constitution. The true embodiment of democracy, that which is present in the Constitution, cannot coexist with partisan politics in the twenty-first century. For if the current government continues at this rate, the American Revolution shall be defeated. The cause of its death shall not stem from a great war on some distant battlefield, but from within, by those who are entrusted to serve we, the People.