EDITORIAL: Time for a third party uprising

By LISA CHALIAN-ROCK

Published: January 13, 2010

http://www2.scnow.com/scp/news…

“I start with the premise that the function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers.” – Ralph Nader

Since the health care debate began, people on both sides of the political spectrum envisioned their perfect outcome. Now, we are faced with two bills that have to be merged in the coming months before the president can sign either one. Despite pledges of transparency, we won’t get to see the negotiations that make it happen.

Neither side is happy with the compromises. Republicans say the bills are too socialist and don’t cut costs enough while Democrats say the plans give too much power to the insurance companies and don’t symbolize real change.

The problem stems from the lack of transparency, the way the government works and the confusion built into the two-party, two-sided debate.

We may feel Republicans and Democrats are oceans apart, but the line between them is actually quite thin. Both parties bend to corporate will long before any public outcry because the corporations fund their campaigns.

That’s why the public option was given fewer hearings for Congress to investigate it and why it was discarded so easily. The big insurance companies stood to lose too much if a public option was understood or enacted.

Money drives Washington, and it’s driving this country off a cliff of no return.

Both parties agree campaign finance reform needs to be done, according to their campaign speeches, but it never happens. The public approves of it. The big money doesn’t.

Something we agree upon should be easier to implement than thornier issues like health care, but Congress doesn’t tackle it.

“Throwing the bums out” only works if the replacement doesn’t play for the same team.

Every now and then, you’ll see someone like Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) or Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) attempt to put the people’s issues on the forefront, but they are either lambasted as fringe wackos or disregarded with minimal coverage if any.

Cynthia McKinney, the Green Party’s 2008 presidential candidate, couldn’t get an ounce of airtime until she risked her own life to demonstrate the plight of the people in Gaza. That airtime flashed momentarily alongside commentary that she was just doing something crazy.

When our calls and letters are dismissed or denied so continuously, our only true option for change is a third party to challenge the two-party duopoly over our current system.

Third party and independent candidates speak out where others often don’t.

As citizens, we are responsible in part for the way our country has drifted. Most people don’t vote, don’t call, don’t write and don’t pay attention to politics.

We have a responsibility to stay as informed as possible.

Then, we must tell our delegations in D.C. what we want. They aren’t mind readers. They read polls and campaign contributions mostly.

We have to demand specific and achievable change especially in the campaign finance arena.

To do so, Congress needs to define corporations differently or reinstate old laws that corporations had to produce some public good to retain their charters.

An activist Supreme Court changed the relationship we have with corporations by defining them as “people” in terms of free speech. Now corporations are leveraging that decision to potentially derail the McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Rules that limit the amount they can contribute by claiming that donating money is a form of free speech. The Supreme Court has heard arguments and should come to a decision by the end of its session.

Free speech is not money. Some people start with more; some are given more by parents or family; some start with nothing. How can free speech, an unalienable right, be equated with something that is not so equitable? It can’t, and it shouldn’t be.

Neither party is doing what we want. We need to fund and support candidates who will or find fresh faces to compete or run for office ourselves.

Green-Rainbow Rising

Join the Party

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