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Good Morning Democrats!
Political parties evolve. Today’s modern Democratic Party bears no more resemblance to the agrarian “small government” party founded in 1792 by Jefferson and Madison than the current Republican Party bears to the anti-slavery party of Lincoln that was founded nearly 60 years later. In fact, the current Republican Party wouldn’t even be recognized by Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt or Eisenhower. Change is inevitable in any political organization. But what is it that drives those changes?
The democratic process of the majority of the party electing its leadership should be the obvious answer to that question, but that is often not the case. That failure is painfully obvious in today’s Republican Party where the minority faction of the MAGA movement has completely taken over that party, despite the fact that they truly represent the values of probably less than one in four registered Republicans. The MAGAs are unreasonable, bitter, mean-spirited activists, while most Republicans are reasonable and good-hearted people who simply have a different view of HOW our country should achieve the same goals as most Democrats.
On our own side of the political fence, extreme left-wing extremists constitute only about 20% of our party’s membership, and yet they often manage to push our party’s platform and policies well to the left of the mainstream. Extremists from both the political right and left have pushed both parties outside of the mainstream to varying degrees, resulting in a mass-migration from BOTH parties to swell the ranks of the unaffiliated voters known politically as independent or DTS (Declined to State) voters. How does this happen within two parties where the leadership is elected by the bodies?
It's a matter of activity and vocalization. The extremes on both sides are very active and vocal, while most of the more moderate and tolerant members tend to shy away from involvement. Many of those moderate voters may eventually abandon the party that they feel has left them behind. The solution is NOT to abandon the “two-party system”. The solution is for those in BOTH parties who feel that their party has abandoned them to work to take their parties back. They need to get involved in the process and flex the muscles of a majority to temper the extremes of the minority factions.
That means putting in the work of being involved in their local parties by running for delegate positions in the upcoming post-primary conventions and for county and state central committees next year. It means getting involved in local party activities at the precinct and ward levels to help provide rational and effective leadership for their respective parties in their neighborhoods.
Mainstream Democrats and Republicans are NOT that different from each other and could work together to achieve national, state and local governments that can compromise and find middle ground. It’s the hardcore extremists on both sides that create the gridlock that cripples our nation so often, and creates the sort of circus that we’ve seen in the current House of Representatives in Washington D.C.
Bill Peifer
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