Controversy erupted after more than 50 pro-family leaders met in Salt Lake City on September 30th and resolved almost unanimously to support “third-party” candidates if the convictions of neither Republicans nor Democrats fell in line with theirs. To some, this stance seemed like political heresy and the event was quickly condemned. The worst condemnations came from people who thought the whole idea dishonest. Certainly they know that lack of support for Republicans will increase the chances that Democrats will win – a worse fate. The resolution must be a trick.
We have followed that reasoning for generations with little to no mechanism to bring the parties closer to representing the voters. When it is not an election season, the two parties often enough – proudly – declare “progress” in some area in which they both agree. A series of programs and big spending proposals emerge for which there is no debate. Driven by the money, these programs continue to grow and have offspring with no one objecting to increasingly outrageous justifications; no matter the extent to which new laws overstep constitutional authorities and violate basic rights.
To the two-party loyalists, this doesn’t matter. We could be funding $100 trillion a year to fight a Klingon war in another galaxy. For fear of their technology, the nation could be in complete lock-down, with each individual – even humans – required to justify every movement to a political officer. Reasonable objections, such as that the Klingons are imaginary and that even in the fictional series we are no longer at war with them, would be ignored; as would reasonable questions, such as where does the money actually go and why do I have to defend my behavior when I have done no wrong and present no danger to my fellow citizens? Two-party loyalists would simply point out that the other party’s proposals are somehow even worse.
Our de facto perceived-lesser-of-two-evils political system has already led to the abrogation of constitutional rights, the end of the institution of family, and the criminalization of fatherhood, as some of its most visible results. It has been the Bill of Rights – rather than limitations on party power sharing – the limits against intrusion and arbitrary manipulation by government that has made the country stable and strong. With each generation there is “bi-partisan” support for continued erosion of those limitations, and that trend has accelerated dramatically within the last few decades. Just a few generations more and we will be fighting a Klingon war.
To defend ourselves and our nation, we must see the basic political question for what it is. Do you want to live in a democracy with rights and freedoms protected – or not? If you answer that you do; then you must recognize what the opposition is. The opposition is the belief that voting in accordance with one’s beliefs is political heresy.
