Time for the Democrats and Republicans to Merge and Open up the Field to Real Leftist Parties

Now is the time for the two most disgraced parties in America to unite, and join together to fight the good fight for Wall Street, war mongering, and maintaining an America that’s the pity of the world. With so many Republican standard bearers and war mongers rallying around Joe Biden, becoming one single party is the logical trajectory. Let the Democrats be the ‘liberal’ wing of the Capitalist Party. They can push their weak social issues but on issues of discrediting and undermining everything from the postal service, health care, housing, social justice and everything that’s Black Lives Matter, they are in sync with the Republicans.

This fake dichotomy has been going on for far too long, creating an illusion of choice in America. Maybe this is an exception because it’s a referendum on Donald Trump, not on a Republican president. How many times in the past are so many Americans still unsure for whom to vote for as late as October? Since 1992, 100 days out the range of undecideds and 3rd Party supporters has been from 3.4% during Obama’s re-election to 22.1%, Clinton’s first run. With over 100 million actually voting, even 3.4 is a large number. In all these elections, if so many can’t decide which of the two parties to vote for, one must ask either, one, are they stupid? or two, are they smarter than everyone else that they can’t distinguish the two?

Looking at this most recent match up, we see how Biden and Trump are aligned on so many crucial issues, from opposing universal health care, supporting fracking and other life threatening environmental policies, financing the military and our empire to even levels the military doesn’t ask for, to massive incarcerations of people of color and the poor, to Israeli apartheid, to school vouchers and taking money away from public education. Did I miss anything? Sure, dozens of other issues they agree on.

The problems facing our electoral democracy (almost an oxymoron) are immense.  Both parties control each state and with that, they control the election process: Who can vote? What party can vote? What party can even be recognized and legitimized? Another problem is what will make up an anti-capitalist party? The Green Party is eco-socialist but horribly dysfunctional and since Nader’s 2.74% in 2000, the Greens have not gone over that mark. With its emphasis on decentralization, there is neither national unity nor discipline within the Greens. The party nominated Howie Hawkins but the Green Party of Alaska is putting up Jesse Ventura for its ballot. If the party had any discipline, Alaska’s Green Party would be excommunicated. And that they had for nominations for president individuals whose only asset is that their mothers would vote for them, with little or no organization behind them and inability to raise the measly required amount shows another level of not just dysfunction but a lack of respect for the very office they’re seeking.

There’s the DSA, but as long as they’re tied to the Democratic Party they will never be a voice for the people disenfranchised by the big two. Best of luck should go to the Movement for A People’s Party. Their platform is out of Sanders’s first run in 2016. It hits many, but not all the basic themes of a conservative leftist party: higher tax rate for the wealthy, pro-union, transparent elections, restorative justice, free (paid by taxes) services that are bankrupting Americans right now, etc. Their foreign policy is to attack our empire, support diplomacy rather than militarism, but is weak on Palestinian rights, as it calls for a two-state solution.

It is a shame that they don’t come out and say they, too, like the Green Party, are eco-socialist, or even an acknowledgement of socialism as a guiding principle, even if they adopt many of its positions. This is the 21st century. Most in this country who fear Communism or Socialism are already tied to the Republicans in particular and even the Old Guard of the Democratic Party fears it. Just look how Russophobia enveloped their entire psyche during Trump’s first three and a half years, and Russia isn’t even a socialist country anymore.

About the same number of eligible voters who vote, don’t. Like the undecided, many don’t see a difference between the two and more importantly, they don’t see how either represents their interests or that voting changes anything. This is untapped political wealth. We make it difficult for people to vote, having it on a work day and not having it as a national holiday. Voter suppression is rampant in both parties. Polling places are designed to discourage voting as they are often limited in high turnout areas. In some countries, voting is mandatory. Doubt that that would go over well here, though.

The failure of our 2-party system is why we have Trump, and Biden as the antidote. Even something simple like universal rank choice voting would be an improvement and would stave off demands on the system, but each party believes in their own exceptionalism to push for something more ‘democratic’. In 2016 the two most despised politicians in America ran against each other, after Cruz dropped out. Clinton was the only person who could lose to Trump. And now, it’s almost possible to say that Trump is the only person who could lose to Biden. If things are that bad, a real opposition party is needed. What is disappearing now is the power of voter shaming. For so many, voting for Biden is a Sophie’s Choice. And yet for so many others they will not be falling into that trap this time of the lesser evil. Americans who have been voting for ‘change’ since after Reagan might finally be waking up to the reality of what the two parties represent. It’s not likely that a true leftist party would ever be a majority, as the D/R Party would still dominate for generations. But with a real choice given to voters, along with Greens, Libertarians, and any other party, we could also see a more diverse political landscape, even with a possibility of moving to a parliamentarian system of representation.

Myles Hoenig is a veteran of the Prince George's County Public School system in Maryland, USA. He's a long time activist for social justice. He lives in Baltimore. Read other articles by Myles.