The more people agree with each other, the more they seem able to get along with each other, peacefully and respectfully. This seems true the world over. And it’s true for us Americans, too. Which leads me to a thought about the highly divisive and increasingly frightening state of affairs in the U.S. today.
I don’t pretend to be a political expert, much less a polling expert, but it seems to me that there’s at least one possible path through and beyond the current polarization gripping our country: the creation of a new political party comprised of many former Republicans, many former Democrats, and, probably, most Independents. Such a party might well be capable of pulling the political rug out from under the fiercest, least compromising ideologues in both political parties and, on the positive side, attracting the energy and involvement necessary on the part of ordinary people, of all walks of life, to move the country forward in a more positive and more united direction.
As I envision it, this new party — let’s call it the “unity party” — could be based on four fundamental propositions that, according to national opinion polls I’ve seen in recent years, would be supported by many if not most rank-in-file Republicans, many if not most rank-in-file Democrats, and many if not most “Independents.” This includes Republicans who want to end their party’s slavish allegiance to Donald Trump, Democrats who want to end their party’s longstanding subservience to the interests of giant corporations and multi-millionaires who’ve dominated the party for decades, and “Independents” who are sick and tired of the two-party duopoly.
Proposition 1: Far greater efforts and expenditures are urgently needed to minimize the escalating and increasingly destructive impacts of runaway climate change, impacts already causing enormous damage and suffering in all parts of the U.S. and world.
Proposition 2: Much greater attention, policy-making, and resources need to be devoted to reducing, if not eliminating, the now (in the wake of the pandemic) more-obvious-than-ever racial, social, and economic inequalities that have plagued this country since its earliest beginnings, especially in the areas of medical care, housing, employment, and the assurance of a genuinely livable income.
Proposition 3: It’s past time for a drastic reduction in the outrageous and totally out-of-control U.S. military budget, this year pegged at $718 billion (not counting the large portion of the national debt that ought to be, but isn’t, attributed to expenditures for wars and weapons), starting with scrapping the billions for new nuclear weapons (which numerous senior armed services officers have said are completely useless militarily), using the money saved to convert the U.S. economy to the production of useful products and the repair and replacement of the nation’s crumbling infrastructure, thus producing far more and much higher-paying jobs than current military expenditures provide.
Proposition 4 (without which Propositions 1, 2, and 3 would prove to be almost impossible to implement): Liberating our alleged “democracy” from the egregiously anti-democratic role of big money in our elections is long overdue. Huge contributions from a relatively small group of wealthy individuals and special interest groups continue to play a vastly out-sized role in election outcomes and in subsequent legislative actions (and non-actions) by those who are elected. When we allow the rich to “vote” with their money, the principle of “one person, one vote” becomes a fairy tale, and the principle of “one dollar, one vote” rules.
Probably readers, Democrats and Republicans alike, can come up with lots of additions or adjustments to these four propositions. However, the essential and unprecedented unity this new party (the “Four Proposition Party”) would require in order to be successful would be lost if we tried to add on lots of other, less consequential and more divisive issues, of which there are, and will always be, plenty.
So let’s try to put aside our disagreements regarding such issues and instead focus on those relatively few, but urgently and fundamentally important propositions that most of us already do agree on. If that means forming a new, broad-based political party — then let’s do it.
Randy Kehler and his partner Betsy Corner, after living happily for 40 years in Colrain, now live in Shelburne Falls.