The political divide today is, and this is what’s amazing about Trump, totally defined by Trump. The country is split between pro-Trump and anti-Trump people. And each of these two camps just can’t understand how the other side can be so dumb, how they can be so brain-washed that they don’t understand what’s going on.

What if we took Trump out of the debate? Are there fundamental differences between us? My hypothesis is that there are, and that neither side is as brainwashed as the other thinks, and that, in fact, there are legitimate differences of opinion in how our government and society should operate.

I’m proposing an experiment to test that hypothesis, but before getting to it, first understand a disturbing reality about America. Politicians are the ones who run the country. Everything and everyone in government reports up to politicians. Politicians set the policies, control the budget, create (and destroy) the various departments. It’s how our democracy works, and we, the people, get to elect the politicians in charge of making the laws and running the government.

This is the American idea. Previously, countries were run by either hereditary rulers, or strong men who could displace them. Loyalty was required to the ruler. By contrast, in America, loyalty is required to the legal framework of our country, the Constitution.

Why are they called politicians? Because they campaign to get our votes. They want to be in charge, and they only get to be in charge by getting enough people to vote for them. This requires them promising to govern in a way those who vote for them want.

To make it easy for us to choose who to vote for, there are political parties that define ideals and agendas and nominate politicians who embody those ideals and who will work toward those agendas.

So here’s the experiment.

Imagine that all the current politicians, political parties and supporting organizations disappeared. The government workers are still there, soldiers, tax collectors, judges; the government functions are still there, military, Social Security, State Department; but the politicians in charge of the government are all gone. No Republicans, no MAGA, no Democrats, no DNC, no RNC, no Progressives, no PACs, no Greens, no nothing.

The country then needs to start over and elect a new bunch of politicians to run things. Your job then, and this is the core of the experiment, is to create a new political party that will embody that which you think is important in running the government.

What is the name of your new party? What is a one or two sentence summary of its principles? And then, what are the key items in its platform? The things politicians elected from the party will work towards once they are in power.

My idea is this is a way for people to talk across the divide. So a pro-Trump person and an anti-Trump person could meet and instead of shouting grievances, ask each other to imagine what they would build if the current politicians and parties were all gone. Not a negative platform based on hatred of how it’s run now, but a vision for a positive platform, what would be built if we were starting over, what the principles of a new government would be.

 I know I have my ideas, they would revolve around fixing the system (such as implementing ranked choice voting so this idea would work). I’d welcome reading other’s ideas from all sides of the political spectrum, so send me an email at dennis.merritt@amzi.com. Or write letters to the editor at this and other papers. Maybe someone could start a Facebook page or something like it where people could post their ideas for parties and engage in discussion about them. Let’s start talking about what we’d like to see in government, rather than what we hate about it.

Dennis C. Merritt lives in Shelburne Falls.