How in the world do we do it?

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We are convinced there is only one answer to this question. To truly disrupt the game of politics, we have to fundamentally change the way it is played. And realistically, there is only one way to fundamentally change the way it is played: Add more players to the game.

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It is absolutely imperative we get this done because nothing will truly change as long as there are only two teams playing the game.  That’s just Social Psych 101. Realistic Conflict Theory says that hostilities and resentments — along with feelings of prejudgment and discrimination — emerge when groups compete over a perceived scarcity of resources (in this case, political power). These emotions are amplified when the groups feel there can only be one winner and one loser.  Sound familiar?

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It would be terrific if our current political meltdown was caused solely by the election of Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton’s emails or because of some procedural issue or because the right person hasn’t yet fallen out of the sky to save us.  Maybe then it would be relatively easy to fix.  But none of this background noise is what holds us back.

 

This is: The reason true change eludes us is that we always attempt it within the constraints of an irreparably broken political system.  The focus is always on tweaking elements of the system instead of eliminating the entire archaic, two-party system itself.

 

That is just not going to work. We are far beyond a small tweak here and there.  Incremental change takes too long and we cannot vote our way out of this mess with our current two-party choices, or within the toxic environment that has evolved around them. Think about it:  If we just stick with the two major parties, overthrowing Congress at the voting booth is not only a fantasy, it wouldn’t work anyway. Let’s say we actually replaced every single member of Congress. At this point, their replacements would be other Republicans and Democrats. 

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Clearly, there aren’t 535 Abraham Lincolns running around in either party.  But, even if both major parties had super deep benches filled with Lincolns, they would still be forced to operate within the failed two-party setup — and we’re all well aware that the destructive consequences of this dynamic get uglier and uglier by the day.

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It is painfully obvious that our fractured political system is not going to miraculously heal itself and, due in large part to our poisonous political environment, most of our current leaders (who may otherwise be very solid, decent people) are not going to suddenly mutate into brilliant problem-solvers. 

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It just isn’t going to happen.  And every second we buy into that fairytale, we lose valuable time. This may sound depressing, but it’s actually liberating!  To lose the delusion and accept the truth sets us free!

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Okay, so maybe we’ve been asleep at the wheel for a while, but this country has tremendous resilience. Americans don’t reject national reflection — we embrace it.  We don’t allow momentary lapses in  judgment to derail us — we gain wisdom that makes us even stronger.