Will Robinson wrote:And no it isn't just the local level. The local level is where some of the party tactics unload on the masses but it comes from the top.
not really. I don't know how much experience in politics you have, but I've spent time as a ward leader
and county committeeman, and had a lot of involvement at the State and Local levels. The core of the policies you cite is driven by local/state politics, far more so that national(at least for the Dems). There is a lot of power and money at stake and having independent candidates is a real threat to that.
The two national party's have taken over our election process completely. Ralph Nader couldn't get on the ballot in some places, that may have been implemented at the local level but the direction to do it comes from up high at the national level and any potential will to resist it is corrupted by the financial power those up high wield. Without the national party million$ you get nowhere in the system AS THEY HAVE SET IT UP.
to give one recent example, Obama raised huge amounts of money with virtually NO support from the party infrastructure. In fact, once nominated he had to move his people into control of much of the National Party just to accomplish anything at that level.
If you want to get elected to US. Congress or President you have to have the support of the RNC or DNC.
If you want to get included in the Presidential debates to appear as a third party candidate you literally need to have RNC or DNC approval!! WTF?!?
To a great extent true, but there are outliers. Joe Lieberman in CT comes quickly to mind.
In effect we've been sold down the river by the"free press" and it was the RNC and DNC that is bidding for the rights to our servitude at the slave auction and you have the balls to tell me only one of them is the problem and Obama is great guy!! You are dangerously wrong.
I am NOT suggesting that either party is blameless in the status quo. However, this paranoia towards the National committees overlooks the obvious fact that you can get involved and work within either party, if you feel you could tweak it towards your wishes. Further, you could work towards pressuring your local state officials toward making more equitable voting laws. You have to believe me, the National Party Committees are NOT THAT POWERFUL!! The Dems are never organized all that much, and I have very close friends who are GOP power-brokers who claim that the RNC has become dysfunctional as well.
Now, if you were on here decrying the influence of MONEY, you would hear nary a peep from me. Because, as I stated earlier, if you dig deep enough, you will realize that the same people have been running the show since the Civil War. Call them Old Money, Traditional Wealth, the Upper Class, whatever. Some new players will be allowed in the club, but you might be shocked at how many of the same families, who send their kids to the same schools, who serve on the same corporate boards, control EVERYTHING of significance. Their kids are trained in politics from teenage, they are educated well and highly networked.
Frankly, I don't really see much that anyone is doing or going to do that will change that, and reading on boards like this depresses me, as it strikes me that the part of that group subsumed by power and greed has manipulated the general public to such a degree that they will NEVER get it. And yes, most of the US is heading, at breakneck speed, toward complete servitude. And they'll go to the auction block, more likely than not, pointing fingers at all the wrong parties.
"The Party told you to reject all evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command."
George Orwell---"1984"