Did George Washington warn Americans about political factionalism, which is now multiplied by two, as the Republican-Democratic Duopoly reigns destructively supreme?
Third-Party Candidacy
We all remember the term “Spoiler Effect”, thrown at political activist Ralph Nader, who ran for US President in 4 different elections, most notably the 2000 Presidential Elections, competing with Republican George W. Bush and Siphoning votes from Democrat Al Gore. Especially because the votes Nader won exceeded the vote difference between Bush and Gore, something which occurred only 3 times in the history of the United States Presidential Elections.
But who or what is the real spoiler, is it an independent, a Third-Party, or even a Write-In candidate who spoils the political game for those in control of the duopoly? Or is it the duopoly itself?
Duopoly Takes All
The United States political arena has not been always a monopoly for the Democratic and Republican parties, since the inception of the Federal Republic, with the existence of parties such as the National Union Party, The Federalist Party, the Whig Party, and other political parties and coalitions that delivered presidents to the White House, like Zachary Taylor, James Monroe, John Adams and Abraham Lincoln. However, these above-mentioned parties cannot be considered minor outsider parties, they were mostly mainstream political entities. It’s just that the format has not turned yet into a two-party system, a.k.a.: The Duopoly.
A durable setting that has long suffocated political competition, and thwarted fresh policy ideas, for more than 100 years. Since its inception, the two factions of the Duopoly have made sure through legislation they have passed through the two chambers of Congress, followed by the courts who upheld them as the law of the land. This dual monopoly over the political realm in America has rendered the political access and competitiveness of any third party, almost near impossible to even gain access to the ballot.
Not to mention, the campaign finance scarcity imposed by corporations and big donors, who pour all their donations into one or the other of the two dominating parties. While the legacy media outlets blackout and utterly exclude Third-Party and independent candidates, who get deprived of the chance to appear on the debate stage as well.
The Deadlock
This is why candidates who have issues and ideological differences with their official parties, choose to run through them anyway, such as Independent Bernie Sanders, Libertarian Ron Paul, or even the incumbent US. President Donald Trump himself. As they see no hope in running as independents, Write-in candidates, or Third-Party candidates.
This deadlock, results in diminishing the wider political debate, and strips voters of the right to hear multiple alternative views and political programs outside the grip of the Duopoly.
The two parties continue their overt collusion to block out any outsiders, as they bicker among themselves over identity politics, and shift the blame to the other party whenever either of them has the majority of either cameras of Congress or a president in the White House. The reality is, that they both swear allegiance to the same corporate donors, special interest groups, and K-street lobbyists, with not much variance to identify one party from the other.
Regardless of one’s opinion of Bernie Sanders, he is a case-in-point for what your own party can do to you when they don’t want your “independent” voice to try to change things from the inside or win your party’s primary when he ran against the infamous Hillary Clinton in the Democratic Presidential Primaries in 2016. But he was not called a “Spoiler” like Ralph Nader, he was actually called a “Comrade”.
George Washington’s Warning
In September 1796, three founding fathers of the United States cooperated to prepare the Farewell Address of the 1st American President, George Washington, who then decided not to run for a third term of presidency.
The three individuals were James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and George Washington himself. This address would be unbelievable, unpalatable, or even “politically incorrect” if any political figure read it out to the American public today, but this is what they have warned against since the inception of the US. Republic.
As Washington expressed his worry, the stability of the United States is threatened by “Political Factionalism”, urging Americans to “subordinate sectional jealousies to common national interests”.
With the help of Hamilton and Madison, Washington wrote: “The basis of our political systems is the right of the people to make and to alter their constitutions of government”. And as if he was unknowingly addressing lobbying he continued: “All obstructions to the execution of the laws, all combinations and associations under whatever plausible character with the real design to direct, control, counteract, or awe the regular deliberation and action of the constituted authorities, are destructive of this fundamental principle and of fatal tendency”.
Following this with a very powerful paragraph that gives a grave warning about political factionalism, monopoly of power, and the triumph of party interest over national interest, saying:
“They serve to organize faction; to give it an artificial and extraordinary force; to put in the place of the delegated will of the nation the will of a party, often a small but artful and enterprising minority of the community; and, according to the alternate triumphs of different parties, to make the public administration the mirror of the ill concerted and incongruous projects of faction, rather than the organ of consistent and wholesome plans digested by common councils and modified by mutual interests. However, combinations or associations of the above description may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely, in the course of time and things, to become potent engines by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion”.
Doesn’t it seem that all that Washington warned the Americans about, is exactly the contemporary norm now? Not only that, one might safely add, that these practices are multiplied by two. Two “seemingly” competitive political factions, who claim to be at odds with one another, while in reality, they both form a political Duopoly, which can be described in Washington’s words as: “destructive” and “of fatal tendency”.
Tamer Mansour, Egyptian Independent Writer & Researcher
