Political Parties: Power Before the People

Political parties today are defined as a group of like-minded people who band together in an attempt to attain and maintain power within government.  This simple definition captures the true purpose of political parties– to take control.  Their hunger for power provides support for the commonly held idea that parties work for themselves rather than for the people who elect them, and in the process hurt the democratic process rather than help it.  Political parties have put democracy at stake and with each election the situation only worsens.

The negative effects of political parties are initially seen in the electoral process.  In terms of voting, party representatives are elected to represent their party’s supporters when they vote in the electorate.  The representation method is not democracy because there are people who do not agree with what their party’s elected representatives believe, and so their own opinion is lost.  The two major political parties, the Democrats and the Republicans, formed into what they now represent today by separating themselves from parties in the past that did not do so well.  It seems that now it is impossible for another minor party to ever gain popularity (as did the Democratic party when they were a third party) because the major political parties have turned the Democratic process into a  two-party system.  Every other minor party, such as the Green party, has no chance against the major parties and this creates a problem that is invisible to most.  Political parties have insidiously created a winner-take-all method where if a vote is not made for a major party, then it is practically wasted because either the Republicans or Democrats are bound to win.  Second place is not represented in the electoral process because of political parties.  Democracy means that everyone votes for what they want, and with the parties’ method of doing things, some voices are never heard.

Political parties ruin politics and what they stand for all together.  The concept is more about getting into office than anything else.  Rather than represent the people and do work for them, the party politicians seem to always fight for a way to get into or stay in office.  Writer Matthias Caton agrees says that, “parties only want power, they abuse government and look after themselves rather than the public good.”  Then comes into play the fact that parties elaborately change how voters vote. Instead of voting for a candidate based on their qualifications and experience, citizens tend to vote for those who represent the party they stand in.  At an informing American Heritage speech, Professor Nicholson made the point that by using party labels, facts no longer speak for themselves because citizens tend to vote for their parties regardless of anything.  Votes such as these are what can lead the nation into disaster, and it is all because of a political label.