An appeal to anyone still laboring under the campaign-fed delusion that “my party is the only thing protecting us from your party” — party isn’t all that’s right, nor all that’s left.
The two dominant parties are parochial like families, fighting not just each other as rivals but their own siblings within the family too, in power struggles large and small (at the moment over primary dates.) Like squabbling beneficiaries to Grandpa’s fortune, they can’t even agree among themselves to their own family’s rules, to treat all the siblings fairly!
I live in black-sheep rebellious Florida, presently being pummeled by both parties’ power structures who, contrary to all the count-every-vote, make-every-vote-count rhetoric from 2000, declare we’ll do exactly as they decree or our state’s votes will be deeply discounted, or won’t count at all. Offend the parties’ controlling interest in controlling you, and the real agenda becomes clear (over your dead body.)
Talk about voter disenfranchisement. Yes, it’s understandable that the Democratic committee has rules in place, and yes, Florida broke those rules, but millions of potential votes would mean nothing, and that’s a huge problem. . .
Jonathan Soros, in a column in The New York Times last week, proposed that the nation move toward a national primary – which everyone’s vote would count in. He compared it to “American Idol,” stating that when everyone participates equally in the voting, more people will be likely to vote. While that sounds like a fantastic idea, it’s nothing more than a fantastic fantasy.For now, all we can ask is for Democrats’ votes to mean something, anything.
Who really believes either political aristocracy would run the government well for OUR benefit, rather than their own, then? If government runs the mechanisms that help US run IT — from voting machinery to schooling machinery — who’s the servant, who’s getting served, and who’s just getting served UP?
So maybe Unity08 will help? I registered as a delegate last year and still have high hopes. I happen to be nonpartisan, but most delegates are loyal Rs and Ds collaborating for us all without disowning their dysfunctional political family of origin. 🙂
If you do decide the Family of America is what counts, mention my name as inviting you to the reunion!
JJ Ross, Ed.D.
Cocking A Snook! 
I was raised to believe in institutions and rules, and going along to get along with the group.
At church and school and later in homeschooling too. I told the story of that story’s power over me, for NHEN years ago.
But for the rules to work, they um, have to WORK!
Y’all all see what I’m talking about when it comes to schooling, but the logic of failed institutions is literally everywhere now, GroupThink calling the shots and individuals hurt by those systems commanded to keep sucking it up or be expelled to the wilderness alone. But none of us could possibly suck that much! It just can’t last, no matter who’s right or wrong about any given candidate or specific call.
Sports too, and school sports especially. Here are two ESPN examples — one college football, one pro — of why I predict the concrete dam of institutional rule-over-reason is about to break wide open and flood us all with seeming rebellion:
And there was that historic clash of unbeaten Colts/Patriots last week:
And don’t forget the disastrous Rule of Dolores Umbridge!
There’s only response for any self-respecting citizen to rules run amok in the hands of the officious. . .
[…] like home education — never mind public education, much less the party politics — our society’s reasons for creating and continuing the BCS are murky, and even if we […]
[…] partisan poisoning of the civic well have come to naught, and yes, JJ herself loved and lost with Sam Waterston’s post-partisan Unity08: If government runs the mechanisms that help US run IT — from voting machinery to schooling […]