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Proposal for At Least a Third Party, Plus Sarah Palin

We need a third political party, convention and all.  Not a pretend, make-believe party appealing to people who are allergic to crop dust and taxes and in favor of whales, but a credible alternative to Republicans and Democrats.

We have Libertarians, but they are all dentists and used car salesmen, and maybe there is actually a Green Party barely visible in the smog.  Lots of people call themselves Independents, but that usually means they are just disgusted Republicans or Democrats.  Disgust does not make a party.  Disgust makes blog entries.


If we had three or four Parties, plus Sarah Palin up in Wasilla, who all alone could be the membership of the Rogue Party, then when Congress met it would have to decide how to get a majority together, and that would take conversation and compromise.  And while the arguments might be ludicrous, it might happen that we will begin to realize how we really think about things. 


Let us not pretend that paralysis would result if we had three minority parties.  Paralysis is what has happened already.  And even if the process of trying to form a consensus in order to get a working majority, just for a while, turned out to be a mess, it might happen that trying to work with people you disagree with, mostly, would shake up the alignments enough to get some general agreements on something, almost anything!, and that would be such a pleasure that it might be tried again.

We aren't going to do that, of course.  We are going to pretend that the Republicans are the Party of Abraham Lincoln, and that Democrats are the Party of Ordinary Working People.  We will ignore facts and argue that paying people a living, minimum wage will result in massive unemployment, that some people do not deserve health care, and that if we do not send troops into another oil field we will lose our right to carry AK-45s into a bar.  

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