LPA: Today I toyed with the idea of trying to re-ignite the Liberal Party of America. So far I’ve had more hits than at anytime since the party was formed and had a blog. The party used to have a website that was absolutely stunning, but when we dissolved the party, we dissolved the website.
The number of hits today shows me that people are searching for anew party. In fact many of our hits were from search engines that had “Liberal Party” or “Liberal” in the field. I believe that this is indicative of the way that Americans are feeling. The Conservative right wing fundamentalists had their chance to live up to their “contract with America”. Like almost any organization, “power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely”. The wishes of right wing conservatives became the wishes of politicians and their biggest supporters, and that is corporate America. In particular Big Oil, Defense Contractors, Insurance Companies and Medical Companies.
The corporations we need to focus on were the corporations that make up The Military Industrial Complex they talked about decades ago. The future is now, and we know who the enemy is. Recent statistics confirm that less than 10% of the population control more than 90% of it’s wealth. That is a statistic that Americans cannot live with. We have families where the primary breadwinner is working full time plus has a part-time job paying low wages, just to make ends meet. We have students attending college that statisticians say will be in debt until their 30's to pay for their education. Meanwhile the Republican government has cut student loans partly to finance this unnecessary war in Iraq.
We have spent over $410,000,000,000.00 (Billion) dollars on a war we are still not winning. The American people are tired of the war and feel that they were duped into supporting the war in the first place. The Democrats promised that they would raise the minimum wage and yet they have been outfoxed time and time again by the GOP. It doesn’t seem to matter who is in charge; the rich keep getting richer and the poor seem to lose more every year. Even healthcare has been put on the back burner in some families in order to buy food to put on the families dinner table. This isn’t just happening in Mississippi or Arkansas, it’s happening everywhere.
Education, Health Care, Job Growth (meaningful jobs, not minimum wage opportunities at Wal-Mart) and the Nation’s infrastructure have suffered under this administration. Even our rights guaranteed by the Constitution have been practically gutted. The Democrats promised action on these issues when they ran for seats in Congress in 2006. They have yet to make good on their lofty promises. What will the result of the peoples dissatisfaction be? Are they going to vote Republican next election and go from bad to worse? In reality the people have no real alternative. The only alternative is another political party to put the fear of the people back in government again. Both political parties know that with multi-million dollar House and Senate races and Billion dollar Presidential races, that a third party would have a hard time getting off the ground.
I want to say this; with the help of the internet and the tools available to politically minded people, it is no longer unfeasible to start a third major political party. People reading this might ask what it is that I am up too. What I am up to is to get a liberal/progressive political party started in the United States. Do I want to continue as chairman...no. I am recovering from open-heart surgery and I can’t devote the time and energy (I could be a good cheerleader). Do I think we can field candidates in political races in 2008? Maybe we can, if the office in question has such bad candidates that we have to run somebody, it’s not out of the question. We can however, control a voting bloc that could tip the balance in many elections. If a Democratic candidate is so unacceptable we could endorse a Republican Candidate, or a Green Party Candidate. The possibilities are endless.
This idea of starting a new political party should fill people with enthusiasm. This is a chance to start something pure and new. This is a chance to become a voice in government and possibly take the power away from the families and consortiums that now run our Federal government. This party is going to need leaders. It’s going to need a Party Chairman, a Vice Chairman a Secretary, State Chairmen. The list could go on for pages. What we need right now is an exploratory committee. We need people to get together and chart a path for this new party. I would be willing to join that committee in a limited capacity. It stands to reason that the people who volunteer for these posts would be the temporary leaders of this new party.
The time has really come. I know that Americans are disenchanted with what has been happening in politics. This is a chance to do something about it. Bemoaning the fact that the politicians in Washington are not working for the people won’t change the way things are. The only way to change things is by action. Just by signing up to be on the committee, or telling your friends about The Liberal Party of America will be some kind of action. The only thing these people in Washington understand is strength in numbers. We can do this if we have the will. We must do this, if not for ourselves then for the generations of Americans to come. It has to start somewhere, sometime. Let it start here and let it start now. Things won’t get better unless we make them better.
Labels: Liberal Pary, Politics, Third Party