UPON ASSUMING THE SPEAKERSHIP IN 2015, Paul Ryan promised “to return to regular order” and to abandon the partisan gamesmanship that had locked Washington in years of unending grudge match politics. Three full years later, as the dark clouds of another mid-term election gather on the horizon, that promise of return to regular order has failed to come to pass.

What remains is the rancorous trench warfare mindset of two bitterly antagonistic political camps who have neither interest nor incentive to work together to accomplish anything. Everything is either condemned as an attempt to undermine the very fabric of the country or actually is an attempt to undermine the very fabric of the country, just ask the pundits and politicians of either side.

At some point, however, this has to end, and, if history is any indication (and it usually is), it will be precisely at that point where everything collapses, and we’re left picking up the pieces of our smoldering civilization. That’s just human nature, and it’s kind of how things have shaken out every time the rhetoric of a nation’s leaders have become, as they are now, indistinguishable from the rantings of a village’s resident drunken bigot.

“You lie!”
– Representative Joe Wilson

At some point in the last few years, the governing philosophy of the Republican Party shifted away from mediocre pragmatism to radical sloganeering, however, no small amount of blame lies at the feet of the political insanity of the Speakership of Nancy Pelosi and the Senate Leadership of Harry Reid, who both went out of their way to totally dismantle bipartisan mechanisms in Congress.

However, the Republican caucuses in both the House and the Senate are complicit in that they allowed the political rancor to change them philosophically. For years under the shadow of Democratic Party dominance, the Republicans barked endlessly about the disregard for tradition and the Constitution, but, when the tables were finally turned, they failed utterly to live up to their own rhetoric.

Perhaps the worst transgression of all has been the total disregard for the truth within the public forum. When some Republicans once stood in opposition to even minor infractions committed by both Barack Obama and the Democratic Congressional leadership, they now tolerate daily reality warping falsehoods coming out from the White House without batting an eye.

[Political parties] are likely … 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…
– George Washington

From the size of the crowd at his inauguration, to a meeting with Russian intelligence assets that first did not happen, then did happen but was only about adoption, then wasn’t about adoption after all but getting dirt on Hillary Clinton, Trump’s lies have tested the Republican resolve to uphold the truth, only to find them wanting time and time again.

When our leaders can be no more trusted than can practically any wretch sobering up in a drunk tank anywhere in America, where are we as a country? And now we’re so hard up that we need the party of “If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor” to play the role of adjudicators of truth? Just how screwed are we? At this point, it’s clear neither political party gives a damn about truth.

George Washington once warned his countrymen against the dangers of political parties, based on his experience with dealing with both the puppets and the puppeteers while he was in office. If his warning is any guide at all, then no party of people as ambitious as they are unscrupulous will ever be the answer. Maybe what America needs is a political party that will demolish the incumbent parties before they can demolish America.

It may be our last hope.

#VoteNeither2018.

 

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Which third party has the best chance of doing this in 2018 and 2020? Let me know in the comments and click the share buttons!

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Liberty is For The Win!