Why Planks Don't Build Bridges

It dawned on me, not too long ago, that the whole problem with politics today is "position". Party platforms. Planks of policy. Agendas of the asses (Not a typo.).

Let's face it, politicians get elected because people want to know where they stand on the "issues". The problem here is that taking a stand on the issue isn't going to solve it. Politics isn't about politicians fulfilling campaign promises. It's about getting elected. Politicians, as individuals, usually have almost no power at all. It's only through cooperation, deal-making and other such things that anything actually gets accomplished at all. Campaign promises to "fix this" or "undo that" or "oppose this" or "stop that" are all BS. No one person can promise that. No political party can promise anything. They can't deliver on their agendas without cooperation or a dictatorship. Given the polarized political landscape today, where cooperation is viewed as being weak and betraying the 'values' of the member's political party, the only way to deliver a campaign promise is the dictator route.

Planks may be great for bullet points to inflame the passions of the masses, but in practical terms, planks accomplish nothing but putting up roadblocks to getting anything done. They delineate the limits of compromise toward the other side - which is to say none. They're not even viable starting points. Platforms are merely ideas, tokens of position on a political map that is as malleable as clay to those who unfold it. If it will get those who unfold it into power, they'll put that token anywhere. They mean NOTHING to these people other than as a means to an end - which is to get into and stay in power. That much is pretty obvious.

No matter the platform point, the policy position or the agenda, the one question that none of these things can answer is, "How?" How are you going to get that done? Ram-rod it down people's throats so your side "wins"? Force your agenda on an unwilling half of the country? 'Spin' it so it sounds like a deal it isn't? (We call that lying where I come from) Frankly, I'd rather avoid dictatorships again. So assuming the two parties will continue to remain opposed to one another's platform points, and no compromise will ever be forthcoming (which is NOT as unreasonable an assumption as you might think), and dictatorships won't be tolerated by the masses, what's the only way to get things done?

First of all, we need another major political party. One in the center, for whom agendas and planks and such mean nothing. These people will be elected simply because they won't paint over themselves with whatever convenient political color is out there to get elected. Their one political campaign promise is to get the job done. What does getting the job done mean?

Basically by applying the bullshit meter to things.

If the bullshit meter points too far to the left or the right, it goes BZZZZZZZ! and the business is sent back to be fixed. It's pretty easy to spot bullshit in politics. They're called party platforms.

Moderation means doing things so that no one is happy. By no one, I mean the left and the right. If a compromise is worked out which leaves both sides yelping with equal volume, you probably have a good compromise. You know the platform points. you know where both sides stand - the core 'values' of each party. But the reality - the solution to dealing with these issues and their plank positions - is somewhere in the middle. It always has been. And that's where our American Moderate Party works: in the middle, hashing out the solutions so that both sides scream with the same pitch.

Let's face it, extremism doesn't provide lasting solutions. It never has. We can't build a bridge with planks that can't meet in the middle. We have to have enough overlap in our political positions to encompass all but the more extreme views. We have to find solutions that stand a chance at lasting longer than the next national election when the political pendulum swings the other way. And that won't happen - ever - with the political climate we've had in Washington DC the last two decades.

EVERYONE is fed up with congress (by everyone, I mean enough people to ratify amendments and over-turn vetoes, AKA a super-majority). But we still play into that "if you're not with us you're a traitor and against us" attitude the Antichrist (Karl Rove) brought to us during the Bush years.

We have to get over that. The best way is by organizing the silent middle into a new political party. One whose purpose is to finish building bridges, not with the thin planks of extremism and fragile ropes of expedience, but with the steel and concrete of the kind of practical cooperation that is at the heart and spirit of a UNITED States of America. We need enduring solutions, not political party plank patches. We need the American Moderate Party. It's too late for this election, but in two years...?

I think we can do it.