Partisan politics seems inevitable.  The current political war in America makes this conclusion a no-brainer.  But what makes it inevitable?

What makes partisan politics inevitable?

Most political scientists believe political parties are inevitable.  Partly this has to do with larger alliances being more powerful.  Partly this has to do with how the parties tend to sort people into different philosophical groups, and then by human nature, we naturally align our thoughts with those of our group.

We’re all separate, so we need groups.

But what holds all of these together is an underlying assumption or paradigm, the ideas that we’re all separate.  In this paradigm, we mostly go about our individual business and come together only when necessary.  In the world created out of this, we have no way of speaking to the collective and we and our representatives don’t know what all these separate people want.

If we’re all separate, no one knows what citizens really want, so representatives must ally with a powerful group.  And with no alternative for expressing our political wishes, each of us must align with a political group as well.  It’s a reflection of this world that in our current election system, a major party candidate wins almost every national election, so voting for a non-major party candidate is futile.  And if we’re all separate, the skills needed to be a representative involve being good at publicity, raising money, telling people what they want to hear, and navigating party power structures.

Instead, we can each be part of the collective, the country

Now consider a different paradigm, that each of us is part of the collective.  In this paradigm, we naturally contribute to the collective desire, we naturally take responsibility for ourselves as collectives, as cities, counties, states and as a nation (even as humanity or “consciousness”).

Representatives would be part of it. With citizens communicating, designing our desired future, our representatives would know what we want and work on our behalf. They could legislate with confidence, craft and pass compromises and easily report back to us. They’d work with other representatives to get the job done. They’d have little need for parties. Challengers could communicate as well, enabling inexpensive elections with real choice. We could elect people based on their ability to represent us and craft solutions.

This world is available in a moment

The interesting thing about this world is that it’s available. The only thing keeping us from it are our habits of thought. We can enter into this world at any moment. And when we do, a new set of actions are appropriate.

When I stepped into this paradigm, it was no longer mysterious that our national government is not of, by and for the people. “By, for and of the people” would mean people being key to politics. Currently people just vote once every two or four years. And when you consider that incumbents almost always win, we’re barely needed at all.

Partisan politics is not inevitable.  Instead, we can use the power of internet connectivity to support ourselves to be responsible, empowered citizens.  Rather than accept the current situation as our default, “no-brainer” future, we can adopt a new paradigm, a new set of habits and thought patterns.  Participate in and support PeopleCount.org so we, The People, can effectively self-govern.