Partisanship problems presented

Last week, the wonderfully brilliant American House of Representatives passed the controversial Affordable Health Care for America Act in a tight 220–215 vote. The culmination of a five-month media circus, the bill’s passing marked a key victory for the Democratic majority and the Obama administration. Now, an amendment prohibiting federal abortion funding is stirring up opposition among the more liberal Democrats in the Senate, who are expected to vote on the bill this spring.

Over the past few months, we’ve seen many sensational presentations from each side of the American political circus. We’ve seen Barack Obama wasting an hour that would’ve been better spent working on his Chicago Olympics pitch, trying to convince Republicans and conservative Democrats of the righteousness of his position. We’ve seen “tea parties,” with citizens carrying SMGs and posters of Obama as the Joker. Incited by the neo-con radio hosts on one side and the massively liberal mainstream networks on the other, neither group is willing to give way. And that’s perfectly fine.

The current situation of our American friends is a vast improvement on the sickening state of political affairs that their country has undergone since January. Their political scene has been dominated by those preaching moderation, spouting such clichés as “reaching across the aisle” and “crossing party lines”. We’ve seen the tentative liberals, afraid of the loud rural minorities and the more fiscal-minded factions in their own bloated party; we’ve seen the cautious conservatives, none wanting to be called racist or associated with their last administration’s buffoonery. Now, finally we’re seeing the return of confident, healthy, political entrenchment in America.

Why should legislators pretend to sympathize with, or even understand, what their opponents are saying? Centrism no longer has a place, or even a purpose in democracy. Sure, we can accuse partisan factions of being irrational extremists, but the alternative — moderates — are simply weak. They dilute their lukewarm policies and betray their ideologies, sacrificing the quality of their legislation for utilities. How can we trust our elected officials if they’re constantly fence-sitting and flip-flopping? Where are their values? What are their motives? Any politician willing to deliberate and change his stance is clearly not interested in the common good, only in preserving his own power by supporting populist policies.

And if legislators begin crossing party lines and supporting legislation based on its merits instead of their respective political philosophies, how will citizens know who to vote for? Are we really expected to research the delegates in question, rather than basing our choices on whether their campaign literature is printed on red or blue paper? Surely, if each delegate was an independent, voter turnout would drop even lower than its current dismal percentage. Parties and partisanship are both convenient and effective.

It has been said by several dissenters to this school of thought that warring extremist factions don’t represent the majority of citizens, who are generally more moderate. This is true. The government doesn’t represent the will of the majority at all — if that were the case, the government wouldn’t exist, or perhaps, rather, it wouldn’t consist of a small group of highly stressed white men who don’t have time to pay attention to what’s going on in the world around them. The fact is, by not voting, the majority is giving their tacit consent to this partisan system — they get exactly what they vote for, and exactly what they deserve.

Let’s be frank for a moment here — partisanship is a flawed system, especially when it creates a dichotomy. Being a Canadian sure makes me glad that I don’t live in a country like the United States, with right-wing nut jobs who think the world is only 6,000 years old and left-wing big government that wants to spend my tax dollars on inefficient social programs. Because unlike the U.S.A.’s two-party republicanism, Canada’s parliamentary system is founded on consensus, coalition, and compromise. There’s no such thing as a unilateral motion — every piece of legislation is necessarily bipartisan, and every decision founded on the principles of agreement and harmony. Nowhere else can you get democracy in its truest, most nonpartisan sense: it thrives especially in the great nation of Canada, and specifically in the wonderfully brilliant province of Alberta.