It is about the future, our future, but it isn't about Trump the man. It is about our system. The mechanisms of our nation were at some point in time very advanced in the world. Today, they are very backward.
We have a system in place that supports an outcome that can be described as fascist, but I need to declare that word better. With fascism, I just mean that kind of society that takes care of the middle of the road and its elites, while it removes the right to complain from both extreme sides of the roadway. The outer areas are not welcome.
The Federal government today is where we see a rather strict balance between Democrats and Republicans. I don't think the competition has ever been this tight, this poignant in our history. But move one level below to States and we are already shifting toward a just-one-or-the-other state, Blue or Red. Some states are wobbly, but many states are solid in their one-direction notion. Go one level lower and low-and-behold the USA turned into a single-party nation. Just Red sits in all seats, or just Blue sits in all seats. Just a few lucky places have the two-of-a-kind democracy, but no one else has that. Of course we are officially not allowed to see color at the local level, but there you have it: The fascists ideal of having the same kind of people in one place is now found across the nation (move away, kid, if you don't like it here; there are places where you belong, just go).
Unfortunately, Jessica, it means that you are spot on. We are in the middle of it all. We are not at the beginning or the butt end. And 2021 may just be one of the struggle years. The reason for the revolt has not disappeared.
We can agree that the force is coming from the Republicans right now who did not want to lose control. But I hope we can agree that the same force would have been expressed by the Democrats had Trump won and had the Republicans claimed both houses by the smallest of margins. Both sides of the United States are ready to suppress the other side from being in power, because we have had it with the other kind.
Let's be truthful. We are all fed up, and the system makes us point at the other side. We didn't get our USA 2.0 upgrade when we first needed it (40 years ago?) and now we pick the rotten fruits.
What is that USA 2.0 upgrade?
It is that voting system that gives power back to the voters and does so in a smart manner.
The Republican Party should never be able to become the bulwark of extremism. The Democratic Party should never be able to become the bulwark of extremism. But the both of them continuously pandering to the middle of the road is really what made us sick.
We need more parties that are empowered. By having five empowered parties, none of them can grow a group-think culture anymore because none of the five parties can rule by themselves. Bridges must be built between two or three parties to get things done, and these bridges are built and get withdrawn, over and over again. It is a completely different strategy, but the only one forward in a healthy society. Our political parties must work for us, and not the other way around.
Today, we vote as a group to get the group representative elected. We do that in districts. That group ideology must be overcome. We have to give the individual more power.
It is very easy to do if we start in the right spot. The US Constitution already likes us to have the best possible voting system in place for cities and counties. Proportional voting delivers a diverse political outcome that is never black-and-white (or red-and-blue), but always full color. Because there a just a limited number of seats on the city council (often less than ten, never in the hundreds), we won't end up with twenty unhinged parties, but just with three, four or maybe five; just what we need. The local level is a very safe place to learn how a real democracy works out. And it ends the bulwark of the single mindset because no single group can think alike if individuals can really speak up. Today, we are herded into group think because of our system.
What can we do now? Start voting for candidates that promote voting reform. I hear there are some in the Green Party and some in the Libertarian Party. If you don't find them there, join these small parties and promote voting reform from within them. Make these small parties the vehicles for change. Green and Yellow are better vehicles to get to full color than trying to make Red or Blue become something they are not.
We live in the largest nation with the purest form of divide-and-conquer in the world. No wonder our brains hurt. Our system was once the miracle of the world. But it does really not belong in this century.; we have to burry it and get the smarter system in place (locally: proportional voting; state level: three-to-five party system; the fed level will follow automatically).
