So after really trying to figure out how a collaboration party would work, I keep coming back to the notion that the party will never dictate how I (or probably many) Americans will vote. They are full of ideals and strategies to help drive the country in their respective directions. Even a collaboration party would be similar in nature.
My true learnings through this thought process has been to discover that there are really only two distinct “parties” that are currently driving the American electorate, and we are not even aware of it in most cases. The two parties are simply the party of doing the proper thing for the american people or doing the improper thing for them. Let me try and simplify.
Currently, there are multiple people on the list of indicted members of the current president’s administration. This is in stark contrast to the number of indicted members of the previous president’s administration. Now, that is not to say there was no wrongdoing or issues with the past administration, only to say that the difference is, one is doing the right things for the American people based on the guidelines of our constitution and democracy, while the other is all about lining their own pockets with the taxpayers and foreign money.
There are so many examples of the wrong doing that I am not even going to try and list them, I would rather have you look-up the indictments in the current administration and why they came about. PolitiFact has a good writeup on the current and past indictments.
Where this ultimately gets me is we have politicians that constantly are hypocritical in their stance on everything from reproductive rights to gun reform to whether or not a SCOTUS justice position should be filled some period of time prior to an election.
In the end we need to have laws that remove, if at all possible, the hypocritical opportunities from the decision process. We have a SCOTUS that is a good stop gap, but it needs to be built using consistent methods, not methods changed by those who wish to exert power. That is an example of not doing the proper thing for the American people.
In the end here is where I net out. We have two parties. The “Criminal party” lead by the current administration and we have the “Principled” party. To be clear it is not as easy as drawing down current party lines, rather there are elements of both in each party. This is why I will stay independent. However, the current “Criminal” party is effectively the Republican party at this point. Some members are resisting the criminality and this is to be applauded, however, the majority of Republican representatives in Congress are deeply embedded in this culture. The impeachment vote alone shows the depth to which Republican senators are embedded.
All of this said I will continue to look at each representative, regardless of party with the lens of hypocrisy, including the current presidential race. While I know this can be dependent on the issue, the character of individuals becomes apparent once you start to see the pattern of voting and rhetoric the individuals engage in. My hope is the rest of our country will start to engage in our future in this way and do what we need to do to restore America’s reputation in the world.