Third Party Rising
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
A friend in the U.S. military sent me an e-mail last week with a quote from the historian Lewis Mumford’s book, “The Condition of Man,” about the development of civilization. Mumford was describing Rome’s decline: “Everyone aimed at security: no one accepted responsibility. What was plainly lacking, long before the barbarian invasions had done their work, long before economic dislocations became serious, was an inner go. Rome’s life was now an imitation of life: a mere holding on. Security was the watchword — as if life knew any other stability than through constant change, or any form of security except through a constant willingness to take risks.”
It was one of those history passages that echo so loudly in the present that it sends a shiver down my spine — way, way too close for comfort.
I’ve just spent a week in Silicon Valley, talking with technologists from Apple, Twitter, LinkedIn, Intel, Cisco and SRI and can definitively report that this region has not lost its “inner go.” But in talks here and elsewhere I continue to be astounded by the level of disgust with Washington, D.C., and our two-party system — so much so that I am ready to hazard a prediction: Barring a transformation of the Democratic and Republican Parties, there is going to be a serious third party candidate in 2012, with a serious political movement behind him or her — one definitely big enough to impact the election’s outcome.......
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/03/opinion/03friedman.html
I've always felt that we need three major political parties in this country, a conservative party, a liberal party and a centrist party in order to more truly reflect the political views of the American people.
ReplyDeleteBut the political polarization between the left and the right in this country has paralyzed our nation's ability to get anything done. And this has played a significant role in America's economic decline.
America use to be a can-do country. Now its become a can't do or won't do country. And the rest of the free world wonders what the world will be like with a weak democratic America and a strong China ruled by a fascist oligarchy.