Somewhere in the middle of studying for my degree in politics, I had my first original political thought: we should abolish the 2-party system. Almost a decade later, I now think, we should abolish political parties, period.
I don’t mean to say we should live in a state of anarchy, and I’m not saying we should do away with politics, but the party system encourages citizens to be lazy, prevents political innovation, and further polarizes a society at odds.
Evolutionarily, laziness is hard-wired into us, and anything that means we can do less and still accomplish the same thing will always score highly for us. A trait originally evolved so we could conserve energy to find food or fight off a predator, we still today find the most efficient way to move, breathe, and live, at the lowest cost to our brain and body.
And our political life is no different. Rather than learn about the important issues of our time, we simply choose a party, and the work is done for us. Why spend the time and energy doing research and forming opinions, when the party system does it for you? A tried and tested solution for modern political life, parties are a sort of civic heuristic that allow We the People to participate in politics without doing—or knowing—very much at all.
This is not to say that we don’t know what’s going on, just that we don’t necessarily need to.
Further evidence suggests that our political affiliations are a sort of “set it and forget it” kind of phenomenon: only 7% of the total voting electorate are considered swing voters—that is, voters that change the party they vote for from one election to the next. The remaining 93% of us choose the same party, election after election. Even within those registered as independents, about 45% consistently vote Republican, and 45% consistently vote Democrat.
In this boring and predictable political world, society is slow to change. Even if individual beliefs shift, if those of our party remain the same or move only slightly, true progress is hard to come by. And perhaps this is why the most progressive and inspiring actors today are not leaders, but protestors. With a Republican party growing increasingly intolerant and a Democratic party that more often than not finds itself in the center, young people and minorities may find it difficult to see a place for radical progress within this stagnant, often discriminatory, establishment.
It is this very establishment that discourages political innovation and emboldens safe, one-dimensional candidates (barring Donald Trump, who was anything but traditional, though certainly not progressive). But if candidates no longer had to toe the party line—because without parties there would be no party lines to toe—imagine the different combinations of political ideals a person might bring to the table. Gone would be the days of one-size-fits-all politics, and never again would a citizen feel as though they are choosing the “lesser of two evils” candidate.
Furthermore, a society without parties would be a less polarized one. The United States is a massive country divided almost evenly down the middle into competing political factions. But I know that the 79,000,000 people that voted for Biden do not all have the same beliefs, and I really hope that the 73,000,000 people that voted for Trump don’t either.
Yet our system lends itself so well to this dangerous thinking, and I can’t say I don’t play a part in it. As a Democrat, I have a negative, unconscious gut reaction to hearing that someone is a Republican, because of the many damaging beliefs that I associate with the party: racism, homophobia, and anti-choice policies. But not all Republicans are gay-bashing, white-supremacist pro-lifers.
People are nuanced, and so are the topics we care deeply about; should not our politics be nuanced too? The big issues of our time will not be solved by Democrats or Republicans, but by diverse groups of passionate and inspired people who want to do the real work of finding solutions for the climate crisis, for universal healthcare, for income inequality, for a life of dignity, for all. My view for the future is one in which leaders run on issues, not parties, and society is engaged, not resigned.
