Independent Political Parties and 10-Point Plans Are Scams
For far too long we’ve been handed a ticket and forced to wait in a field of weeds and mud, suffering under sweltering heat with the promise of seeing the greatest show on earth called modern American politics. We experience this every four years. And every time we get to see the show under the big tent of our political circus, we walk away feeling gypped and abused. We ask ourselves, “Why did we pay so much and wait so long just to see old toothless lions mope around a rusty cage? Why are we satisfied with stale popcorn, geriatric clowns, and drunk ringmasters putting us to sleep with boring lines we’ve heard a million times?” We all know American politics is no longer the “greatest show on earth.” We know we are being gypped. Yet we continue to get in line every four years, hoping to see something new while knowing in our hearts we’ll be let down. It’s time for Americans to remove ourselves from this endless political circus we have been subjected to.
There was a time when our nation had real heroes who took public office seriously. They offered us groundbreaking solutions to generational curses like Jim Crow and slavery. And they backed the rhetoric up with real action. Action that cost real political capital. Real societal pain. Pain that brought us renewal and a prosperous path forward. LBJ, JFK Jr., and Lincoln weren’t perfect men, but they moved us forward in a positive direction. People like MLK Jr., Susan B. Anthony, Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, and Eleanor Roosevelt put their entire lives into pushing justice forward. They were titans in the soul and their missions live to this day. Politics were real in their day. The movements they drove made a difference. They were in a coliseum surrounded by hungry, vicious lions, and they slew them. Somewhere along the way, we stopped supporting the coliseum and instead agreed to wait in line for the clown show of the circus.
Why did we turn away from the blood sport of the political coliseum? Was it too real? Too graphic? Or did we lose the heart to take part and support a real blood sport where our leaders willingly put their lives on the line to get the job done? It’s easy to blame the charlatans feeding us their 10-point plans and independent parties that aren’t independent. Sitting in front of our television or staring into the black mirror we call a smartphone, contemplating which geriatric clown makes us laugh, cry, or feel a tiny bit of emotion, isn’t our civic duty as voters. It’s an abdication of our duty. It’s a passing of the buck to the next generation, hoping they will do what we were too lazy to even contemplate.
Our system is designed to foster political conflict. It is designed to hold us back until we are ready to fight. Ready to take the torch of our ancestors to burn the political circus down. There is no middle ground. We either use the fire of our ancestors to burn away our shackles and fight in the lion’s den of the coliseum, or we continue being fed the stale popcorn and warm beer under the moldy circus tent.
Today’s political circus characters are social media influencers and disgraced politicians. They aren’t gladiators. They aren’t leaders on a mission. They are trickster spirits sent to keep us distracted with policies that are passive-aggressive digs on immigrants and the most vulnerable in our communities. They want us to turn our neighborhoods and homes into coliseums. They want us to battle our neighbors, children, and spouses to the death. They hide behind slogans of “honesty and truth,” “beauty and optimism,” and “healthy and wise.” But when the cameras are off, they bury themselves in strong drink, slander, and greed. Their only desire is to perpetuate domestic discord while reaping fame and fortune off our overloaded backs.
We have two years to abandon the circus line. Take ourselves out of the field of weeds and mud. Abandon the line leading to the musty tent. We need to reject the toothless lion show. It’s time we place our ancestors’ torch on the ropes stabilizing the circus tent of American politics. Collapse it once and for all and take our seats in the coliseum where the real blood sport for America’s future is taking place.