OP-ED:

Introducing the Un-party

Political parties have become like sports teams, which is an okay concept if the outcome of the teams is to represent the public, but it isn't. We now have political teams hell-bent for the goal line at high speed, and the committing of fouls to score is even rewarded.

But ask yourself, who are these teams fighting for and why?

Historically, the interests of the public have always been somewhat suppressed, but likely never more so than in today's Congress. If Mr. Smith went to Washington today he'd be "sat on" so fast it would make your head spin.

Does public representation exist? Nowhere on the national level, it seems. The public is ignored accept for lip-service at election time, when we play the charade that voters make a difference. The charade has now become even more tenuous because of voting systems with no provision for audit or recount. Today's "political teams" are managed and directed by their corporate owners regardless of voters' opinions. Constituent representation is a sorry afterthought at best.

Those Corporate Party owners have lost sight of the fact that the public good--which they serve accidentally, if at all--is actually in their best financial interest.

It's up to we-the-people to spell out the facts to our corporate rulers. We have to tell them these problems are not good for corporations, either:

• record-high home mortgage foreclosures is bad,
• record-high credit card debt is bad,
• record-high trade deficit is bad,
• record-high budget deficits is bad,
• record-high (uncounted) long-term unemployment is bad,
• declining median incomes (since '73) is bad,
• highest-profit healthcare system is bad,
• unhealthy drinking water and air is bad!

With so many critical problems purposefully ignored, what becomes of America? Will it become more and more of a banana republic, with the super-rich doing super-well while everyone else grows poorer? Is that really what our corporate rulers want? Do corporations want to sell fewer of everything? That's where we're going, don't you know.

To stop the insanity, we propose a new political party. We'll call it "The Un-party." What does it stand for? It stands for the public's good. It stands against the excess of power by corporations to the public's detriment. It stands for progress to solve the public's highest-priority problems. And it stands against political 'sports' games.