Why you should all abandon your parties, and why you shouldn't

And my moralizing rampage continues!  Growing up with a fiercely democratic mom in a staunchly Republican neighborhood, I've come to despise the polarized political spectrum and have done all in my power to ensure that I will never be involved in it.  I remember vividly asking a good friend of mine, a Republican, if he would vote Democrat even if it was clear that the Democratic candidate was the superior one.  He immediately answered--without even having to consider the question--"never." And the first part of that answer, the one seperated by dashes, is the one that bothers me the most.  The fact that he didn't have to think about it, or rather, that he CHOSE not to think about it.

 Partisanism promotes abandonement of thought.  It says simply, "Vote like we tell you to."  And sadly, most Americans seem all too willing to accept that.  Religions like Catholicism, Southern Baptism, and Mormonism are all on the rise--all religions which set forth sometimes very strict dogmatic lines which the believers cannot cross--whereas other Christian denominations like my own denomination of Presbyterianism are on the decline.  Why?  The only answer I have come up with is that we don't give lines and definate guidelines to the people.  We leave it up to the individual to decide for themselves.  While I have always enjoyed this freedom, I can also understand the attractiveness of knowing where the boundaries are; of knowing explicitly what you MAY and MAY NOT do; and being able to rest soundly KNOWING that you have followed those rules.  With the freedom to set your own path comes enormous responsibility, and most people don't want to carry those burdens, especially in an era where Americans are often working more hours than any other post-industrial nation on the earth.  According to an article published by Indiana University by Lee Ann Sandweis, Americans work almost 3 months and 2  1/2 weeks more than their Japanese and Western European counterparts.  People don't need the added stress of worrying where their souls will end up.  Likewise, they don't want the burden of wondering whether or not they're being good ciitzens.

But what is a good citizen?  I have always considered a good citizen to be someone who can compromise between his ideological principles and realistic rationality.  For me, idealism and realism do not have to be competing terms, even if the science of politics most often regards them as such.  People should always pursue their principles, but always be mindful and realistic about the results they can expect within a certain amount of time.  Many people will actually follow this creed...for one or two major principles.  Past that, they either don't care, or simply allign themselves with others who do care about those issues.  Or they simply allign themselves with the party which supports their own side of their own issue: in other words, if someone is staunchly pro-choice and that is all they care about, then they might very well vote Democratic and voice opinions from the Democratic Party just because the Democratic Party is pro-choice, regardless of the Democratic stance on other issues.  A citizen cannot pick and choose his battles, he must lift up the sword of his principles and the shield of idealism to meet all threats.

But is this limitation of poltical expression not simply an outgrowth of that same aforementioned "realistic idealism?"  Aye there's the rub.  The problem is, is that there are simply too many issues for us all to keep ourselves completely abrest of all of them.  I may know a great deal about the crisis in Darfur, but almost nothing about poverty in America.  And because I either have to study or work, I honestly don't have time to educate myself fully on every single issue without sacrificing my entire life to the accumulation of said knowledge.  In this sense, political parties are a necessary evil precisely because they dumb down the political process and make it more accessible for the average middle-class American.  The crime they are committing is exactly the reason we have them.  It is a sin, without which we could not function as a society, further adding to the Janus-faced nature of man. 

 Right now I'm angry at myself for not giving a clear-cut answer, especially because I feel so strongly opposed to the notion of political parties, but the fact is there are no easy answers.  All I ask is that you always aproach every issue with an open mind, and even if you only give an issue five minutes of serious thought, wherin you honestly weigh both sides of the arguement--even the one that doesn't coincide with your own ideas--you will be performing your civic duty.  Hey, it's not perfect, but it's a start, and I have to be realistic about what I can expect, right?