Over the past week, Republican Scott Brown’s victory in Massachusetts has been a hot item in the news. This was a startling upset because Massachusetts traditionally has been known as a democratic state. Now, however, one of its senate seats has gone to the Republicans. This is an example of people taking control over their politics. Regardless of the traditionally democratic leaning of the state, the people’s voice was heard.
This year is an election year, and we at Politivote encourage people to participate in our government. We invite everyone to come to our site, register, and participate. The people who participated in the Massachusetts election have set the example for all of us to get politically involved. The election of Scott Brown shows that despite of all predictions, if the people want something to happen, and they let their voice be heard, it will happen. The odds were against Scott Brown’s winning the election. Yet, he won because enough people wanted that to happen and got involved politically. The purpose of this article isn’t to promote Scott Brown’s agenda, but merely to show that the people can influence the course of politics through active participation.
I encourage the reader to follow the example of the citizens who were involved in the Massachusetts election and register for Politivote. We provide another opportunity to let your voice be heard. We accumulate federal and state legislation and we have an instrument on the site that can be used to vote on the legislation. We store the votes on these bills, and will eventually send them to federal and state legislators. Politivote can insure that the voice of the people finds its way to our representatives and accomplishes what the people want.
Posts Tagged ‘Republicans’
The Scott Brown Election: Democracy Put into Action
Wednesday, January 27th, 2010The Political Party: a Tool or a Tyranny
Thursday, January 7th, 2010An article appeared on ksl.com on January 2, 2009 about the trouble the Democrats are having and are expecting to have this coming election year. The Democrats are in danger of losing Congressional seats to the Republicans. Reading this article causes me to reflect again on the important role political parties have played in our country’s history. In my article of July 18, 2009, I used George Washington’s farewell address to argue that political parties are inherently bad for the country, and that while we cannot get rid of the party system altogether, we should avoid the spirit of the political party.
As I read this article, I am led to think that it is a little more complicated. Through out our history as a nation, control of the government has changed hands between two major political parties. First, it was the Democrats and the Whigs. Then, when the Whig party was dissolved in the 1850’s, the Republican Party took its place. When Americans tire of the rule of one party, they elect members of the other party to Congress or the presidency of the United States. Through out the twentieth century, other countries have allowed themselves to be controlled by one party with disastrous consequences for the nation. Nazi Germany and Communist Russia were two examples of this. However, in the United States, our democratic system of government has allowed us to be governed by a two party system and not let one party maintain power permanently. Ultimately, it is the American people who control the party system instead of the party system controlling the people.
However, one weakness of the political party remains. Just as, in other countries, political parties had the tendency to unite the people, in our country; they have the potential to divide us as a nation. It has been shown that no one party will maintain permanent control over this nation as long as there is no radical change in its form of government. However, we need to make sure that our American citizenship takes priority over party loyalty. To me, this is one of the main problems that plague the Congress and the presidency. I have the impression that politicians are too busy trying to score points for their own parties and they lose site on the welfare of the nation.
We at politivote claim no party loyalty. We aim to encourage and facilitate greater political involvement on the part of our citizens. The single most important reason for the vitality of our nation’s political system has been the participation of citizens. As long as citizens vote and as long as citizens focus on the good of the nation as their number 1 priority, the political party will be a tool of the American people instead of the American people becoming a tool of the political party.