"Present-day
politics is dominated by the party system. Some countries have only one official
party; some have two; some have several. A political party is usually naively
pictured as a group of like-minded people co-operating to further their common
interests. This is no longer valid. That function is now carried on entirely
by the lobby, and there are as many lobbies as there are special
interests.
A political party now exists primarily as an apparatus for selecting candidates and getting them elected to office." -Raymond Hull, The Peter Principle, 1969
Political partisanship (which the first President warned against) has become written into the laws, with the government even substantially controlling the process by which candidates are nominated, making the political parties in a sense government organizations. Everything in politics now happens on a partisan stage, with the enthusiastic co-operation or resigned acceptance of almost everyone involved.
This was not the original plan.
So what's to be done?
Well, for starters somebody could put up an openly anti-partisan campaign
website.
addendum:
(10/15/06)- Speaking of the two party system, the Libertarian candidate
was frozen out of the televised debate a few days ago. John actually outpolls
Griff three to one online, but since he's not with one of the two government
parties he doesn't officially exist at the People's
TV Station. Nyet third parties allowed.
