My "It's A Wonderful Life" Moment

Call me crazy. Call me a "homer." Call me an ideologue. Call me politically naive. Call me what you will. But I was sitting around the other day, and I had an "It's A Wonderful Life" moment. I tried to imagine what this country would be like right now if there were no Republican Party. Instinctively, my mind immediately leapt to the conclusion that one-party rule is always bad, and leads to corruption and all sorts of other bad things, and that's probably true over a period of time. But I just couldn't help thinking about things in the short term. And the conclusion I came to was that I couldn't think of one, single, solitary way that this country wouldn't be 100% better off if the Republican Party didn't exist.

Now, I know there are more level-headed people out there who will immediately chime in with things like, "If there were no Republican Party, all the idiots and fanatics and nut-jobs would form something even worse," but in my imaginary little world, I was imagining a country where there WERE no idiots, fanatics, or nut-jobs. Every office in the country was manned by duly elected representatives of a left-leaning country. And honestly, I'll say it again, I couldn't imagine a scenario where things weren't 100% better all the way around. On not one issue did I see any downside. And if we all woke up tomorrow to find that every office in the country was filled by Democrats, I can't imagine a scenario where there wouldn't be NOTICEABLE improvement almost IMMEDIATELY.

I guess what I'm saying is, if I were standing on that bridge, I'd have an awfully hard time telling Boner and all his cronies not to jump.

The politics and psychology of two parties makes for lots of bickering with very little forward movement.

republicans are just a symptom, not the cause of most of our problems. The democratic party has been dragged far enough to the right that we would hardy notice their (republicans) disappearance.:shrug:

And while others may have stepped up to try to hold the Union together we could spin that Capra thing in a manner that would leave us with at least 2 Americas, one or both of which might have spent another 100 years with an even worse civil rights record.

to leave.

Of course, the south would have fought against the allies in WWII, but that could have been dealt with.

but a Cowboy fan?!

Get used to it.

that's why we come to these discussion boards, to share ideas and....oh, you mean that other 'thing'.




Never mind.:blush:

It's not the absence of the Republican Party that we need; political parties are not static. They, too, change over time. It's the abolishing of the current system. Election reform that includes 100% public financing, equal, and equally neutral, media coverage, equal talk time and all candidates answering all questions in debates, and some form of IRV.