When I was younger, my dad gave me some sound advice when it came to meeting new people. He told me, “If you’re meeting someone for the first time, or you’re not very comfortable around someone yet, don’t ever talk about rape.”

I thought, “Well that makes sense, rape is a touchy subject for a lot of people.”

He finished his statement by saying, “RAPE is an acronym. It means Religion, Abortion, Politics, and Economics.”

Since it’s the spring semester, and I’m a little more comfortable with everyone here, I’ll talk to you about to the P in that acronym, politics.

Politics is a touchy subject for a lot of people mainly due to the divide that is created between party lines. If you consider yourself a Democrat, you are pretty much obligated to dislike anything and everything about the Republican Party, and vice versa. Having any sort of debate about a political issue will slowly start to fade away from the topic of the debate and quickly become a Republicans versus Democrats free-for-all. When did this bipartisan warfare start? and more importantly, why aren’t there any efforts being made to bring peace to the Senates and Houses of Representatives nationwide?

First, you need to answer the question, “What is the purpose of having a political party? Why not just have every candidate run independently for every position?” Check out this article from the Washington Post about the shift of political parties from their original purpose:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/have-political-parties-lost-their-purpose/2013/03/18/2486608e-8d9f-11e2-9838-d62f083ba93f_story.html

The article says that originally, political parties were designed to best represent the interests of the people who affiliated with them, and today that still holds true. The big difference now though is that when our democracy was just beginning to form, it was in the late eighteenth century. Americans did not have any access or knowledge to what was going on in their government at a time besides a limited understanding through word of mouth and infrequent newspaper articles. Now, in a modern age where electronics and social media such as Twitter or Facebook allow people to communicate with anyone worldwide instantly, people don’t feel the need to be represented anymore. A record number 40 percent of all Americans identify themselves as independent from any political party. The article also cites a very limited understanding of the ideologies and beliefs of each political system. In the article, the author states:

“But for many of those years, the concern was that the parties were too much alike and philosophically undefined. For instance, if you said “Democrat” in the 1950s, you might be describing a Southern segregationist or a left-wing Northeasterner. Republicans for decades were united primarily by their views on economic issues, and tolerated a broad range of opinion on social matters and on national security.

Now, the opposite is true. Party labels have become a shorthand for a rigid ideological dividing line — Democrats to the left and Republicans to the right.”

Based on this, it shows that the political party system does not have any set beliefs for either party. Instead, each party has a dynamic that is constantly changing every day based on the beliefs of its members. For more information on why political parties to change their positions, here is a thesis from the University of Amsterdam.

Click to access WhyPartiesChangePosition_Manuscript.pdf

The issue with this fierce divide between the parties is that when it comes down to the real issues, the bills and amendments that need to be passed through our legislative branch every day, it becomes more about the politics and less about the issues at hand. There are some people out there that are so loyal to their political party, that I truly believe they would vote for a dog if it ran on their ticket.

When people are too caught up in following what their party wants and not what they want, it is nearly impossible to reach a majority on any vote. This ends with a very small amount of bills being passed, and the track record for Congress reflects that.

http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/first-read/congress-track-be-least-productive-modern-history-n169546

This massive lack of bills being passed is mainly due to House Republicans filibustering many bills that are backed or pushed by the Democrats, since the Democratic Party holds office. Republicans will argue that these statistics are flawed and they should not be assessed on the number of bills they pass. They believe it is their job to prevent unnecessary or uncompleted bills from being passed, which they have certainly been doing. Essentially, Republicans are refusing to pass any bills Democrats bring to the table, leading to a constant stalemate in Congress. Although that article is from July, Congress had in fact achieved their target and been the least productive Congress in modern history.

This raises the question: Are political parties really worth it? We raise this political warfare daily, with the divide being so wide that it’s considered amazing that a congressman can reach across the aisle for bipartisanship. Shouldn’t that aisle be a bridge instead of a moat? It’s almost as if there are two halves of a whole each working for their own agenda, rather than one group of people working towards a common goal. This country is being cleaved in half by this system of political parties, and I am glad to see the country starting to take a step in the right direction with such a growing number of people identifying as independents. We’re the United States of America, we practically brought direct democracy to the modern world. If we had the strength and willpower to do that 250 years ago, who’s to say we can’t reinvent the party system?

A revolution starts by spreading ideas. Here we are, in the 21st, century. The golden age of the Internet. When I press “publish”, this article will be on a server in microseconds where millions can view my thoughts. Just enter the right combination of words, gain enough exposure and file sharing of an idea, and you can start a revolution. All it takes is one click.