It is funny how life sometimes intersects with itself at the strangest times. I was watching “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” this evening (sans commercials on Turner Classic Movies), not really paying much attention. In fact, only inertia kept me from finding the remote and turning to something else. The movie’s message that the common man, and common sense, can sometimes win the day over entrenched special interests and the political machine just rings so hopelessly naive in these days of hyper-partisan do-nothingism. The scene when Mr. Smith begins his marathon speech did get a chuckle from me, as it was so unusual in its day (1939) that all the reporters jumped from their seats and ran to the phone banks screaming, “Filibuster!” it wouldn’t earn a tweet from a junior Senator today when it takes 60 votes to decide what to order for lunch.
So, a quick chuckle then back to this morning’s newspaper. I turned the page and started reading Tom Friedman’s column, “Third Party Rising,” and my spirits began to rise as well. Friedman claims that “at least two serious groups, one on the East Coast and one on the West Coast,” made up of what he calls “the radical center,” are developing political parties to compete with the bankrupt, Republican and Democratic parties.
I’m sure some of you are already rolling your eyes, but he’s not talking about Ross Perot or John Anderson waging a lone Quixotic crusade. He’s talking about a real party and he seems to link these efforts (although he isn’t this specific) with wealthy technocrats and entrepreneurs from Silicon Valley and elsewhere.
This would be a party of serious people, who not only believe in free enterprise, but have lived that life and understand that real problems are never solved unless we first speak them out loud and keep all options for solving them on the table.
Their commitment would be back by serious money; rich people with a real interest in finding solutions, so that their efforts can continue to keep them rich, and too much money to make them vulnerable to the pernicious, single-minded self-serving special interest groups.
I’ve been thinking for years that the only way out of our mess is to somehow take the money out of the election system, but I think I’ve been wrong. We need t fight fire with flame-throwers!
Imagine the combined fortunes of Michael Bloomberg, Meg Whitman, Jon Corzine, and Carly Fiorina, joining with Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Larry Ellison and the Google/Facebook geeks to back rational, problem-solving candidates from the “radical center” who actually speak the truth to the electorate without looking over their fund-raising shoulders.
Are they going to sweep the nation in 2012? Probably not, but if an honest conversation broke out we’d have a minor miracle right there. I hope you’ll read the article if you haven’t already; the description of the established parties by a Stanford political scientist is worth the effort alone.
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