The Technocratic Party: A New Political Movement

When last I posted to this blog, I was tired of the stupidity in Washington. I literally had no idea how bad it could get. We the American people have elected a vulgar reality star as president. I’ve seen a lot of demonization of his followers by people on the left. But, I’ve tried to avoid that. Although the man himself is despicable, and it is easy to question the morality–or even the sanity–of those who would support him, I think there is a lot more to this phenomenon. I have a lot of supporters of his in my own family. I know these are good people. So, how did they end up voting for a narcissistic sociopath?

My observation is that his followers seem to fall into one of three camps:

1. The first is the one that people on the Left tend to lump all his followers with–openly bigoted white supremacists and/or misogynists. These people have hung around the fringes of both parties (not just the Republican party). They are disaffected people who prefer to blame “the other” whoever that may be this decade for their problems.
2. The second camp has the people who actually believed all the promises Trump made on the campaign trail. Some were naive. Others were merely idealistic, hoping that somebody who seemed to be a wildly successful businessman could bring some common sense back into Washington politics.
3. The third camp contains those who are angry. They are angry at the previous president. They are angry at the Congress. They are angry in general. They see the cost of living increasing, but their wages haven’t increased. They’ve been listening for decades while their politicians promise things will get better if only their party gets into power. They tried it for eight years with George W Bush and another eight years with Barack Obama. With no evidence of change coming, they voted to send a message to Washington–a message that has not been understood by either party.

I didn’t vote for Trump, but I’m firmly in that third class of people. I think most of America are right there with me. Politicians of both parties are bought and paid for by corporate and wealthy interests. They are increasingly stripping away our freedoms and the protections that were put into place in the 20th century, protections that helped to create and maintain the middle class. We are rapidly sliding back into the Gilded Age where the richest 10% of Americans reaped all the benefits of the work of the other 90%.

So, what is to be done? The solution is easy. Get out and vote. Vote the losers out of Washington. Voter suppression is a thing, but with participation rates in elections south of 40%, it wouldn’t be hard for a committed electorate to turn in a real change.

But, who to vote for? Now, that is a conundrum. The GOP is dedicated to shrinking the federal government down as small as possible and then drowning it in a bathtub. That’s no way to run a government. The Democrats aren’t much better. They pay lip service to protecting minority rights, but they are sold out to the corporations as much as the GOP is and will ensure that no meaningful reform happens, all while throwing money at problems without any meaningful thought into how to best use that money.

There are the third parties. Many of them offer enticing policy proposals, but there are significant problems with each of them. The Libertarian party is socially liberal but would deregulate us back into feudalism. The Green party has some great ideas on environmentalism, but the candidate that they keep running for president is almost completely whackadoodle.

What we need is a new party–one that plans policies based on evidence and not ideology. Instead of sticking to principles whether they work or not, politicians of this party will pursue policies that have been proven effective. They will not continue to pursue policies that aren’t working. Instead, they will work on fixing them rather than mindlessly following an ideological drumbeat.

Is this the party that America wants? I don’t know.

Is this the party American needs? Absolutely.

We need to get science and common sense back in charge. It’s time to take America back from the corporations and the oligarchs and get back to taking care of our interests.

Who’s with me?