Coalition Government vs Two Party Politics

Rand Paul, an otherwise educated man, blew himself up last night trying to be true to his small government, free enterprise views. He allowed Rachel Maddow to drag out of him the fact that he believed it was the right of a private business to segregate it’s facilities. A Muslim woman who wrote a book about the threat of home-grown terrorism among American Muslims now needs personal security because she did something a woman shouldn’t do (write a book about how women are treated) and teacher’s unions on the left threaten education reform in New York. These are just this morning’s examples of the dangers of ideological purity in a complex world.We all know the dangers of extreme views, but America seems to be headed in the direction of deadlocks between the extreme left and extreme right, the religious zealots and the atheists. The middle ground is vanishing even faster than the middle class.

And in the past, ideological purity led to communism, fascism, and all the other “isms” under which ethnic cleansing and holocausts happen.

The recent British election should give us a model for how to deal with our own zealots. No one got a majority, because three parties were in contention. They formed a coalition government, in which everyone has the will to get things done, rather than the will to freeze things that don’t reflect ideological purity. There’s a difference between personal beliefs and public good sometimes, and that’s what makes government succeed. It isn’t going to go away, so it is time to make it better.

It is time for more than a two party system in this very complex America. The growing number of registered independents (of whom I am one) tells us there’s a need. Those of us who hold some of Rand Paul’s pro-business views but certainly couldn’t vote for a man who would segregate lunch counters, those of us who want to be Muslims without mutilating women, or who want immigration reform without S.B. 1070 need to be counted. Keep the phrase “coalition government” in mind. It might be where we end up. Perhaps the Tea Party shouldn’t let itself be hi-jacked by wackos, or perhaps a socialist party should emerge, forcing Republicans and Democrats back to the middle. Or perhaps the Independents should engage as a political force in the middle. In France, I think they have all of those and more.

Britain might not be perfect, but it’s older than we are, and its governmental institutions are more mature. Maybe we should look back to look forward.