This issue has
repeatedly arisen on this blog, perhaps because people think, mistakenly, that
I am an ‘ultra liberal.’  The issue
arose most recently as a question for the special Beliefnet post I am
developing.  I won’t use it for
that purpose – there are more basic issues pertaining to Pagans as a spiritual
community and I have limited space – but it raises interesting questions.

No, one need not
be a super liberal, or even a liberal to be Pagan.  I am not sure, but I suspect Gerald Gardner rather liked the
British empire.  Historically
Pagans have been all over the map politically.  But today Pagans voting Republican are like Jews voting
Nazi.  This was not true in the old
Eisenhower or Goldwater Republican Party, but it is true today.  The Sauronic base and its leaders
control the party.

Two Party Crisis

We have no real
choice today because unfortunately the US is only a two party system.  This is mostly a result of requiring
plurality rather than majority elections. Plurality elections means whoever
gets the most votes wins, even if that is 30%, so long as it’s more than
anybody else.  This logic makes it
almost impossible for new parties to arise unless the old ones collapse over a
crisis, as happened only once in this country, just before the Civil War.

The ‘third’
parties – Libertarians, Conservatives, Greens, and so on – are mostly ego trips
for their members and rarely anything more.  We can vote for them sanely only when there is no chance the
main party farthest from them will benefit as a result, or when we can safely
let that other party win.  We do
not really have that luxury today.

Hopefully the
Republican Party will collapse, and a sane party will rise in its place.  Or maybe sanity will return.  Then, even if we disagree with it, we
don’t have to live in fear of its triumph.  For that’s what a democracy is all about – a loyal
opposition that respects the rules and traditions of the system and a winning
group that does so as well.  Both
put the rules ahead of winning. 
Republicans did not respect the rules when in power, nor do they respect
them when out of power.  They have removed
themselves from the democratic process whenever they have had the chance,
preferring to rule by tyrannical will instead.  Until they reform, neither Pagans nor loyal Americans in
general can intelligently vote for them at the national level.  It would be like hiring a child
molester as your baby sitter.

If the American
democracy fails to survive its present crisis, and I would not bet either way
at the moment, future historians will likely blame our two party system as a
big part of the cause.  When one
party is taken over by idiots and bigots, intelligent and caring citizens have
little choice.  Yet this means that
the Democrats can take them for granted, and sell their votes to the corporate crooks
that offer them the best deal.  A
great many do.  So our electoral
choice is military oligarchy or military nutjobs and ‘Christian’ Taliban.

Contesting
Primaries

Competition is
necessary or else incumbents become lazy or corrupt.

There is one
area where democratic room still exists: Democratic primaries.  Primaries are more important now than
perhaps ever before in our history. Democratic primaries need to be contested,
giving Democratic voters have a choice when the incumbent is a tool of the
corporate/military oligarchy.

I just learned
that 93% of MoveOn’s members voted not to support incumbent Democrats that do
not support the public option in health reform. 
This is an important start, for it means they will support primary challengers
to the likes of Max Baucus and other tools of the ‘insurance’ industry.  But it is only a start. 

Another approach would be for Pagans who make political contributions to give only to specific candidates or organizations who support candidates in keeping with their values rather than to national party organizations.  The national party organizations almost always only support incumbents in contested primaries.  They will rarely if ever be agents for significant reform. 

Supporting primary challenges must
become standard operating procedure for all Americans concerned for the future
of their country, Pagans included.

A Long Term
Approach

In the long run
we can avoid these perils if we amend state constitutions – which in time will lead
to a national amendment – to require majority vote for winning office, with
runoffs when no one gets a majority. 
That way we can vote for third parties without in the process putting
the party we dislike most into office. 
Until then, so long as one of the parties is as vicious as the
Republicans, democracy is in peril.

That today’s
third parties do not push for initiatives for majority vote in states that have
the initiative process is proof that their leaders are in it for ego, not for
the good of the country.  When they
start pushing for majority vote, then they will be worth taking seriously.