Stan Geiger

End of the Duopoly?

August second is fast approaching. Democrats and Republicans continue to sit and stare at each other. Public opinion polls clearly show few people in this nation are enamored with either party. Elected officials from both parties, it seems, are willing to gamble that the elected officials of the other party will get the bulk of the blame when things blow up---again.

I think both parties need to get a grip. Most people in this country think this way: Dude, you both suck!

So where do we go from here? There has been a swelling of the ranks of registered Independents---like me. The problem with being an Independent, however, is that you still have to choose, in most cases, between a Republican and a Democrat. Both of those parties are dominated by the radical right and the radical left.

I see the inevitable rise of a bona fide third party, one that can organize, one that can raise money, one that can assemble a sizable membership comprised of Independents, reasonable Republicans and reasonable Democrats.

Should that happen, the Republican Party would be left to the radical right. The platform would call for every citizen being required to own 17 guns or more, public schools being converted to Christian churches, smoking of pot carrying the death penalty, and if some psychotic daddy out there raped his 9-year-old daughter until she got pregnant, no abortion allowed. And the more money you have, the less you pay in taxes. If you get rich enough, hey, no taxes at all.

The Democratic Party would be left to the radical left. Nobody would be allowed to own a gun---not even cops. Abortion would not only be accepted as a means of birth control, taxpayers would cover the cost of the murders. Everybody in the country would get some kind of gubment check---just on general principles. Anybody that makes more than $100,000 a year would have his or her entire income taxed away---excluding, of course, those employed at colleges and universities or liberal think tanks. Use of any kind of drug would not only be allowed but encouraged. Public schools would exist for the purposes of proving global warming and disproving the existence of God.

The rest of us would form the third party.

My only fear is the formation of a third party would serve only to eff things up even more, given the way things work in Washington.

---