Opinion

(Source: 'The Week' Click here)

Bipartisan Politics - Washington's Cliquey Nature and the Death of the Moderate

By Jonah Williams 

Stop - pause, and sit. What I'm about to ask you is very non-sequitur-esque, and in some essence, can be classified as "absurd". Yet, nevertheless, take a second to heed my instructions and maybe your eyes will be opened as wide as mine were.

Think back to your high school days; for some of you they were probably the best years of your life - for others, a faint memory that lays lost, long forgotten. However for most people, including myself, one thing remains the same across the board - high school was full of cliques. For some, they may have been clear-cut and overbearing so that one could easily been identified as a “jock” or a “nerd”. Yet for the most part, and from my own experience, this isn’t the case. On the surface, socability in High School is very fluid and seems intertwined. But when this layer of fat is removed from the beast, you see the true undertones and intricacies that make up the social structure of friends. Therefore, on the surface, a school could appear to have a very friendly people but underneath they are truly monsters to each other - conniving, contorting the truth, spreading rumors, hazing, and expressing distaste for other members of the different clique.

While the origins of these cliques are very clear (simply a group which shares similar ideals, beliefs, lunch, homework, and the whole nine yards), their subtle behavior between each other, whether observably apparent or under the table, is vicious. The underlying exclusivity makes entry very difficult and those who do not share all the similar beliefs, ideals, and perceptions will either be canned or have their reputation around the school destroyed. It truly sounds like something out of Means Girls, but its not - it’s found in almost every High School in the nation.

For example, if a certain few members of a clique group despise another classmate, then it is automatically implied and expected that the other members a) despise the same person, b) express public acts of distaste, c) support all the actions of the “ringleader” against that person, and d) live in complete repression and isolation of beliefs.

The interesting comparison is that, for the most part, our government acts and functions the same way. Between the democrats and the republicans - our cliques or more identifiable as the Montagues and the Capulets - are the epitome of how ineffective our government truly is. Between both parties there are feuds, bickering, finger-pointing, but these actions are all presumed to happen in a bipartisan system. Yet it’s the things that we don’t see - the nepotism, under the table favoritism, bribery, “mind-control”, and implicit party beliefs that are not so obvious to the public.

This means that upon entering a political party, the fresh-minded, active, and happy young politician is viciously slaughtered, killed, and has the optimistic soul sucked right out of him/her (House of Cards is probably the most accurate depiction of this). The initiation process consists of being conformed to the party ideals, much like the average High School student entering a clique, he/she is bent, contorted, and molded into what the entire group believes.

And herein lies the problem - politics are too cliquey. There is no fluidity, just simple and unarguable association. What I mean by that is that, to the public, there will never exist a candidate who believes in neoliberalist policies while also remaining socially progressive or environmentally conscious - and vis versa, there will never exist a socially conservative yet Kenyan policy maker.

These “moderates” or outlier found in both High School cliques and our government itself are not given credit and simply categorized with all the other members of their party. If I believe in small government, but believe that social welfare systems should be maintained by the federal government, what am I? Where do I go? To which clique do I belong?

None, at least not one where I could have an influence on our government.

And so the voice of the moderate will likely never be heard because of our associative bipartisan system, but right now in my mind, I truly believe that America needs more moderates. “Moderation is everything,” my grandfather once told me. Of course he was speaking about fat, caffeine, cigs, and booze, but nevertheless, the same principle applies to government.

Will that day ever come? I have no idea, but until then, get used to living in a system where Cady and Regina dictate our political policies.