The Evolution of Political Affiliation

There have been independently-registered Americans since political party registration was first instituted; only now, however, are slews of disenchanted citizens becoming increasingly affiliated as such. Now, with a presidential election pending, the top Democratic candidates are catering to the unaffiliated and, more often that not, Barack Obama is their candidate of choice, seen as the great unifier of our country.
The evolution of the unaffiliated voter showed up on media radar around the 2004 race for the White House between candidates George W. Bush and John Kerry. Bush had already begun to frustrate Americans half-way through his two terms as President, causing prior supporters to turn their support toward other candidates and parties. Now, coming up on the 2008 election, numbers are showing that the trend is happening again, gaining more momentum than four years ago.
Quoting New York’s mayor, Michael R. Bloomberg, in a New York Times op-ed at the end of February, “In the weeks and months ahead, I will continue to work to steer the national conversation away from partisanship and toward unity; away from ideology and toward common sense; away from sound bites and toward substance…If a candidate takes an independent, nonpartisan approach – and embraces practical solutions that challenge party orthodoxy – I’ll join others in helping that candidate win the White House.”

Bloomberg voices the thoughts of many Americans with those words, the nation growing weary of a two-party system that has not truly represented the majority of the country for many years now, if ever.
According to a study by the American Political Science Association (APSA) entitled, “American Democracy in an Age of Rising Inequality,” “The privileged participate more than others [in government] and are increasingly well organized to press their demands on the government. Public officials, in turn, are much more responsive to the privileged than to average citizens and the least affluent.” This is a matter of great concern that presents a problem for the unheard majority – how do we get our issues heard if we are not in the top 5% of wealthy Americans who are and always have been represented by government officials throughout American history?
Now in a time of economic recession and, I predict, decline, middle and lower-class Americans are hurting in their wallets. The APSA study explains, “Unequal economic outcomes are seen as largely reflecting differences among individuals rather than flaws in the economic system.” The flaw of this logic comes from the fact that impoverished Americans rarely, if ever, pull themselves out of their monetary earning bracket to become middle-class Americans, regardless of individual skill or talent. The underdogs in this country will more often than not remain underdogs their entire life, and the government accepts this instead of helping out their citizens who need it most.

What complicates the matter is the fact that voter turn-out is almost always represented by middle to upper-class Americans, even though the lower classes tend to have more at stake in the election process. There has been a report gracing news stations recently regarding the number of Americans in prison right now, averaging about 1 out of every 100 citizens. Not only is this statistic disconcertingly high, but it poses a voting issue. As the aforementioned study writes, “[P]art of the decline in voting since the early 1970s results from laws in many states that forbid former (as well as current) prisoners from voting, sometimes for their entire lives. Millions of Americans, especially minority men, have been excluded from basic participation in our democracy by such laws.” By far, the prisons are filled with lower-class citizens who are not only being unfairly brought to justice in some circumstances (based on racism and the like), but their right to act as citizens once they return to society is being taken from them as well.
These large groups of Americans – ex-prisoners and lower-class individuals – have already figured out that their votes do not count and/or do not make a difference, causing drops in voter turn-out among them, regardless of the candidates they are able to choose among. Going back to the study, “The problem today is that this mechanism for a broad and inclusive democracy – political parties – caters to some of the same narrow segments of American society that also disproportionately deploy interest groups on their behalf. Advantage begets additional advantage.” I could not have put it better myself. In other words, those with the most on the line to lose or gain in any election are being disenfranchised by their economic status.

Another way to look at the current state of voting in the country is that it negates the self-proposed democracy we supposedly live in. The simple answer to the question of what a democracy is might be a government of the people, for the people in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised directly by them or their elected agents under a free electoral system; a society with formal equality of rights and privileges. Looking at America through a magnifying glass, equality is not always revealed. There are great disparities in income and wealth among the classes; there are gaps within races, ethnicities, genders, and sexualities; and power remains in the hands of the few, not the majority. “If disparities of participation and influence become further entrenched – and if average citizens give up on democratic government – unequal citizenship could take on a life of its own, weakening American democracy for a long time to come,” concludes the APSA study. The time has come; changes in the system must be brought about now.
American citizens have already silently announced their desires for change in their voter registration. Now more than ever before are voters registering as undeclared, unaffiliated or independent; many are only registering with a party when voting in a primary/caucus requires so. According to a Washington Post article from 2004 entitled, “Moving On: More Voters Are Steering Away from Party Labels,” “Through the first half of the 20th century…one party or the other tended to monopolize power as straight-ticket voting was the norm.” Now, however, we see a rise of the unaffiliated and the non-bipartisan.

The current presidential candidate who purports just that is by and large Illinois Senator Barack Obama. He is being hailed as a potential unifying factor for the country in a time when just such is needed. As is stipulated by Jeff Zeleny of The New York Times in his Jan. 6, 2008 article, “In This Race, Independents Are the Prize,” “Mr. Obama, Democrat of Illinois, implored voters here [New Hampshire] Saturday ‘to come together as Democrats and Republicans and independents and say that we are one nation, we are one people and our time for change has come in 2008.’” From the out-start of his campaign, Obama has been speaking to all parties, not just the Dems, unlike candidates Clinton and McCain – although both have since taken a note from his book, starting to do the same.
This tactic on behalf of Obama has worked. Zeleny writes, “Almost two-thirds of undeclared voters, who can vote in either primary, planned to choose the Democratic primary, according to the most recent CNN/WMUR poll. Those who were planning to vote Democratic divided 34 percent for Mr. Obama and 29 percent for Mrs. Clinton.”
To be sure, the race is still in its early stages and many changes will no doubt occur over the next 8 some-odd months prior to November elections. Suffice to say, nonetheless, that Obama is continuing to gain momentum across party lines, especially with this past week’s speech on race that is already being hailed as historic. Although the premise of his speech was founded in skin color, he speaks to all the differences between American citizens, calling for these to be seen as factors to bring us together as opposed to setting us apart. “[W]e may have different stories, but we hold common hopes,” he reminds us. “[W]e may not look the same and we may not have come from the same place, but we all want to move in the same direction – towards a better future for our children and our grandchildren.”

Indeed, Obama has hit the nail on the head in my opinion. When we close our eyes at the end of the day, what do each and every one of us hope for? Job and finance security. A safe and healthy environment for ourselves and our loved ones. An opportunity for education. Differentiating between this presidential race and those that have come before, Obama proclaims, “This time we want to talk about the fact that the real problem is not that someone who doesn’t look like you might take your job; it’s that the corporation you work for will ship it overseas for nothing more than a profit.” If we stop competing with our fellow citizens and move our focus to the big businesses who greedily rake in billions annually by out-sourcing, or the oil companies that are ratcheting up gas prices to maintain their own financial excesses, change can come.
In Obama’s words, “Yes we can!”

~ by peacewriter313 on March 24, 2008.