Why We’re Leaving the Party
Though we may be different in many ways, in one way we have
found common ground. We both see the partisan politics and their destructive
influence on our Republic.
It is apparent that the federal government has been rendered
incapable of any coherent and comprehensive action by the intransigence of
competing political parties; and we’ve both been eyewitnesses to this same
dynamic in the Maine’s Legislature. This
destructive polarization harms the reputation and credibility of Maine’s
government and more importantly, frustrates the creation of policies that
affect the lives of everyday Mainers. In
our conversations with the people of Maine, we hear a common theme that this
dysfunction that has grabbed the throat of Maine politics chokes the common
sense out of our elected officials’ ability to serve their constituents.
Political parties have functionally become vehicles by which
special interests exert inappropriate influence in government. One need only look
at the list of donors to the two major parties and their candidates by political
action committees to see this impact.
Some donors are so cynical that they contribute to both parties and competing
candidates to ensure influence. No elected
official will readily admit that contributions to one’s party or one’s campaign
affect the decisions he or she makes while in office; unfortunately, this
assertion doesn’t pass the straight face test.
And don’t let the “clean elections candidate” label fool you either. Many such candidates themselves operate PACs
that raise funds, and in turn donate them to their party, which then in turn operates
to secure the candidate’s or others’ election.
It’s no coincidence that many of these candidates, when elected, find
themselves in leadership positions within their party and in the
Legislature.
Once in office, your representative is subject to the
powerful influence of these parties. Ask
your legislator if he or she has been pressured to reverse his or her vote by a
party leader. Ask your legislator if he
or she has been pressured to reverse his or her vote on reconsideration of a
veto in order to support a governor. Ask
your legislator if he or she has really read and understands the bills on which
he or she has voted or has merely relied on the caucus position. The answers will not surprise you, but they
are not the answers that the people of Maine will want to hear. Party politics are directing Maine’s future,
not the people of Maine.
Recently a $6.7 billion budget negotiated behind closed
doors by four party leaders, and the unspoken influence of each was that “I can
deliver 2/3 of my caucus” with this “compromise.” Unless your legislator or senator was
directly involved in these negotiations, he or she had little input, and since
there were no public hearings on these agreements, no citizens’ voices were
heard. Maine people and their elected
representatives had no seat at the table.
We treat policy work as a team sport, and there are only two
teams. We fall easily into the rhetoric
of “Democrats do this” and “Republicans think that” because it’s easily
comprehensible to us, reducing everything to black and white. It becomes easy for us to choose one side and
denigrate the other, ignoring the complexity of the issues or even the very
issue itself. The party sound bites are
much easier to throw out to a media that no longer investigates the truth. This “us and them” thinking allows us to treat
our fellow citizens with disdain, dismissing all of the other things about them
that are positive. To see this, one needs
merely to read the online comments below any news story.
Our politics has become fraught with dirty, personal
attacks. By polarizing our conversation, we polarize our community and we
polarize the way we think about issues.
We change the way we think about the people who hold opinions different
from us. We conclude that somehow, they
are mentally deficient or woefully uninformed or motivated by evil intent. Consequently,
our government becomes dysfunctional, not the representative democracy it was
designed to be.
The truth is the ideas and opinions of our citizenry are
varied, complex, and wonderfully diverse.
Both of us represent small towns where Town Meeting is how
issues are decided. Of course there is
disagreement and heated discussion. But
somehow, absent the influence of political parties, the citizens muddle through
and do what’s best for their community and remain friends through the
disagreement and discussion. And the
community is stronger for it. Our
politics in Augusta and Washington could be informed by this tradition.
Both of us have become good friends, and we respect our
differences. We trust that the other is
sincerely trying to do the best thing as he understands it. We disagree on a great many things but we
also agree on others. We recognize that
issues are complex and require conversations and not arguments. We both agree that the polarization of our
politics and the disproportionate power of our parties have undermined the
functioning of our government and frustrated our elected officials’ abilities
to vote their conscience and properly represent their constituents.
So the Democratic and Republican parties in Maine each have
one less member. We are free to work
together on complex issues, agreeing where we can, and disagreeing when we
must. Whether we agree or disagree, we
will be civil, respectful, and responsible to our constituents and we will
remain friends and true to the ideals of a truly representative democracy.
Larry Dunphy is a
Legislator from North Anson and a former Republican, and Brian Jones is a
former Legislator from Freedom and former Democrat.