Both Pepsi? and Coke? are great American classic soft drinks, but when we go to the market we often want to buy milk, juice or something else.? What if Pepsi or Coke were all that was available?? That?s roughly the situation we have in American politics.? Not only do ?the Democratic and Republican parties fail to offer convincing solutions to our current challenges, neither inspires much confidence in safeguarding our futures and those of future generations.? An April 11, 2011 Reuters/Ipsos poll found that only 25% believe that the U.S. is headed in the right direction.? This mirrored an April 4, 2011 NBC News/WSJ poll which found that only 28% believe that we?re headed in the right direction.
The campaigns, platforms, ideologies and posturing of the Democratic and Republican parties have polarized the U.S. to the point where every victory is viewed as a loss for another constituency, with gloating the order of the day.? We currently seem condemned to a never-ending future of ?red? v. ?blue? states and media empires making their fortunes by vilifying or pushing one party line or another.? The constituencies and money-raising machines for both the Democratic and Republican parties are locked-in, limiting the positions and policies that each party is willing to adopt.? We can change the faces, but the policies and outcomes remain the same.? The founders of the American Party do not believe that the U.S. is remotely close to achieving its potential.
Might all this change eventually?? We can think of only two events that are capable of changing our futures in this Century.? ?The first is a cataclysmic event such as another 9/11-type terrorist attack, a natural disaster such as a supervolcano eruption, or the declaration of war.? Any of those events would instantly unify the Country.? The second is the emergence of a strong, new third party such as the American Party?.? We are in the early stages of organizing and a long way from making an impact but we will get there.? We will get there because we still have faith in the American people to think for themselves, in the wisdom of Thomas Jefferson and certain of his successors, and most of all, because we know that down deep every American knows that this is not close to the best that we can or should do.? Only then will we have a choice other than Pepsi or Coke, and the taste will be more satisfying.
