The Two Party System Is Weighed in the Balances and Found Wanting

David Alan Black

“Thou art weighed in the balances and art found wanting.” Daniel 5:27

Americans want change, not to more liberalism, but to common-sense politics. The tragedy is that our two party system only encourages the status quo. George Wallace once said there wasn’t a “dime’s worth of difference” between the two major parties. More recently, Pat Buchanan called them the “two wings of the same bird of prey.”

Meanwhile our ruling elites are working feverishly to eradicate all traces of the Constitution in this country. Read the Constitution and then ask yourself this question: Does any Democrat in government makes the slightest attempt to fulfill his oath to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States” or “bear true faith and allegiance to the same”? The same can be asked about practically every Republican as well.

Democrats oppose any diversion of money from Social Security. Likewise, Republicans are tentative about advancing the idea of private investment while the stock market is so erratic. In the end, both support Social Security taxes. There’s only one problem—Social Security is unconstitutional.

Both parties want prescription drug coverage for the elderly, filling a hole in Medicare. The only debate is over how to do it—whether through Medicare itself, or by a private company—and how comprehensive the benefits should be. A plan passed by the Republican-controlled House would spend $320 billion to set up a privately administered insurance system. Again, there’s a “minor” problem. Where does it say in the Constitution that Uncle Sam should use taxpayers’ money to pay for your prescription drugs?

Friends, the way out of the dilemma is easy. Just reverse the equation. If neither the Democrat Party nor the Republican Party is willing to throw off the shackles of the socialist welfare state, then a third party must do the job, one that will promote basic constitutional tenets based on certain foundational beliefs about government:

• the belief that our Founding Fathers designed our system of government in the form of a constitutionally limited republic with maximum freedom intended for the people and minimum government control or interference into our personal lives and business affairs.
• the belief that government at all levels was originally intended to be controlled by the people, that the Constitution explicitly restricts the power of the federal government, and that the Bill of Rights guarantees that the government may not infringe on our God-given unalienable rights.
• the belief that power belongs to the states, to local governments, and especially in the hands of “We the People.”
• the belief that it’s time to end all unconstitutional federal involvement in states issues such as crime, health, education, welfare, and the environment, including social programs such as Social Security and Medicare.
• the belief that all treaties and international agreements not in agreement with the federal government’s constitutionally mandated task of protecting the rights of the people should be repealed.
• the belief that the United States should disassociate itself from the UN and that the federal government should refrain from meddling in the business and squabbles of foreign nations unless there is an imminent threat to the people of the United States.

You might be thinking, “All well and good, but the two party system is unassailable, isn’t it?” King Belshazzar may have felt safe and secure behind the mighty ramparts of Babylon, but when the moving finger began writing he was thrown into a panic. Its message was loud and clear: “Thou art weighed in the balances and art found wanting.”  I say let the Daschles and Liebermanns, the Bushes and Cheneys rest in false security behind walls they think cannot be broken. They are in for a rude awakening. How quickly the mighty of this world crumble though immured in their bastilles when the Divine finger starts writing!

It was Michael Parenti who said, “The worst forms of tyranny, or certainly the most successful ones, are not those we rail against but those that so insinuate themselves into the imagery of our consciousness, and the fabric of our lives, as not to be perceived as tyranny.” He was right. A two party system that undermines the U.S. Constitution is nothing less than tyrannical!

When the thirteen colonies came together in 1787 they created the federal government as their agent—not the other way around. It’s going to take some brave Americans to send that message to Congress—and some unconventional methods, like saying “No” to the two party system. If together we rise with conviction and with the weight of history behind us, then, with God’s help, I believe we can succeed.

August 5, 2003

David Alan Black is the editor of www.daveblackonline.com.

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