The Golden Trident

By Zach Smith 

In today’s hyperpolarized political climate, too many citizens lean into party alliance rather than scrutinizing policies, undermining the very essence of informed democratic participation. Such a system not only misguides voters but also runs counter to the founding principles envisioned by America’s creators.

The Founding Fathers vision of a republic was a free and informed democracy, “governed by the people, and for the people.” This vision included these things in order to prevent the plethora of ways that they had seen governments be corrupted. To start, many founding fathers such as George Washington and James Madison were highly cautioned against the divisiveness of political factions, believing that strong, opposing parties would split national unity and threaten the republic’s stability. In Washington’s words, “The spirit of party… is to be feared as a common and continuous threat to our liberty. It serves always to distract the public councils and enfeeble the public administration. It agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms; kindles the animosity of one part against another, and foments occasionally riot and insurrection.”

 Washington points out how political decisions through camaraderie can lead to the misinformed or uninformed election of public officials. A man with insurmountable support for the importance of critical thinking and political literacy would be appalled at the drastically uneducated nation we have bred. Today, the two party system often forces citizens into rigid groups that they associate with their personality. Inherently, this association drastically breeds stale political debate and uninformed/misinformed political decisions. 

So how did the two party system even come to be? The two party system evolved over time and has been cemented into American politics for an incredibly long time. The first election with some sort of political party was the election of 1796, the first election without George Washington on the ballot. Political parties were opposed then by many scholars as well, incredibly academically virtuous men such as Madison and Alexander Hamilton hated misinformed voters and commonly would speak to the public to educate them. The last election in our country that had more than just the two parties (not including independent) was the 1860 election, the election Abraham Lincoln won. In this election, there were three main political parties: the two you know, and additionally a “Southern Democrat.” This 150+ year old election still represents the “common and continuous threat” that Washington warned us of, even with three parties, there is still an allegiance allowing for cognitive bias. 

The solution? Stop aligning with a color and read, do some research, and vote for policy, not party. It’s insulting to see the country I love so much fall victim to artificial division and hatred manufactured in order for big corporations and billionaires to endlessly profit off of your hard work. Division and ignorance are absolutely weapons; the American people are divided and ignorant and have been attacked for decades. Watching idly by and supporting the exploitation of yourself and your people is a clear sign of ignorance and factionalism. As Plato philosophized, “as you step out of the shadows of ignorance and into the light of knowledge, the blinding brightness of truth may initially overwhelm you, but soon you’ll begin to see the world as it truly is, rich with opportunity, free from the chains of artificial division and full of potential for meaningful change.”