This article continues the examination of the divisive, confrontational party system that is currently in ascendanceHave in the United States.

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Corruption
Corruption pervades our political system because the parties control the selection of candidates for public office. Candidates are not chosen for their integrity.  Quite the contrary, they are chosen after they demonstrate their willingness and ability to dissemble, to obfuscate and to mislead the electorate.  They are chosen when they prove they will renounce principle and sacrifice honor for the benefit of their party.

The result is a circular process that intensifies over time:

* Candidates for public office cannot mount a viable campaign without party sponsorship, so they obtain sponsorship by agreeing to support the party.

* The party, assured of the loyalty of its candidates, attracts donors because it can promise that its candidates will support the objectives set by the party, i.e., the goals of the donors.

* From the donors, the party obtains the funds it needs to attract appealing candidates and bind them to the party's will.

This cycle makes political parties conduits for corruption .  The organizations they target for funds are not altruistic.  They demand - and get - the laws they demand in our state and national legislatures in return for providing the resources the parties need.  Businesses, labor unions and other vested interests give immense amounts of money and logistical support to political parties to push their agenda and to secure the passage of laws that benefit the donors.

The political parties meet their commitment to the donors by picking politicians who can be relied upon to enact the laws and implement the policies the donors' desire.  The politicians so selected are the least principled of our citizens, but are the only choices available to the American people in our 'free' elections.

The result is a system that renounces virtue and is ruled by cynicism.

None of this is a secret.  The parties conduct their business with our knowledge and tacit approval.  We know, full well, how they operate.  We know about the 'party bosses', 'pork barrels', 'party loyalty', 'slush funds', 'party whips', 'soft money' and the whole lexicon of political manipulation.  Since we know these things exist and do not prevent them, we are responsible for the very corruption we decry.

The Corrosive Effect Of Campaigning
The high cost of election campaigns makes conventional democratic systems susceptible to the influence of money.  Even worse than the inherently corruptive nature of soliciting funds to finance a campaign, which invites demands from the financial backers, is the corrosive effect of campaigning on the candidate's psyche.

Candidates must appear to stand for something but, to attract support, they continually adjust their assertions to appeal to the diverse groups whose votes are required for their election.  Their personal beliefs must be subordinated to the interests of their audience.  By campaigning, they gain expertise in avoiding direct answers to important questions and diverting attention from unwelcome topics.

Campaigning is the antithesis of open inquiry, it is one-way communication centered on deceit, misdirection and obfuscation rather than integrity and commitment to the public interest.  That is why the term 'politician' is pejorative.  The process of campaigning produces people adept at appearing to champion some idea while standing for nothing but their own success.  Political campaigning is a training course in the art of deception.

To make matters worse, candidates are incessantly lionized by their supporters.  This, coupled with the insidious effect of repeatedly proclaiming their own rectitude seduces them into believing their own press clippings.  These things have a debilitating effect on the candidate's character, and, since morality is a top-down phenomenon, choosing political leaders by this method destroys society.

It is frustrating that the people already know these things but have come to believe them unavoidable.  If we wish to improve our political systems, we must acknowledge the adverse effects of campaign-based politics and devise a better way to select our political leaders.

The Myth Of Corruptibility
Some people say we cannot remove corruption from our political systems because humans are corruptible.  Why should we believe such a canard?  We are misled by the high visibility of deceit and corruption in our culture.  The idea that it is inescapable leads to the self-defeating notion that trying to correct it is futile.

The reality is that the vast majority of humans are honorable, law-abiding people.  They have to be, for society could not exist otherwise.  By far, the greater percentage of our friends, our relatives, our co-workers and our neighbors are trustworthy people.

The reason our political leaders are corrupt is that party politics elevates unscrupulous people by design.  Since the goal of a party is to advance its own interest, it rewards those who do so unfettered by the restraints of honor.  Once these unprincipled people achieve leadership positions, they infect our society because morality is a top-down phenomenon.

The idea that we can't remove corruption from our political systems because we are corruptible is nonsense.  It is a myth.  The problem is not the people; it is a political system that intentionally seeks out and elevates unscrupulous politicians.  The vast majority of our peers are honest, principled people.  When we make probity a primary concern in our electoral process, the pervasiveness of dishonesty in our society will diminish.

Separation Of Powers
The U. S. Constitution separated the powers of government in such a way as to operate as checks upon each other.  Among the methods used were the definition of separate Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches, and the further division of the Legislative Branch into two distinct bodies, each intended to represent a different constituency, namely, the interests of the several states and the interests of the people of those states, and the Electoral College to insure broad-based support for a successful Presidential candidate.  Separation of Powers is lauded as a cornerstone of our Constitution.  I'm unaware of any substantive disagreement with this view of the intent of our Founders.

Political parties persistently attack the Separation of Powers.  They use their leverage to force elected officials to vote en bloc on crucial issues, making a mockery of the safeguards we rely on to protect our freedoms.  When one party succeeds in controlling multiple branches of our government, it is ludicrous to imagine we have a system of checks and balances.

Passion And Intellect
Partisan political systems divide and conquer the people by a destructive confrontational method that thrives by inspiring emotional (rather than reasoned) responses to the challenges facing the community.  Political parties appeal to emotion by applying the principles of behavioral science to manipulate the public.  They mount, finance and staff campaigns designed to inflame the passions of the electorate.

Communications during election campaigns are one-way.  There is no genuine attempt to consult the public interest and the serious issues are seldom those raised during a campaign.  Instead, surveys are conducted to find 'hot buttons' which generate a desired response and professionals use the information to mold 'messages' which the candidates and the parties feed the public in a flood of misinformation.  It is a rabble-rousing technique.

Intelligent decisions require dialogue; assertions must be examined, not in the sterile environment of a televised debate, but in depth.  The electorate must be able to examine candidates and discuss matters of public concern, and, with the knowledge so gained, make decisions.  They have no opportunity to do so.

Carefully reasoned decisions are anathema to political parties.  They will do everything in their power to prevent the ascendance of reason as a basis for political decisions.  Their strength is based on their ability to inflame the passions of their constituents.  They are expert at doing so.

(to be continued)

Authors Bio:
I was born just before the Great Depression. I learned our country's virtues in a one-room schoolhouse and it sickens me to see them trampled as they have been. My perceptions of "right" and "wrong" have been strong motivating forces in my life (whether or not those perceptions were correct). My formative years were spent on a dairy farm, hence close to nature, which influences my views.

After graduation from high school in Warsaw, New York, I spent 5 years in the U. S. Air Force. Since then, my career has been in transportation, first as a transcontinental truck driver (which was conducive to solitary thought), later as a business owner, and still later as a computer system developer for a ship line. My political experience is limited to a summer of lobbying against The Transportation Act of 1958. Except for my younger brother and, to a limited extent, members of my immediate family, my circle of acquaintances does not constitute a beehive of intellectual discourse.