"Beyond the Duopoly": the blog, the book

This blog exists to be a journal dedicated to writing Beyond the Duopoly. Beyond the Duopoly is the working title of my book challenging the two-party system in the United States. Besides being a record of my progress the blog serves to communicate with my friends, allies and readers. These people strengthen my ideas and keep me moving forward.

The book has three sections. The first section covers sixteen issues where the Democratic and Republican parties are in cahoots to practice bad public policy. The second section discusses eleven ideas that create context for understanding politics, policy and society. I make the case for updating or changing these ideas to create a paradigm that allows better understanding of politics and society. The final section covers techniques for organizing to challenge the two-party system.

My sense is that many Americans (my apologies to Americans that are not part of the U.S. public, but this is how U.S. Americans chauvenistically refers to themselves) would like more political options than Democrat or Republican. They want more options than "liberal" or "conservative". There is a frustration with the two-party system. This frustration has yet to break the two-party system. However, I'm betting it will.

The two-party system has perpetuated itself through skewed election law and other means, but the system has grown arrogant. The Democrats and Republicans have grown to believe the two-party system is a constant, like gravity. They don't even steal policy ideas from minor parties any more or feel the need to suck-up to them like they were, say, a "legitimate" interest group.

I'm sick of politics of the latest social hot-button issue while refusing to have serious discussions about more important policies. I believe there is a large number of Americans that believe there is something wrong with politics in the United States even if they have difficulty articulating their concerns. I hope Beyond the Duopoly will be part of articulating a critique of the two-party status quo and offering a vision of a political alternative, an alternative that will make the United States and the world better.