Are you a team player? That is a question often heard in job interviews and other situations. It’s a meaningful and important concept that can apply to corporate function as much as it can apply to four people trying to form a musical group. Obviously, it comes from the idea of sports teams, and these are concepts that are familiar to most Americans. Almost to a person, we either are supporters of a team or know someone who is. Many of us have multiple allegiances, such as a college and a pro team in American football. It is also true of almost any immigrant group and, indeed, Americans are often surprised and impressed by the sports enthusiasm displayed by those making a new home in the United States. Sports, teamwork and the achievements associated with these endeavors are things that transcend language and culture and are among the first ways that we begin to relate to one another as cultural entities.
“Teamwork” is something you hear almost non stop from the leadership of any organization. In America, we grow up being immersed in and socialized by these concepts which begin as simply as “picking teams” on the playground. The best players are snapped up jealously by those doing the picking, no different than the NFL draft. Teams are organizations. They have positions. They have captains. All of this boils down to confidence - confidence that you are supporting the best team, confidence that you are on the right team, confidence that your team has the best players, confidence that your team has the best captains, confidence that your team has the skill to execute the best plays. You want to be confident that you have chosen a team that prioritizes performance and demonstrates this by fielding the absolute best players they can find. This wins fans as well as games and we all know it.
Members and supporters of political parties are also part of a team, as are those who work together “by the people and for the people” to provide our government. It is critical that the people of the United States realize the very basic human nature that governs our world, and that we are judged by how formidable a “team” we field on the world stage, no differently than we were judged in those “drafts” on the playgrounds of our youth.
Those who are nominated for the highest offices in our government should be no different than first round draft picks. We have every right to expect that they got there by virtue of the highest record of performance, which must be demonstrable for all to see. To do or believe otherwise goes against the very nature of not only who we are as Americans and our culture, but truly goes against almost any other known culture on our planet when it comes to teamwork. Imagine how immigrants to the US actually feel when confronted with the dichotomy of the NFL draft and the conventions of the legacy parties in the US. They thought they came to a place where excellence is celebrated and wielded, yet they see a government team selected through cronyism and celebrated with feigned pride by “fans” who support captains that would get laughed off the playground.
Why do we continue to accept the obviously sub par candidates presented to us, the choices made for us, the continued failure? Are the current candidates of the legacy parties really the best we can do? They are the best ones on the playground? Is it possible that there are great players choosing to sit out because the rules of the game are no longer enforced against players who break them? Is it possible that our “draft” is dysfunctional and dominated by powerful interests that aren’t actually interested in winning? Is it possible that our quarterbacks are throwing the game in service of some other agenda? Is it possible that power has replaced freedom as the objective of the US government?
We at the Third Rail Party are here to remind you again that it doesn’t have to be this way. You have been conditioned to believe that the choices being presented to you are the only possible ones. The objectives of the legacy parties revolve around power for their party and their benefactors. They no longer represent anyone but their own power structure and those who fund the machine to keep it that way. It is folly to support them or believe that the candidates they put forth are capable of “calling an audible” to win the game in the moment when it counts most. Their very structure and function prohibits it. Our founding fathers knew that political parties would inevitably influence the representative form of government they created. One can only wonder, though, what they would think of the complete and utter dominance of the two legacy parties over the last 150 years in our republic.
Our way of life is in jeopardy, not only for those of us already here but also for those just arriving. It has nothing whatsoever to do with what team you are on and everything to do with the league being rigged and the rules being selectively enforced. No amount of merchandising, marketing or pandering can make up for a consistent losing record. Pretending that doesn’t matter gets us to where we are today - where most have simply lost interest in the game.
There’s a new team. We are underdogs. We are David facing Goliath, but the giant is vulnerable to us. Make no mistake, though - we could lose as a nation. There is no guarantee of future success. As any recruiter knows, you are only as good as your next recruiting class or how you do in the next draft. We need to fix our “draft” and create new organizations that prioritize competence and demonstrate performance. At the Third Rail Party, that is what we intend to do. We intend to find and inspire the best of the best and then trust them to call a play when they need to. We cannot continue as a nation to field players who strike out at almost every at bat and we cannot continue to pretend that our team are the champions just because we have been in the past.
It is possible to break free of the “two party system.” We simply need to stop believing in it and start recognizing it for what it is - a construct meant to divide and conquer us as a people.
