Observations From the Spectrum

Change comes at a price to the future and the past. It has a ripple effect. Some change is positive. Some change negative. All change moves us forward. It is time to change how we view American Politics and more importantly, the word Citizen.

Imagine building a house and then realizing you built is using silly putty instead of cement for the foundation. That’s humanity in many ways.

Pythagoras, six hundred years before modern day zero, suggested that the Earth was a sphere. Before that, it was flat and for another two thousand years it remained so. But the modern thinkers wouldn’t allow man to explore the idea.

Fast forward two thousand years and think about Columbus, the explorer part. He was a flat-earther yet he defied the misconception that he would sail off of the world and fall into space if he sailed too far West. He didn’t. He landed on the Americas. 

Then Magellan, a few years laters, went out to prove that the Earth was in fact a sphere and was the first to circumnavigate it. 

Imagine what foundational thinking needed to be reflected on and changed to accept this new fact. All science needed to be hypothesised. The mystics and religion had to start viewing the sky and the horizon differently. Basically, when the Earth went from flat to round, man needed to redefine its origin story.

Sometimes change comes at a longer journey or path than we want to face so we choose to ignore new facts and not change. How we view politics, government, cars, guns, the environment, tobacco, and wealth just to name a few. 

I would imagine some readers being frustrated that I gave Columbus some credit. I didn’t. I stated a fact. Did his actions lead to harm? Yes. Did his actions lead to good? Yes. None of us would be here without him to either like or dislike him. I like life, but I also like looking to the past to prepare for a better future.

The title of this piece is North, West, East and Green. I will get to Green last. Each reflects not a direction but the politics of people.

West is the easiest for me to define partly because I am not one of them. I see them as an entity that I am not interested in much like a vegetarian walking by a steakhouse. I can see patrons inside that look happy and satisfied, but the primary fare served, I have no interest in so I move on.

The West is the GOP or Republican or Conservative party. They are a full restaurant with a waiting line and a full book of reservations. They are selling a clear product and those that like steak patronize them regularly. 

Hate or like Trump as much as you want. The GOP has an all-star list of players for years to come: Greene, Boebert, McConnell, Abbott, Desantis, Rittenhouse and more. They are meeting the needs of their customer base and constituents.

The North is the DNC or Democratic party and they are aptly placed on the compass. They are the party that knows what’s best for its constituents despite the desires of their constituents or voting base. 

It’s the party that we have grown to love to hate. It’s the restaurant that we can’t get seated at yet there are available tables. And those of us that do, order the vegetarian option and are served chicken or fish instead. They are unlikeable to the thinker who accepts that the world has changed.

The East is the rest of us and we are like India. We are all vegetarians but we can’t get along even when we try. Each family has a different need not being met that is pressing for their survival making unity amongst us almost impossible. 

Our modern day political system is based on a flat earth.  A line. You are right middle or left or conservative, centrist or leftist socialist. Call me Pythagoras. I don’t agree. I see it as a sphere with four cardinal directions: North, West, East and Green and I vote accordingly.

I think most Americans agree that something is amiss. That the balance of the scales is off. Justice and fairness are no longer virtues if they ever were. The problem that I see is how we define or label the scales.

At her base, there should be a word that is no longer uttered. It’s not justice or freedom. It’s Republican or Democrat. It’s not Good or Evil. It’s not a religion. It’s not America. The word that is missing from the scales is Citizen, and in the case of this essay, an American citizen.

When our founders set off to create the foundation of the nation, they built it on silly putty. At the time, only white male landowners were full citizens. The foundation has changed. How we treat each other needs to be reflected accordingly.

Citizenship by definition is the relationship between a citizen and their government or nation. In the modern day, the balance of the scales is off. The citizen scale is clear: freedoms and rules. What citizens give versus what the government takes. What we earn versus the taxes we pay.

The foundation has shifted and we need leaders that will act accordingly and in the Citizens best interest, not just their customer base. It’s why we have restaurant inspectors and garbage collectors. They support the industry no matter the fare being served.

America needs a party of the citizens no matter their political point of view. A party that puts citizens above popularity or the scales will break and along with it, the common history we have built.

Some think that the policies of Bernie Sanders are communist or socialist. They are in the same sense that we like going to restaurants that have a clean bill of health and not a garbage heap out back. His policies were designed to benefit all citizens and bring balance back to the scales.

Bernie’s day is past. But his policies don’t need to go by the wayside like Pythagoras for another 2000 years until more of us accept the shift. His policies are still on the board, it would be up to us to get those policies to the people.

To do so is simple. All citizens who believe in the policies of Bernie Sanders would have to support a viable third party. That would mean a lot of work and a social media blitzcrieg rebuilding the foundation.

If we stay silent now until the primaries of 2024, we will continue using flat earth GPS. But if we start doing the work now and getting the message out, the primaries will consist of three viable parties: the Gop, the DNC and the Green.

There are many people who think a third party is needed. I am one. The Green party is open for business and it has the menu we are interested in and available seating. It would be easier to patronize them than building a new restaurant from scratch. 

If you are a citizen who is not interested in the Reality TV Show drama titled American Politics and want the scales to be rebalanced, then supporting the policies of the Green party with your social media presence now and your vote later is what is on the menu.

• All works at Observations from the Spectrum written by Dylan Netter
• Observationsfromthespectrum.org
• OFTS.blog 
• On? a third point of view – book of Essays
• Marinehippie.com podcast w/ Docstodden.com – dialogue exploring politics and musings of life 
• Horizoncoaching.org – English Tutor and Guide
• beehiveplus1.org