A few years ago one of my students volunteered every week in the office of Senator Frank Lautenberg. She told me she learned there that the Republican party has a specific agenda it is pushing and they are organized very well much like a business. When I asked her about the Democratic party–which is the one she volunteered for–her reply was “The Democrats are clueless.”

When did the Democratic party become clueless? In the late 1960s, during all the unrest in this country, the Democrats did their best to broaden the party so that all the interested components would have a share in the decision-making process. The first fruit of that was the unfortunate nomination of George McGovern for the presidency. As a result of these decisions, the Democratic party is not a unified party, and cannot possibly have a specific agenda. Instead it is a gathering of different interest groups under a single umbrella, most of which cannot work together and do not even agree with each other.

If the Republicans wanted to “divide and conquer” the Democrats they could not have done a better job of it than the Democratic party did to itself. The majorities which the Democratic party achieved last week were the result of general dissatisfaction with the Republicans rather than approval fo the Democratic agenda, because the Democrats don’t have an agenda. Have you heard any plans to ending the war in Iraq? Or cutting back the huge federal deficit which George W. Bush created?

Already the Democrats are fighting over selecting their majority leader in the house and, perhaps as a result of that, over the Speaker of the House. Isn’t that a great way to earn the trust of the American people?

It has been over 150 years since a third party has won a presidential election in this country. Isn’t it time for a new third party that truly represents the wishes of we independents who are dissatisfied with both major parties?