One Party Under ... ?

Political Parties exist to further political ideals. That is to further ways of living together based on understandings of Man and Society. Already from that it becomes clear that you choose one because you share certain understandings, certain values. Becoming a member of a political party is not an undertaking everyone chooses, it involves a certain commitment, both financial and emotional, which goes beyond the civic duty to vote responsibly.

Becoming a member of a party is a considered choice that goes beyond fighting on a single issue or supporting a single person. People who join political parties make a statement about how they see themselves and the world around them and it is this way of seeing things that both brings and keeps them together.

There are of course instruments of unity; symbols, events, ways of speaking, structures, that help make that unity concrete and tangible but these instruments are not the substance or the sense of that unity. The Party is not one because of these things rather these things arise from the party being one.

Unity is not maintained by every member scrupulously holding to every instrument of unity that has been forged. This would present a uniformity of appearance, by all means, but even then for how long? The meaning and connotations of symbols and words change overtime, people of different generations react differently to events, structures succeed or fail depending on where, when, and how they are employed, and, of course, people come and go. Uniformity is like a vast monocrop, while conditions suit it it thrives but when they change it fails utterly.

The life blood of unity, as opposed to uniformity, in a political party is the way of looking at the world that brings people together to start with. It is that world-view that holds them together and spurs them on. A party that strives for uniformity has no future. We are one in so much as we are true to the vision we share. Let no one fear the constant struggle to express that vision more clearly. Let no one shy from asking where that vision is to be seen in each and every thing the party they have chosen does and says. None of us is the party's 'anointed one' but each and every one of us must be its 'prophet', admonishing, rebuking, and exhorting the party to be true to itself, to the vision that unites us. We are united so long as we trust that we share one vision. We are united so long as we share it deeply enough to care about how best it is to be expressed in different places and in different times. We are united so long as we fight, yes even amongst ourselves, to see that shared vision made real.

We are one party, not under but united nevertheless.