Yes, cooperation not competition is important in today’s political discourse. That’s because of the insidious nature that competition taints political discussions. Whether or not we view political debate as being one of cooperation vs. competition is particularly relevant to what our government sets as its priority in serving the American people. Right now the model has been one of competition ever since we had political parties. Unquestionably, it’s time for the paradigm to change. Instead of the destructive and unhelpful model of competition that our system of government revolves around today, the rivalry and opposition that our two parties’ exhibit should be replaced by that of cooperation.

When our Founding Fathers wrote the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, as well as when George Washington was president of the United States, no political parties had been formed, all of which fostered an atmosphere of cooperation and a spirit of a common mind set. Because the Founding Fathers entered the writing of those two marvelous documents with the thought in mind of being both collaborative and accommodating toward one another, compromise was achieved and the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution was not only written, but have stood the test of time.

The reason political parties were not formed when George Washington was president was because that system of choosing the president and vice president were yet to be established. At that time, the popular vote didn’t exist in Washington’s 1789 election. Instead, the Electoral College chose from a group of candidates. The candidate receiving the most votes became president and the runner-up became vice-president. Washington was elected unanimously, therefore became president and John Adams came in second and became our first vice-president.

With the advent of political parties, which fostered a non-collaborative and antagonistic political environment, competition rather than the spirit of cooperation between the two parties developed.

Democracy is a social system and capitalism is an economic scheme. Since that is the case, “Never the twain shall meet.” The reason is because the two political parties have unwittingly favored our capitalistic system rather than democracy – because, since the advent of political parties our society has adopted a winner take all kind of mentality. Even though our democracy was formed so that the “tyranny of the majority” would not trample on the rights of the minority, that’s not happening because our social system, democracy, has been declared “null and void” by our politicians; all being done since the introduction of political parties into our political system.

Over time we all have adopted the attitude that those who win a contest are the “winners” and the other contestants, by definition, are the “losers.” There is simply no degrees of ‘winning assessments’ that can be made, consequently, no value is placed on the efforts made by the “losers,” regardless, how close those who came in “second place” were to winning the contest.

Now in sports, I can see how that kind of thinking might transpire, but it has no place in one’s thinking in the world of politics.  Nevertheless, through cognitive dissonance and the competitive drive that all politicians engage in whenever they are either on the campaign trail or debating issues related to a piece of legislation, the winner ‘take all’ kind of mentality prevails.

The reason that’s so damaging in the field of politics is because the minority point of view is considered null and void and as having no value whatsoever by the victorious majority. In theory there are always “winners and losers” in any piece of legislation because compromise between the two parties is necessary before legislation can be passed and made into law.

When politicians from both sides of the political spectrum allow the spirit of collaboration and cooperation to permeate their political atmospheres, the political dialogue that transpires will ultimately lead to compromises and laws passed that benefit all Americans rather than just the lobbyists and the politicians whose electorates got them elected into office in the first place.