The Church of Division: Separate Party and State — a book by Randell S. Hynes
Chapter 5 The Four Blocs ✦ ✦ ✦ The American electorate is not two teams. It never has been. The party system forces it into a binary because the binary is the machine that produces the power. But underneath the binary, the country is organized around something older and more Read more
Chapter 4 Heresy and Excommunication ✦ ✦ ✦ RINO. Republican In Name Only. DINO. Democrat In Name Only. The accusation itself reveals the structure. You are not defined by what you believe, but by whether you conform. A Republican who supports labor protections is not a Republican with a different Read more
Chapter 3 The Catechism of the Platform ✦ ✦ ✦ Every church has a creed — a statement of faith that defines what the congregation believes, separates the orthodox from the heretic, and provides the standard against which all teaching is measured. Political parties have platforms. They are creeds. The Read more
Chapter 2 Baptism by Registration ✦ ✦ ✦ When you register Democrat or Republican, you think you’re ticking a box. You’re not. You’re being baptized. In colonial America, church membership was not merely a matter of faith. It determined whether you could participate in civic life. In Virginia, you paid Read more
Chapter 1 The Church of Division ✦ ✦ ✦ Parties became religion. Three words. Past tense. It already happened. Not like religion. Not analogous to religion. Not similar in certain respects to religion. They became the same thing: the institution that occupies the corruptible center of government, demands loyalty, punishes Read more