American politics have an interesting dynamic. While many ordinary citizens lament the partisan gridlock and lackluster political candidates, the gridlock continues as the typical candidates still get elected. Eventually, we reach a point where we are now. Voters are overwhelmed with outrage and contempt for the system, resulting in someone like bombastic businessman Donald Trump winning the Republican presidential nomination with the most votes in primary history.

But as controversial as he is, Donald Trump is still a Republican. Campaigning under a major party brand, Trump’s victories enable one major party while his failures enable the other. It’s still the same old partisan politicking.

Republicans defecting from their party over a lack of integrity are late to wake up. While it is better late than never, they have enabled the rise of Trump in a number of ways. First, they built up the Republican Party that is now empowering Trump’s campaign and second, they empowered a Republican establishment that gave Trump raw emotions to feed off of.

Partisan Republicans and establishment moderates shoulder a lot of the blame for the rise of Donald Trump.

Looking back at the rise of Senator Barack Obama, the revolution was a lot of hype and would never become something. His well-marketed “Change” campaign that made everyone feel warm and fuzzy about life was a show. At the end of the day, he was still a registered Democrat who was well entrenched within the party mainstream.

The failures of President Barack Obama led to grassroots Democrats going harder to the left and this explains the rise of Senator Bernie Sanders this election cycle. But he was never going to be a revolutionary because the attempted revolution was in a primary run by a political party. At the end of the day, the party elite runs the show.

This is not to say that all Democrats and Republicans are bad people or corrupt, or that everyday citizens enrolled in either party are not capable of changing America. When we play the partisan games, we are enabling the corruption. Being registered to a political party and blindly voting for the party enables lower standards. Similarly, making excuses for bad candidates or their poor decisions enables lower standards as well.

This is applicable to third parties, too. Libertarians and Greens are different and should distinguish themselves as such. If Libertarians wanted to be Republicans, they should’ve just remained Republicans. Same goes for Democrats and Greens. When we settle for lesser candidates and poor decisions, we’re enabling our alternative decisions to became weaker. When third parties fall short, they enable the two party oligarchy.

American voters absolutely need to demand change. The future for our children demands different political leadership and a shift in political philosophy. Honest conservatism, liberalism, or libertarianism does not legitimately exist in the political mainstream. Politicians would sell any ideology out to benefit themselves. The United States government is best summed up as a self-serving career machine. People make money, accumulate power, and gain glory, all at the expense of the everyday American taxpayer.