Next month, will Philadelphians hoping for an improved city again elect nothing but Democrats and expect a different result?

Under Democratic monopoly, Philly residents have: the highest city tax rate in the nation, craven Council members cashing in on DROP, an incompetent Board of Revision of Taxes, a 25 percent city poverty rate, a pinball pay-to-play system, a Department of Human Services that kills kids, a school district with a near-50-percent dropout rate and city workers who don't pay their taxes.

As a wholly owned subsidiary of the over-promising and underperforming Democratic Party, Philadelphia is failing.

Democratic politicians and policies are not solely responsible for our decline, but they've been in the driver's seat for a tortoise's lifetime and have driven the car into a ditch. If Democrats aren't responsible, who is - Apaches?

Will you ever hold them accountable?

In 1985, Philadelphians did the unthinkable and elected a Republican in a citywide election, making Ron Castille the D.A. The universe did not become unglued. Lightning struck again when Castille was re-elected, but since then Philly has been "GOP-free" (except for two EEOC Council seats wisely reserved for the minority party).

As a lifelong Democrat and a former Democratic committeeman, it's hard to admit that my party has failed, but principle comes before party.

We have, like China and Cuba, single-party rule, and that's bad for democracy. It is bad for Philadelphia. It is even bad for Democrats, because "winning" without effort produces rigor mortis.

That disease earlier struck Republicans who became corrupt and arrogant after they controlled the city for 100 years, ending in the mid-20th Century.

Lord Acton was right when he wrote that power corrupts, and generations of power in Philadelphia have corrupted Democrats, too. In recent years, Philly's most important export (to jails) has been its Democratic elite - state Sen. Vince Fumo; city Treasurer Corey Kemp; state Sen. Buddy Cianfrani; City Councilmen Rick Mariano, Jimmy Tayoun and George X. Schwartz; and Congressman Ozzie Myers, to name a few who betrayed their offices - and you.

The Democratic Party needs a loud wake-up call.

Set your alarm clock for Nov. 3. It will be a low-turnout election, in which party zombies will beg friends and relatives to vote for Dems (who have a 7-1 registration advantage). But low turnout also means that challengers need fewer votes to win.

This year, with every city department (except the hated parking authority) in Dem hands, can't you see that having a Democratic ward leader, Alan Butkovitz, as controller is like asking a rooster to guard the hen house? Roosters don't want to supervise hens, they want to sex them.

Republican controller candidate Al Schmidt, free of political barnacles, will be tougher on waste, corruption and inefficiency. His background as a senior analyst at the nonpartisan U.S. Government Accountability Office makes him credible.

In the other citywide race, Republican Michael Untermeyer is challenging Democrat Seth Williams. There is no Democratic or Republican way to fight crime, and the D.A. should relish pouncing on corrupt politicians. Democratic D.A. Lynne Abraham, bless her, had little stomach for putting Dems in handcuffs.

This may sound like I'm trying to help Republicans. Actually, I'm trying to help Philadelphia. "Sometimes party loyalty asks too much," John F. Kennedy said.

Philosophically, competition usually produces better ideas and results.

Practically, having two parties compete for your vote empowers you, the citizen.

For too long the Republican Party satisfied itself with scraps from the Democrats' patronage table. Feisty, qualified Republican candidates were sometimes harder to find than Osama bin Laden.

But when the GOP produced good candidates, like Sam Katz for mayor, they fell to "dog-whistle politics" - Dem bigs blew the whistle, you came running.

Some robot Democrats believe that their fingers would turn into cigarette ash if they pressed "Republican" on a voting machine. Some dumb Republicans have never voted for a Democrat.

Voting for every Tom, Dick and Harriet just because they wear your party label is almost a hate crime.

We are on a bobsled careening downhill. At the bottom of the hill is a gator-infested swamp.

By electing Schmidt or Untermeyer - who can't write legislation or raise your taxes - you give a grade of "D" to the Democratic Party and announce you're tired of being used, abused and ignored. You want better and you deserve better.

This isn't about Butkovitz and Williams, who are decent men. Maybe it's not "fair" to penalize them for their party pals, but that happened when Justice Russell Nigro was voted off the state Supreme Court after the Harrisburglars' 2005 raid on the treasury.

Thanks to his Dem credentials, Nigro made a comfy landing at the pork-packed Board of Revision of Taxes.

Continue electing nothing but Dems? What would Einstein say?

E-mail stubyko@phillynews.com or call 215-854-5977. For recent columns:

http://go.philly.com/byko.