by Paul Schingle

Created on: May 10, 2008

I've written on this subject before, but it's been a long time and I think it bears repeating. The two-party system in America sucks. Plain and simple. First you have the Democrats who, ideally, represent the common man. Then you have the Republicans, who voice concerns of corporate America and the wealthy. As simple as these two ideals are to tell apart, it's become more apparent that the two parties are more similar than not. And the reason for that is obvious. Neither of the two major parties want a third (or more) party to become a viable alternative.

And, how did all this happen? In U.S. history, there have been some viable other parties who were considered legitimate. In fact, the Republican party is a fairly new party. Lincoln was the party's first president and that was only 148 years ago. Before the Republicans the Whigs were actually a party with some clout and some history. Before the Democrats, the Federalists held quite a bit of cache. Other parties that garnered some votes, but only stayed in the spotlight a short time include the Know-nothings and the Dixiecrats. But it has been rare in American history where more than two parties (at the same time) were ever considered as major. And why is that? The reasons are two-fold. First, the political machinery of the country wants to keep it that way. And second, the American voter is a lazy sort who doesn't want to sift through more information than he/she feels is warranted. Just give me a choice of two and I'll take it from there. And, unfortunately the current administration is the kind of government we too often end up with.

Even now, we have some alternative parties that get some (rare) headlines. The Libertarians and the Green party come to mind. But, how many people actually want to pay attention to what they have to say? No, as a whole we'd like to keep our choices simple and choose between one of two and somehow convince ourselves that we are backing some kind of "ideal." It all comes down to what's easy. And in the end, as one of the other writers said, we get the government we deserve.

I feel we should abandon party politics totally. Individuals who want to run for office would run on their own merits. They'd have to come up with solid, meaningful ideas and present them to voters in a way they can understand. Once in office, they'd have to build coalitions to get their ideas passed into laws, much like they do now. But, they wouldn't have to suck up to some "party leaders" who control the power. A candidate may side with several others to get one issue resolved and some completely different ones for another ideal. It would be the individual that mattered rather than some party "platform." True leadership would evolve.

I don't see that happening any time in the near future. As long as the American voter remains lazy, as long as (s)he remains complacent with the status quo, we're going to be stuck with the two-party system. And that really is too bad. We deserve better.

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