Does anyone else wish there were more than two political parties in the US?

greatmagnus

I like some from one side, and some from the other, but when it is time to actually vote neither one really makes me want to vote for them. I wish we were like Britain with their multitude of parties. Sure I might not have one that completely fits my bill, but it is better than now at least.

Thoughts? Concerns? No u?

EDIT: Guess I should specify: More than two MAJOR political parties

illithid235

The counter-argument is that the more powerful political parties you have, the more bickering you get. Still, I think overall I'd like to see more than just the two parties we have, for sure. And I wish politicians would have more freedom to move outside of party lines.

Apathy

Violent revolution is your only answer.

Hop to it!

TheFlameOfHearts

The more choice we have, the less corruption occurs (GENERALLY), but I personally think that the whole "Parties" system as a whole is flawed; What's wrong with everyone being a representative of themselves instead of a group of people?

So yes, I wish there were FAR more then 2 political parties, like say, 330 million groups of one.

NoLonger

And such a system would force people to actually research who they vote on.

Agreed from me, no political parties should exist to define one's base political ideas.

shakeycat

illithid235 wrote: »

the more powerful political parties you have, the more bickering you get.

I went to see Canadian parliament in action, and this is exactly it.

We have Four major parties, 308 Members of Parliament total: Conservatives (50%), Liberals (25%), Bloc Quebecois (15%), and 10% NDP (New Democratic Party). (Approx., is actually less than 50% for Conservatives, thus a minority government)

The NDP are a bunch of loudmouths, and an hour of watching them yelling at everyone else made me never want to vote for them ever. The Bloc only cares about Quebec. And because we have two official languages, it kept jumping between English and French. Prime Minister Harper would speak French, even though he's an Albertan, and some Bloc guy would counter with English, just to spite him.

It was weird.

My point is, if America adds some leftist loudmouth party, and a party for Hispanics, then they totally should make Spanish their second language and force everyone in america-parliament to know it, and when are we electing Barbara and Jenna Bush again?

Serephel

It would be nice, but it's not going to happen anytime soon, for a couple reasons.

1. It would require a shift in government policy, away from the winner-take-all style of victory that American politics currently uses. With a third major party, you run the risk of a candidate getting 34% of the vote and still winning, leaving 66% of the electorate with nothing. A parliamentary style system where votes are apportioned between parties giving everybody something would help this.

2. This isn't going to happen anytime soon, because American voters are idiots who believe there is such a thing as 'throwing your vote away'. These are the people who don't want to vote third parties ever, because they think it's a waste of their vote. They prefer to vote for only major political parties, so they have a chance at backing the winning horse. This misses the entire point of voting, and I don't think these people should be voting in the first place if they're just going to add momentum to groups that don't need it instead of voting with their actual opinions, but that's my personal feeling.

3. American politics is too binary as it is. People see everything in black and white. One party has one issue, the other is obligated to oppose it, and vice versa. The fringe base of both parties don't like the word bipartisanship. I don't think there is a lot of room currently for third parties.

I don't think much is going to change. After all, whenever you try to make any changes to the government, it's socialism, or fascism, or nazism, etc.

TheFlameOfHearts

Serephel wrote: »

After all, whenever you try to make any changes to the government, it's socialism, or fascism, or nazism, etc.

Just to throw my two cents in, people need to realize that none of those are actually "bad" unless used with corruption and that ANY form of government can fall to this corruption.

Agentcel

I wish everyone could get along and be productive to society and love.

BAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Behemoth

The harsh reality is that we need these short-cut labels. Nobody has the time to fully research every single politician out there.

hlavco

Wait... there ARE more than two political parties in the US.

NoLonger

Edit in OP?

TheFlameOfHearts

Serephel wrote: »

I don't think much is going to change.

Behemoth wrote: »

The harsh reality is that we need these short-cut labels. Nobody has the time to fully research every single politician out there.

Reality should never be a cure for wishful thinking.

Silverward

I hate that the Tea Party is probably going to become a strong 3rd party in the upcoming years.

Not because of their policies, but because it's such a dumb and inappropriate name.

kukopanki

One really ought to understand that political parties form kinda naturally. Even if one were to disband them today, new ones would form. Like-minded individuals (or individuals in search of power) tend to associate with others of their kind to exchange ideas, information, etc and share efforts.

greatmagnus

While I understand the need to form parties simply for practical purposes, I do not like how most politicians base their platforms simply on what their party line is on this or that. So instead of having people who have their own thoughts on a matter, you have someone spewing what their party thinks. Sure they may agree with most of what a party says, but I am sure there are very few on both sides who agree 100%

TheFlameOfHearts

People are allowed to talk to others without being in the same group as them.

Fleky-senpai

Well you see, like there could have been this system or whatever but sadly because of the way we started off the current political structure would take like this huge refresh to like fix (plus andrew jackson wasn't a complete badass and changing everything ever like he could have since he like had no regards for anyone else really). Plus even though there are other political parties, since the current major parties take so much from them it would be like, extremely difficult for one to like stand out to a majority of the population or whatever because they would think those parties were just ripping off the Democrats or Republicans.

PLus, like, someone said, like people (idiots) often think that voting one way is "throwing away" their vote. Even though like, that's really hard to do in like any scenario. The biggest like problem I have with two parties as opposed to like three, is like, there is no real sense of balance. Technically it should be super balanced, but like, there's no wiggle room with the parties, which is dumb.

So there's that.

And like, really there's a lot of problems with the government or something but the problem is like, people are afraid of change. Even if Obama did say change would happen (haha)!

TheFlameOfHearts

I'm gonna have to go with G-Rogue Washin' on this one.

George Washington wrote:

"The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism."

To paraphrase for those (including myself) that don't speak 1800s:
"A two party system of government will tear the nation in half, as it has torn many nations before."

Also, Obama TOLD everyone he was going to change things. He was voted into office so that he WOULD change things, and now that he's there everyone is freaking out because he's ACTUALLY changing things.