Two party system

[huginnmuninn]

How do you view the two party system in the US is it good? bad? Has it ruined politics in the US. Do the parties have too much power? Do the parties help out the average American by allowing them to group their beliefs or disable them by letting them not pay attention to the issue and just voting for a party? Should their be more parties? Less? None?

[CourtingErmine]

Politics have gotten out of hand. Definitely, they have way to much power. Politics do what's good for themselves and their family (or families in Clinton's case). There should be no parties, but that's the key word, should.

[Professional Russian]

it fucking sucks. people are set on voteing for one of those 2 partys. We need to reconfigure it so other people can get in and be reconized. its often the people that arent heard that have some of the best ideas...i swear thats a quote from someone.

[HowlingSnail]

Well over here in the UK we have loads of parties, which I think's better because it allows anyone to get in if the public likes them enough. We have the main 3, but there's technically nothing stopping our next PM being from the BNP of Green Party. It's just a matter of the votes, whereas for US president you only have 2 candidates decided by other people.

[Guillermo]

whereas for US president you only have 2 candidates decided by other people.

No we have more than 2 candidates, just like in the UK. However, our other ones aren't represented equally, hence where a "two-party system" comes in. But along with Democrats and Republics, we have Libertarians, Green Party, Democratic Socialist party and sometimes others. They're just not as equally represented as the UKs (more than 2) political parties.

It's fucked though. I've said this somewhere else, but when we vote for Democrat and Republican, we're pretty much voting for the same issues over and over that will plague the US. Democrats and Republicans have pretty much the same policies, really. Regarding the OP, I don't know how you'd define the "average American" but the two main parties will always leave a group (according to the groups who complain about it) of Americans out of the picture, whether it be elderly, Latino, people in poverty, middle-class citizens, etc. Libertarians believe in a much smaller government, which I personally favor because there's less taxes which means more money to go to citizens, less regulations to make things run smoother, and less corruption within a government. There are plenty of other good reasons why a smaller government is better, but it could go on and on.

[Syvelocin]

Well, I'm used to several parties so I'd say I do really wish the others were represented. I don't want to vote for a Democrat (should I ever decide to become a citizen) but my reasoning is "Well, this candidate will never even get close to winning, and I definitely don't want a Republican president, so might as well put my say in for the Democrat nominee." I mean, I know this attitude will never change anything, but I don't see how the US could get out of the two-party system at this time. The two are just too popular.

[DerBear]

To be honest unless the voting system is changed then we will always have 2 or 3 parties that are the "main parties" and the rest barely get a mention.

For example:

I will speak for the UK: We have Conservatives and Labour as well as the Liberal Democrats. Now the Conservatives and Labour are the two main popular parties where as the Lib Dems are the smaller of the two "main" parties but still are big enough to be counted in the general elections. Now we do have other parties such as the UK Independent Party or the Greens and so on. However they are really small and never get much of mention unless they say or do something totally outlandish.

Now the only way to break that bad habit of two or 3 main parties would be to change the way we vote to a PR system (proportional representation) in which smaller parties would have a chance at winning or at least having some kind of representation in power.

Now the USA would have to change the way the voters vote because that is the only way smaller or less known parties would have a chance. Because if you think about it, currently people think like this "I don't see the point in voting for blah party because the democrats or the republicans will always win, therefore my vote is wasted so then they go with either the reps or the dems.

So overall yes I dislike the current voting system because it doesn't allow fairer representation of smaller parties but I feel a change is not a wise choice for both the UK or the USA because it would confuse and disrupt the balance and could possibly lead to more disastrous outcomes. I mean some people sell their votes or would vote stupidly by crossing any old box and stupid parties like the Nazi party or something like it might gain a seat of power in a sense (this sentence more apply s to the UK) but anyway yeah. I am sick of it but I would rather keep the current system than change to any other system.

(I know I really only focused on one aspect of this post, but I felt I had to say this)

[Cicero]

I think that parties separate the US, more so than help it. People should vote based off of believes, not what party they are, or what their favorite celebrity like. Like I heard, back in 2008 that some people voted for Obama just because Oprah talked about him so much and somewhat endorsed him.

[TheBigUnit]

Simply Both are corrupt, and we shouldve never had parties

[Human]

Well over here in the UK we have loads of parties, which I think's better because it allows anyone to get in if the public likes them enough. We have the main 3, but there's technically nothing stopping our next PM being from the BNP of Green Party. It's just a matter of the votes, whereas for US president you only have 2 candidates decided by other people.

this basically

[MisterSix]

Simply Both are corrupt, and we shouldve never had parties
haha yes, you need a monarchy.

I think your voting culture needs to be changed. otherwise the whole point in democracy is lost

[TheBigUnit]

haha yes, you need a monarchy.

I think your voting culture needs to be changed. otherwise the whole point in democracy is lost

Actually if u know ur history george washington warned of parties seeing how corrupted the british parliment parties were, if there is only one party there is no democrasy, both parties receive billions from wall street and corporations

[duuli]

Parties are stupid. But people with different ideas are bound to split themselves up. I'm surprised there aren't more mainstream parties.

[TheBigUnit]

There are like a kagillion (sarcasm) of them but only the top two has enought money and supporters