Some day I believe we will fundamentally change our election system so that it is no longer two-party. But for the moment, with the current structure, we will always have “The lesser of two evils.” Until we are ready and willing to do the hard work of making serious structural changes, it will always be this way.
If we all woke up tomorrow morning and had no political parties or memory of their existence, it would be about ten AM when someone came up with a plan for making the world better ( according to their definition of better). By noon, they would have decided that they could do nothing on their own, but maybe they could get some other like minded people to help out and convince other people to want to make the world better too. By the next day, they would be organizing meetings to recruit assistance. By the election cycle, they would have picked out a name so they could identify the group they have formed, come up with positions on other matters that were important to other members of the group, and taken steps to keep the group together after the current world improvement is achieved. If it would make you feel better, we could call them committees, or kumquats, or whatever makes you happy, but political parties are human nature.
Short of amending the Constitution to make Congress parliamentary, I don’t see any way out of the two-party, winner take all system. On the other hand, if the third parties were serious, they’d start from the bottom, local and State offices, instead of focusing on the Presidency.
Templo S.U.D. almost 4 years ago
I would hate to see the fifty/fifty lifeline dwindle two options to one.
cdward almost 4 years ago
Some day I believe we will fundamentally change our election system so that it is no longer two-party. But for the moment, with the current structure, we will always have “The lesser of two evils.” Until we are ready and willing to do the hard work of making serious structural changes, it will always be this way.
Diane Lee Premium Member almost 4 years ago
If we all woke up tomorrow morning and had no political parties or memory of their existence, it would be about ten AM when someone came up with a plan for making the world better ( according to their definition of better). By noon, they would have decided that they could do nothing on their own, but maybe they could get some other like minded people to help out and convince other people to want to make the world better too. By the next day, they would be organizing meetings to recruit assistance. By the election cycle, they would have picked out a name so they could identify the group they have formed, come up with positions on other matters that were important to other members of the group, and taken steps to keep the group together after the current world improvement is achieved. If it would make you feel better, we could call them committees, or kumquats, or whatever makes you happy, but political parties are human nature.
david_42 almost 4 years ago
Short of amending the Constitution to make Congress parliamentary, I don’t see any way out of the two-party, winner take all system. On the other hand, if the third parties were serious, they’d start from the bottom, local and State offices, instead of focusing on the Presidency.
TIMH almost 4 years ago
If you have to think hard about the question, you ain’t Aztec.