Two Party System = Failure - George Washington Knew This

[LibertyKid]

"However [political parties] may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion."
FAREWELL ADDRESS | SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 1796

Washington saw it. And here we are. Two warring parties who pretend to speak for the people, but only use their power to subvert and usurp power for themselves and their political gain while pretending to be for the people.

We have come to a cross road where our politicians are creating white and black lines. Where the middle ground no longer exists. On the other side of the fence are the evil doers that seek to harm the country while on your side of the fence the lack of reasoning, unbiased thought and emotional intelligence fuels your hate for the other side of the fence.
I would wager that most of us land squarely in the middle. But political gods and allegiances prohibit reasonable conversation and discourse. We're in a bad place socially and politically. So keep on with this two party system that is the shining light for the world. Keep on thinking that your party is the only way.

 

[Confederate Soldier]

I'm a middle of the road kinda guy. There are idiots on both sides without a doubt. My worry is how do we get out of a two party system without ending up in a dictatorship.

 

[$ecular#eckler]

The founders knew that faction would emerge. It is an inevitable consequence of republic government - people have to "get together" with people they agree with on principles or immediate issues, and construct policy. The problem is that the 3-part separation is not sophisticated enough to separate the issues to avoid the contradictions that the parties incurred, because they incorporate the latest grievance into their election campaigns, and then they are determined to put partisan alliances in the three parts - that circumvents the separation of power.

The political chaos trickles down causing the social disorder we endure, and it cycles back in the election campaigns.

 

[MarathonMike]

Two of The Founders worst nightmares: A 2 Party system and a press that is neither free nor independent.

 

[$ecular#eckler]

And here we are. Two warring parties who pretend to speak for the people, but only use their power to subvert and usurp power for themselves and their political gain while pretending to be for the people.

How else are the politicians "to be for the people"?

It would be incredibly inefficient and confusing if the politicians did not identify their principles with a broad and known system of principles. How are the politicians supposed to represent the tens of thousands of people of a geographical district???

We have come to a cross road where our politicians are creating white and black lines. Where the middle ground no longer exists.

It never did exist. Compromise was never a "middle ground" thing, it was trading of favors.

On the other side of the fence are the evil doers that seek to harm the country while on your side of the fence the lack of reasoning, unbiased thought and emotional intelligence fuels your hate for the other side of the fence.

The solution is state segregation. The founders set up a union of different states. The subsequent generations were unable to handle intra-state segregation and then desegregation - it all got messed up, because they never fixed the three-part separation model.

I would wager that most of us land squarely in the middle.

You would be wrong. If most people landed in the middle then they would recognize that the organization of the government causes partisan chaos.

But political gods and allegiances prohibit reasonable conversation and discourse. We're in a bad place socially and politically. So keep on with this two party system that is the shining light for the world. Keep on thinking that your party is the only way.

What's your solution - middle ground, compromises???

It is the organization of the government. It was designed for a much different society. A much less diverse society. A much less sophisticated society.

 

[Flash]

We at least need to return to the state legislatures appointing the Senators to protect the rights of the States against the House of Representatives. Instead with Senators being elected they are an extension of the House and that is not what our Founding Fathers envisioned.

 

[Dekster]

I'm a middle of the road kinda guy. There are idiots on both sides without a doubt. My worry is how do we get out of a two party system without ending up in a dictatorship.

Expand the number of seats in the house by about 3-5 times. It would be too hard for either party to manage to hold that many small, more localized districts.

 

[Mac1958]

"However [political parties] may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion."
FAREWELL ADDRESS | SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 1796

Washington saw it. And here we are. Two warring parties who pretend to speak for the people, but only use their power to subvert and usurp power for themselves and their political gain while pretending to be for the people.

We have come to a cross road where our politicians are creating white and black lines. Where the middle ground no longer exists. On the other side of the fence are the evil doers that seek to harm the country while on your side of the fence the lack of reasoning, unbiased thought and emotional intelligence fuels your hate for the other side of the fence.
I would wager that most of us land squarely in the middle. But political gods and allegiances prohibit reasonable conversation and discourse. We're in a bad place socially and politically. So keep on with this two party system that is the shining light for the world. Keep on thinking that your party is the only way.

As long as we allow money to control politics, and as long as we don't install strict term limits, we'll see this continue.

These people are simply doing what the system allows. The obvious answer would be to change the system under which they operate.

We The People care more about who won on Dancing with the Stars. As long as that's the case, we're just bending over for this.

 

[whitehall]

It's mostly democrats who are experiencing buyers remorse that complain about the so-called "two party system" when in fact there are any number of political parties you can latch on to for example Bernie Sanders is a socialist.

 

[Dogmaphobe]

I think the worst thing about our two-party system is the way it encourages people to view the world in binary. Unintelligent people simply view it all as us vs them and refuse to listen to anything that does not arise from the "us" portion of their simple-minded world view. The left in our country, especially, has veered FAR from it's liberal philosophical base, yet unthinking conformists just go right along with it becase all they know is what team they are on.

 

[dblack]

"However [political parties] may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion."
FAREWELL ADDRESS | SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 1796

Washington saw it. And here we are. Two warring parties who pretend to speak for the people, but only use their power to subvert and usurp power for themselves and their political gain while pretending to be for the people.

We have come to a cross road where our politicians are creating white and black lines. Where the middle ground no longer exists. On the other side of the fence are the evil doers that seek to harm the country while on your side of the fence the lack of reasoning, unbiased thought and emotional intelligence fuels your hate for the other side of the fence.
I would wager that most of us land squarely in the middle. But political gods and allegiances prohibit reasonable conversation and discourse. We're in a bad place socially and politically. So keep on with this two party system that is the shining light for the world. Keep on thinking that your party is the only way.

Yep. Undermining the partisan stranglehold should be our first priority.

 

[Resnic]

To me I dont believe we should have a 2 party system. I dont think it does anything but hold us back as a country and that it causes more problems for our society.

The government is a small group intended to look after the best interest of the country and thereby its citizens. How can they do that when they are diametrically opposed to each other? They waste so much time, energy, manpower, money and effort just going against each other that could be used instead looking after this country.

Honestly I think congress should only be made up of term limit members. Those members should be hospital directors, police chiefs, fire chiefs, school super intendents, lawyers, and so on. People from allover the country that are leaders and see and know how the country actually works. People from backgrounds where they get things done. And they should all be sworn to never allow social trends, religion or personal beliefs to affect their judgement and that their pledge is to work together for the good of the country and the good of all of its citizens. They shouldnt even be allowed to consider race, color, beliefs or anything of our people. Only see them as a whole and not as groups, doing whats best for the majority is always the right choice because you cant possibly ever do whats best for people as individuals, there are too many of us.

If the governments only thought was "Whats best for the country?" then by extension they are also saying "whats best for the people?"

 

[$ecular#eckler]

We at least need to return to the state legislatures appointing the Senators to protect the rights of the States against the House of Representatives. Instead with Senators being elected they are an extension of the House and that is not what our Founding Fathers envisioned.

The problem will then return to the legislatures failing to appoint anyone, because of the partisan fights in the state legislatures, because the states' populations are not unified, because the state charters are a mess, and nobody cares about the state constitutions.

 

[$ecular#eckler]

Honestly I think congress should only be made up of term limit members. Those members should be hospital directors, police chiefs, fire chiefs, school super intendents, lawyers, and so on. People from allover the country that are leaders and see and know how the country actually works. People from backgrounds where they get things done. And they should all be sworn to never allow social trends, religion or personal beliefs to affect their judgement and that their pledge is to work together for the good of the country and the good of all of its citizens. They shouldnt even be allowed to consider race, color, beliefs or anything of our people. Only see them as a whole and not as groups, doing whats best for the majority is always the right choice because you cant possibly ever do whats best for people as individuals, there are too many of us.

How do you do that???

Why do you want people with different career backgrounds, and how do you control their thinking???

 

[Flash]

The problem will then return to the legislatures failing to appoint anyone, because of the partisan fights in the state legislatures, because the states' populations are not unified, because the state charters are a mess, and nobody cares about the state constitutions.

Of course it will happen that way.

However, that is better than having a Senatorial candidate getting support from out of state special interest groups in order to win a state wide election.

The real basic problem that can't be fixed in a Democracy is that it will always fail when a sizeable proportion of the populace find out they can use the government to steal money.

We are going through that failure now. There is nothing that can really fix it other than a complete do over so we are pretty much screwed.