Two party system

[jdavij2003]

I do not support any party. I understand that the party lines are set to help the voting public weed out candidates and "know" who they are voting for. But can the millions of people in this country really be split in half when it comes to major issues? Why do I have to be against abortion if I am also against more government spending? Why should I support the welfare system and health care reform if I support expanding education grants?

I realize that there are many, many other parties out there, but how many voters actually know about them? When a voter fills out his presidential election ballot, there are several names on it, but only two are recognizable. Media coverage and campaign dollars are focusing only on Democrat and Republican nominees. How are voters supposed to make a decision on who to vote for? The voter says "I'm a Republican, so I'll vote Republican", and vice versa. Most people don't even consider the other parties involved.

Is this a fair system? No. Nothing will be reformed to the American public's satisfaction until the party system is reformed. I have a solution which will alleviate two problems.

All campaign dollars, private donations and otherwise, should go into ONE coffer, to be divided evenly among the candidates from each party. Along with allowing each party to get their candidate and issues out to the public, it will also have a major impact on whether corporations can sway decisions in Congress. One issue I see with this would be that corporations and other financial backers would be less inclined to donate campaign money because their money would not directly affect the outcome of the election. Does anyone have any solutions to this?

 

[kyzr]

Keep voting for Nader/Perot/any and let the rest of us spend our own money however we want to. Stop whining about the election system. If you had a brain you'd get involved in one of the major parties. Remember how Hillary almost beat Obama in the primaries? If you have a candidate worth voting for, he/she needs to win the primary first. Good luck.

 

[bucs90]

I think a 2 party system is inevitable. As long as only 1 party can have a majority, a 2 party system will emerge.

If we had 6 parties, with only 1 president and 1 party majority (mathematically it can only have 1 majority) then other parties will form alliances. The Red Party will ally with the Orange Party and Brown Party, while the Blue Party in power will ally with the Green Party and Yellow Party. Eventually, the alliances vote together for strength in numbers, and so on and so on until it's just two big alliances. Right now we have the Caucuses, like the African-American Caucus and the Tea Party, which are parties within parties, but I think alliances for strength in numbers guarantee a 2 party system.

 

[hortysir]

I do not support any party. I understand that the party lines are set to help the voting public weed out candidates and "know" who they are voting for. But can the millions of people in this country really be split in half when it comes to major issues? Why do I have to be against abortion if I am also against more government spending? Why should I support the welfare system and health care reform if I support expanding education grants?

I realize that there are many, many other parties out there, but how many voters actually know about them? When a voter fills out his presidential election ballot, there are several names on it, but only two are recognizable. Media coverage and campaign dollars are focusing only on Democrat and Republican nominees. How are voters supposed to make a decision on who to vote for? The voter says "I'm a Republican, so I'll vote Republican", and vice versa. Most people don't even consider the other parties involved.

Is this a fair system? No. Nothing will be reformed to the American public's satisfaction until the party system is reformed. I have a solution which will alleviate two problems.

All campaign dollars, private donations and otherwise, should go into ONE coffer, to be divided evenly among the candidates from each party. Along with allowing each party to get their candidate and issues out to the public, it will also have a major impact on whether corporations can sway decisions in Congress. One issue I see with this would be that corporations and other financial backers would be less inclined to donate campaign money because their money would not directly affect the outcome of the election. Does anyone have any solutions to this?

So I would be forced to support a repug in demo clothing or vice-versa???

I contribute to the PERSON that makes the most sense over party-lines