Partisanship
Polarization
Party-line
We've heard the terms before, and they all relate to the same thing. A toxic political Us against Them mentality that's been poisoning American politics. It's become so inflamed and extreme that people think of themselves as Democrat-Americans and Republican-Americans as opposed to just Americans. They hold to their Party like a religion, with politicians held up as if they were clergy.
The Two-Party System is probably one of the worse, most damaging thing in American politics. It is a system hijacked by special interests, big money, and the two main Parties that play in this sandbox.
For one thing the Two-Party System only serves to divide us. Those at the top use it to pit the rest of us, the middle class, the lower class, the whole 98% of us against each other, while we're all robbed blind. Instead of ganging up as 98% on the politicians and demanding they do something about the economic mess we're in, as Iceland's government had done, we're all distracted with bullshit on TV and when we're not, we're at each others throats instead. All the while the middle class continues to shrink while the rich at the top get more of the pie. Big banks like HSBC get busted for laundering money for criminal organizations and man posing as Attorney General, Eric Holder refuses to press charges, and we as 98% of the people do nothing. Too busy at each others throats playing this rigged partisan game of "my Party can beat up your party!" Our politicians have stopped representing us and are pretty much bent on ramming their special interest agendas up our collective asses. We've been divided and we're being conquered.
"There is no civility, only politics." - Chancellor Palpatine
“The Republic is not what it once was—the Senate is full of
greedy, squabbling delegates. There is no interest in the common good.” - Chancellor Palpatine
While referring to the Galactic Republic in it's final days, Palpatine may as well have been referring to the American Republic. In our poisoned political landscape everything is political. Neither side is any better than the other. Democrats will use gun violence to push their political agenda one day, while the next Republicans will use abortion to push their own political agendas. In the end they always win and we always lose.
And the reason these two parties can walk all over us? Well, who else are we going to vote for? Even if one Party were to lose the House, or Congress, or the White House, they'll be the dominant Party again in 10-20 years. There are no other viable parties, so they just need to sit there and wait. It's a rigged system and no matter what the two Parties will ALWAYS win, because they will ALWAYS be in power.
Which goes to the next issue. Because they are always in power, these so-called representatives don't have to represent any of us. They just need to look just slightly better than the other guy and into office they go.
As bad as it sounds this is damaging on an even deeper level. Consider this, there are also the same people the decide what school curriculum are. If I had to pick one class which I valued the most it would be my Logic class taught by Dr. Danny Weil. Logic and Critical Thinking are the classes that will teach you to think and see though all the bullshit. And that's a good thing right?
So why did I have to wait till college to take these classes? Why aren't they offered in high school?
Because the Parties do not want thinkers. They want good wind-up automatons that will parrot and spread the Party Line. They do not want radical thinkers who will question the status quo paradigm and ultimately threaten their power. They want a dumb, dim-witted and easily distracted populace, that shies away from politics, and at most the extent of their involvement serves only to further the Party Line. Do any of you really think that Republicans care about an unborn baby when they couldn't give two shits about a poor underprivileged kid? Do any of you really think Democrats care about gay people when they've hemmed and hawed about it only making a decision when and election was coming up? Sure there are members that are sincere such as Elizabeth Warren, but those are few and far between, And so the Two-Party System continues to perpetuate itself.
On an another level, the whole concept of a Two-Party System in a nation as large and as diverse as the United States, is completely nonviable to begin with. This country was set up as a Republic, a representative democracy. But with such diverse a population as the United States has, it it impossible for only two national parties to represent all the different myriads of views. What Party is someone supposed to vote for when they support gun rights AND gay rights? The result is these people are marginalized and even less inclined to vote. Which of course is what the Parties want, because then it culls the number of potential voters down and the percentage of their automatons, the ones who mindlessly vote down Party lines, increases amongst the population which actually votes. Further cementing their positions.
Maybe in a smaller, more homogeneous society, two parties would be enough. Like in a country like Japan that is very homogeneous and where conformity is desired and rocking the boat is frowned upon. But in a country like the United States where you have people from literally every part of the Earth where there are people, each bringing with them their own values and ideals, how can two parties ever hope to represent even most, let alone all these different diverging groups? It can't, it's impossible. Furthermore, how can you have a representative democracy, when much if not most of the populace isn't represented very well? You can't, the republic won't work. Well ok it might function, but it'll function about as well as a Ford from the '90s will after it passes the 10 year mark.
Lastly, what happens when one of the Parties becomes so weak that the other has a super-majority. The majority becomes empowered to do what ever it wants, IE adopt and even more hardline adherence to the Party Dogma. Until that Party inevitable falls from grace, it in fact becomes a de facto one party state. We can see this happening in California, it is the "tyranny of the majority" that people such as John Adams feared. Had there been a third or fourth "liberal" party to siphon away voters from the Democratic Party, they likely wouldn't have such power in this state.
