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Absolutely true. Although I wouldn't advocate the other extreme because some countries have
literally 30 parties in competition. But if we had 3 or 4 serious contenders it would really shake
things up. |
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The two party system narrows the range of acceptable discourse. Political discourse matters because
it also affects media discourse. In part this relates to the culture of American journalism, which
prizes objectivity. The effect of this ideal of objectivity is that most mainstream journalists will
not really explore possibilities that haven't previously been put out there by politicians
themselves. Otherwise they come across as agenda-driven extremists and "conspiracy theorists".
American journalists are criticised for their meekness in the run-up to the Iraq war. But no
prominent Democrat was willing to vigorously criticise the administration either, so it's asking a
lot for a journalist to jeopardise his livelihood by doing so. If there had been a multi-party
system, there would have been a wider range of views articulated, and some of these might have
provided the cover necessary for some journalists to actually do their jobs.
The more I contemplate the American system of government, the more disastrous the whole thing seems
to me. Not just the two-party system, but the whole shebang : The idolised constitution, unelected
judges making important decisions, the electoral college system, prosecutors who are dependent on
political favour. It really needs to be just torn down and re-designed from the ground up. |
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That's Machiavellian politics for you! Divide and rule. |
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 joe9  08 Jul 2008 19:55
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Does any one feel that either party truly represents the voters’ wishes? And please don’t start
telling me how evil the other side is, what I’m interested in is how you feel about your own
party. Because I feel like I’ve been voting against the worst candidates rather than voting for a
candidate for a long time. |
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To one extreme... There should be a 3rd party that truly represent to people's best wishes, and that
is of Constitutional Party, while other parties are such on issue-oriented parties. Yet, with the
current two party system, which doesn't give much of the choice, I also felt that Democratic party
would be made a better choice locally then national. Yet, get back to the main questions, I felt
that the current two-party system isn't the problem, it the politicians that causes the most
problems along with the ignorants of most uneducated voters |
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Except we don't have a two-party system, we have many, many parties and anyone who wants to start a
party can do so. The problem is that most of these third parties are one-issue wonders that do
nothing to engender support from the American public. You cannot blame the political system because
the public has come down, by and large, behind only two of the available parties, giving them both
extraordinary power. |
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