The comedian Colin Quin once eloquently noticed the problem with our government when he said:
“It’s sad.
Marxism didn’t work.
Communism didn’t work.
Capitalism doesn’t work.
Nothing works.
Even democracy doesn’t work.
Democracy—the greatest form of government and we have two choices for who’s our leader.
In fascism you only have one choice.
That’s great.
We have one more choice than the worst form of government.”
It is often assumed that America is the land of freedom.
The land of true democracy.
But that just isn’t quite the truth, is it?
Our democracy looks more and more like a duocracy – in that only two groups of people really
have any voice in the direction of our government.
The democratics and the republicans.
We all know our government is broken.
We all know that elections are unfair and don’t really reflect the views of the 300
million people living here.
But the question is, how did we get here?
Why does our country only have two parties?
Why not three or four or five?
In fact our country does have more than two political parties.
But they have no voice.
No say.
No power.
Since 1852 we have either elected a republican or democratic president.
And before that it was either the Democrats or the Whigs.
And before that either the Democrats or the National Republican Parties.
The point?
American has been a two party system for a long time.
In the beginning it wasn’t quite like this.
In fact in the first election, there were no political parties and most of the founding
fathers argued against them.
John Adams said: “There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic
into two great parties, each arranged under its leader, and concerting measures in opposition
to each other.
This, in my humble apprehension, is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under
our Constitution.”
But nerveless by the time George Washington left office in 1797 – the country split
into two parties – the Federalists and Democratic-Republicans.
So what’s been happening to cause this two party system to emerge?
Well the fact is that in 48 out of 50 states our election is a “Single Winner Voter System”
AKA “Winner Takes All.”
For example when Ross Perot ran in the 1992 election against Bill Clinton and George Bush,
he got 19% of the popular vote, but didn’t get any votes from the electoral college.
Instead Bill Clinton, who won only 43% of the popular vote but beat George Bush by winning
32 out of the 50 states, thus earning more electoral college votes took the presidential
seat.
The theory is that this form of voting leads to a two party system because of something
called “Duverger’s Law.”
This law basically says that third parties can’t compete because there is no prize
for winning.
Voters who might have agreed with Perot more, might have been afraid that if they voted
for him, it would take away votes from Clinton who would then lose to Bush and thus voted
for Clinton in the hopes that Bush wouldn’t be elected even though they agreed with Perot
more.
In short, people feel their vote for a smaller party is ineffective and so weaker parties
are eliminated over time – as process known as polarization.
Why is a two party system a problem?
Glad you asked!
Well, some say our two party system is unjust and has led to modern crises such as banks
too big to fail, the decline of the middle class, rising costs in health care etc.
Their arguments suggest that our two party system has limited our choices, our thinking,
and has corrupted our media and our politicians.
So then what’s the fix?
Great question!
Some political scientists suggest using a party-proportional-representation system rather
than a winner takes all voting system.
That means if a minor party gets 15% of votes, than that party will win 15% of seats in the
legislature.
Many countries around the world use this system such as Japan, Sweden, Argentina, etc.
And while it is not perfect, it would probably make the voters of the U.S. feel more empowered.
Personally, I don’t really give a damn and am just going to be continuing to live my
life, day by day.
Enjoying each and every moment as it passes.
Thanks for watching the video and if you enjoyed it, give it a thumbs up and subscribe to stay
updated!