A cycle exists in American politics, and from the public’s perspective, it feels a lot like being that small guy that tries to break up a fight between two much bigger guys but just ends up getting punched a lot in the process. Every four or eight years, America inevitably gets fed up with enough of what the incumbent party is doing and votes for their opponent, only four or eight years later the same thing happens again. What we end up with is a system that doesn't really invoke much change – more often than not a term is spent “correcting” the mistakes (in their eyes, any legislation) that was passed in the previous term – resulting in a lot of very busy politicians, but not a whole lot of efficiency.
This problem is compounded by the fact that, because of the way our voting system works, the public never really gets an option that suits their needs – only candidates that fit some of them. For instance, I’m a Libertarian – now, most liberals think this puts me squarely on the right with the GOP, firing guns haphazardly into the air as I go on and on about Glenn Beck is the second coming of Christ. On the other hand, conservatives hear that I’m a Libertarian and can’t help themselves from criticizing radical Libertarian ideals like egalitarianism (part of my family is from the pseudo-south and there are times where I’m nearly certain I’ll still see separate drinking fountains in one of the towns we’ll drive through – this is not nearly as large as an exaggeration as you think it may be.)
The thing is, both of them are partly right – in the sense that I’m too conservative for liberals and too liberal for conservatives. For whom does an anti-military, pro-choice, for gay marriage, free-market capitalist vote? The failings of a two party system are compounded when you continue to look at voting trends in the United States. Only about 50% of the population turns out to vote on any given year, and roughly half of them vote Democrat and roughly half vote Republican – this means, during any given election, that the majority of people don’t feel strongly enough for one candidate or another to bother traveling the two miles to their nearest voting booth. Imagine if only half of these non-voters liked a third party enough to go and vote for them – they would instantly have the numbers as the two primary parties. There is a channel on YouTube that explains the world’s various voting systems and the pros and cons of each - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7tWHJfhiyo – this is the American system, also known as a “first past the post” system. He explains it much better than I, and with jungle animals! Oh, the joy!
Now, you might be asking yourself, “Well Nick, you've certainly argued your case, but what is youralternative?” – And right you are to ask, because there is nothing worse, in my opinion, than a person complaining about government without giving a valid solution to the point they’re belaboring. The German government uses a system where a party receives equal seats to the percentage of votes they receive (an overview is found here -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PJXIC106zM – but I warn you, it’s quite dry.) For example, Germany holds an election where Candidate A receives 40% of the vote, Candidate B receives 35% of the vote, and Candidate C receives 25% of the vote. Out of the 20 seats in their parliament (an arbitrary number I picked for math’s sake) Candidate A’s party gets 8 seats, B’s party 7 seats, and C’s party 5 seats. In our system, Candidate C gets all 20 seats, regardless that only 40% of the nation voted for them – in other words, they don’t represent the wishes of over half the population – a fairly backwards way of dealing with things, if you ask me.
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