[Vision2020] polarizing and the two-party system

[Paul Rumelhart]

Republicans vs Democrats, conservatives vs liberals, is it really that 
cut and dried?  Is the country really that simplistically divided?  I 
have an idea of what a stereotypical Republican thinks, and what a 
stereotypical Democrat thinks.  I wonder how close it is to the truth.  
If you took a group of average Americans, for example, and gave them a 
list of anonymous position statements on a whole range of subjects by 
our congressmen without any other info could they classify each position 
statement as belonging to a Republican or a Democrat with a high degree 
of accuracy?  Also, what percentage of voters vote strictly according to 
which party they have thrown their hats in with?  What would it be like 
if there were no such simple and safe option?

I have long thought that the two-party system is ruining our country.  
Every issue has to be framed with respect to it's Rep/Dem voting ratio.  
Issues that are complex or multi-faceted have to be dumbed down to fit 
the system.  Isn't it possible that people can be conservative on social 
issues but liberal on financial ones, for example?  Or vice-versa?  
Imagine if there were, say, five major parties more or less equally 
represented and a dozen or so minor ones in our government.   No one 
party could control the House or the Senate.  Consensus would be a game 
of determining which parties would be willing to lean your way and which 
pieces of what you want you'd have to give up to court the outliers.

Voters would have to reflect upon how they lean on a number of issues.  
Would they rather have a Green candidate in office representing them or 
a Libertarian?  Candidates could actually be members of more than one 
party.  The country would still probably divide more or less into 
colored regions on the map, but it wouldn't be so divisive.  
Corporations would have to buy politicians from a number of parties to 
get  their legislation passed.  Finally, people could talk about issues 
as if they had more than one dimension.

Anyway, just some meandering thoughts on a Friday night.  Any comments?

Paul