[Vision2020] polarizing and the two-party system

[g. crabtree]

Mr. Rumelhart

How about this for  comment. We already have third, fourth, fifth, and sixth 
parties and they never garner more then a small percentage of the vote, in 
aggregate. If your vision is truly appreciably better, why do you think this 
is? How would you change things? By outlawing the Republican and Democrat 
parties? Perhaps it really is as simple as Americans shaking out into two 
basic groups. Most voters don't follow politics closely enough to be well 
informed about the two major parties much less six, or more. A basketball 
teams worth of candidates would result in even more of a beauty contest then 
we have now and, I suspect, still break along two basic lines. The mommy 
government party and the daddy government party. The rest would be the 
whining, squalling, biting at your ankles parties. I think that what we have 
now, a system where the minors try to shape the bigs, is probably the most 
efficient way. Libertarians and Constitutionalists trying to mold the Reps, 
Greens and Socialists trying to shape the Dems and the devil take the 
hindmost. The most appealing thing about your multi party/coalition 
government scheme is that it would be even more difficult to ever form any 
kind of consensus and as a result little would get done. Train wreck 
government is always a hoot to watch and the less government can accomplish, 
the better, in my lowly opinion.

gc
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Paul Rumelhart" <godshatter at yahoo.com>
To: "Vision2020" <vision2020 at moscow.com>
Sent: Friday, October 13, 2006 10:09 PM
Subject: [Vision2020] polarizing and the two-party system


> 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
>
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