laneys.info Beware of Yankees, drunks, and loose women.

    Seen on a bumper sticker:

Democrats / Republicans: Same s***, different piles.

    The two-party system has failed, but only part of the blame lies with the system itself.  The problem is that U.S. politics is less and less about principles, ideology, and the common good but is more and more about the acquisition and retention of power.  The two major parties are just the two sides of the same coin, each spending their energy merely as opposition to the other, instead of as a conscientious evaluation of the common good.

    The common good is really what's at stake, because the power politics and pork barrel spending mean we're swapping the best outcome for something decidedly inferior.  The two-party system encourages this behavior, because if you can make the other side look bad, you're more likely you are to get more power for yourself.  In a multi-party system, that no longer happens, because you can't guarantee that your party will be the one to benefit.

    However, I'm not sure that the average U.S. citizen is ready for everything that comes with a true muti-party system: power-sharing, coalition government, "no confidence" votes.  That's a lot for people who still don't really understand the idea of Presidential electors.