Those that have studied history know that our founding fathers did not want party affliations during elections because they believed that it deterred from our independence. Political parties that are in charge create a shift in power in lieu have having a balance of power. But nonetheless, our country developed a two party system.
The Federalist party was founded in 1792 by Alexander Hamilton. It believed in strong military, a national bank, taking power away from states and citizens, and making a treaty with England. To combat this the Democratic-Republican party was formed. This party was formed by James Madison and Thomas Jefferson. The wanted to protect the rights of the citizens, denounced a national bank, opposed the vagueness of the US constitution, and wanted an agricultural based economy for the country. The latter became the dominant party and roughly phased out the Federalist party. But like all people that agree to disagree the Democratic-Republican party split in the 1820's.
The main problems with our two party system, if you look at it intelligently, instead of wanting to protect it for historical prosterity, is that it can be easily corrupted, it does not truly represent the ideals of the people in the United States, and it denies the ability for non-party participants to actively and effectively compete in presidential elections.
If, say, Obama had truly wanted to support "change" in this country, which is truly needed and no one has denied this, then he should have been able to go outside of his political mainstream candidates and chose a person that truly emplified his ideas. Because he was subjected to party politics he was unable to do so and thus limited his ability to truly make good on his original campaign promises. The same can be said of John McCain. McCain had indicated that he would like to run with democratic contender Joe Liberman. Liberman was less than loyal to his political democratic mainstream party. Yet because McCain was also bound by certain party loyalties he too had to keep inside his box to make his choice.
If you consider that during the time of the political party creation most of the voters were uneducated and lacked reading and writing skills, it may have made sense for the more educated and powerful people to create policies. Those days are long gone. We have very few illiterate people in the United States. The problem we have is fighting against a two party system that we were born into and seem to be trapped in keeping.
During the election the Green Party, Independent Party, Libertarian Party, and other parties were not heard from. Not one of the contenders have been invited to the debates. They do not have multimillion dollar party affliates to support them. They are not invited to talk show circuits or given daily headlines on CNN. Most Americans do not even know the names or policies of those in other parties that are running. Many that may do not want to "waste" a vote and even though they may like their policies will vote on the two party ticket.
The only way in which people can truly be done with party politics is to show their intelligence and truly look at who is running for public office. It should be time in our country to look beyond the same ole same ole. People can speak of being mainstream and at times voting away from party lines, but honestly the elections prove that this is not the norm. Millions of the people in the United States cannot name anyone other than the democrat and republican running for office. We are becoming a people that are voluntarily remaining limited and living in a rut of political propoganda.
