Quote:
Originally Posted by Tully Mars
And people wonder why little to nothing beneficial comes out of our political process.
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It's frustrating as a spectator. I can't imagine being directly subject to the process.
Much of the frustration I sense is in the very nature of a two-party system. You have a never-ending duel of ideologies that flip back and forth every four, eight, or twelve years or so.
For me it's frustrating because (aside from America being a significant part of Canadian life) I'm coming from a system that has two, three, and sometimes four parties criticizing and occasionally forming alliances against the party in power. Sure you can say that we "essentially" have a two-party system in that our federal government is going to be formed by either the Conservative party or the Liberal party, but the process of governance requires participating in a House that is made up of various other parties who support the interests of their constituents. Whether there is a geographic/social drive (Parti Quebecois' and the Bloc's support for Quebec sovereignty/rights/interests) or an ideological drive (NDP's social democratic platform), there are smaller parties who have significant influence
given the fact that their being able to form their own federal government is either a long shot or a virtual impossibility.
I don't see this
at all in the American system. I find that rigid and likely a great cause for the polarization we see. It's a switch: either/or. Either it's all about the Democrats or it's all about the Republicans. Everyone else either has to pretend they're one or the other or be entirely marginalized. As just one example, there is virtually no support for social democracy in the American system.
And, of course, with this either/or setup it's easy to make exaggerations: "oh, the Democrats are taking America down the road to communism/socialism!" or "oh, the Republicans are militaristic expansionist unilateral voodoo economists!" When you don't have anyone in between or on the fringes (e.g. there is nothing in American politics that truly leaves the center on the left), then it's easy to characterize your
only opponent as worse than they really are. Much of this is due to the fact you don't have anyone truly moderating anyone, when instead you have polarization: there is no compromise, no moderation—only getting your way or not getting it. Either America is governed from the centre or it's governed from the right. It can't ever rest anywhere.