We have a long history in the United States of having only two political parties. Today we have the Democrats and the Republicans. In years past we had parties with other names. While there have been a few efforts at starting other political parties, for the most part the only parties that matter are the Democrats and Republicans.
This two party notion is not part of the US constitution. But it is enshrined in Congressional rules. That somewhat extra-constitutional arrangement gives political parties a good deal of extra-constitutional power!
Consider the current committee system. Congressional committees have extraordinary power when it comes to deciding what is in proposed legislation and even what legislation reaches a vote. We often hear about bills languishing or 'bottled up' in committee. Committee chairman are appointed by political party leaders. They aren't elected by voters or even members of congress. They are appointed by people most citizens didn't vote for! Common Sense wonders if Congress would be a different and better governing body is committee chairmen had to be elected by members of Congress not appointed by one party or another?
Aside from the committee system the leader of the House and Senate exercise almost dictatorial control over what bills can come to the floor for a vote. Common Sense didn't vote for House Speaker Boehner. Indeed, unless you live in the 8th district in Ohio you didn't even get a chance to vote for him. Unless you were one of the 139, 118 people that voted for him you have no say in what bills the House votes on! Common Sense doesn't think that's much of a democracy. Common Sense wonders if Congress would be a much more representative body of leadership was elected by the Congress as a whole, not just one party.
Consider that almost all votes in congress are along party lines. Does it make sense that 80% to 90% of the time an independently elected representative thinks the same as his party? Are there no independent thoughts among our elected representatives? Of course, it makes sense that a Republican or Democrat would often reflect the same values as his party. But 9 times out of 10 rather stretches credence and common sense.
Aside from a system of running Congress that is on its face very undemocratic, the two party system has other serious flaws.
Consider the question of how political parties nominate candidates. Most nomination processes are determined by primary elections or caucuses. Relatively few people actually vote in these elections. Indeed the percentage of eligible voters that turn out to vote in even national nomination process is remarkably small often well below 20%. The result is that the nomination process is controlled by a very small number of voters. These voters tend to be very vocal. One might even say rabid. They tend to be people with a serious issue to drive or voters from the political extremes. The net of this is that political parties don't nominate people that represent the overall ideas of the party but people who can pass muster with the parties extremes! Not especially democratic in Common Sense's view.
The two party system leads to a "winner and loser" mentality. Politics has deteriorated into a sort of tribal game where points are scored independent of any semblance of real concern for effective governance. One need only look at the recent budget bill idiocy where government was brought to the brink of shutdown so that actual spending for the current fiscal year could be reduced by $353 million and budgeted (authorized) spending by $20 billion over the next few years. Clearly that particular bit of foolishness wasn't about money as about scoring points in a game that is bad for the country and inconsistent with good governance. Common Sense notes that while games are entertaining they aren't democratic.
The two party system denies representation to the center. Party affiliations are telling. Neither Republicans or Democrats represent the majority of American voters. Here are the results from recent Gallop polls as a point of reference.
| Republicans | Independents | Democrats | |||
| % | % | % | |||
| 2011 May 5-8 | 29 | 37 | 32 | ||
| 2011 Apr 20-23 | 31 | 36 | 32 | ||
| 2011 Apr 7-11 | 26 | 42 | 30 | ||
| 2011 Mar 25-27 | 25 | 40 | 32 | ||
| 2011 Mar 3-6 | 29 | 39 | 29 | ||
| 2011 Feb 2-5 | 28 | 40 | 31 | ||
| 2011 Jan 14-16 | 28 | 42 | 28 | ||
| 2011 Jan 7-9 | 29 | 37 | 31 |
Who, if anyone, represents the political center? It doesn't look especially democratic to Common Sense.
Current events and history teach that the two party system doesn't work very well. It is not democratic and for much of the last decade has not provided very good government. That's just common sense. Perhaps there needs to be a third party. A party that represents the center not the left or right. Perhaps then we can have common sense government.
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