Is the American Two Party System Broken? Part 2

Do you know any "yellow dog" Democrats? These are people who were said that they would vote for a yellow dog, running as a Democrat, before they would vote for a Republican. For years people have treated their political affiliation as if it were pulling for a sports team. My parents were dedicated to the Democrat party, but could never explain their devotion. Far too many people treat politics as if it is a game. I've always considered myself to be an Independent. My political philosophy has always leaned somewhere between Libertarian and Republican.

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I looked at the Democrat party when I was young and I was never attracted to their beliefs. My first impressions of the Democrats was the Southern Democratic party of the Dixiecrats, George Wallace, and later Jimmy Carter. The party that fought civil rights and demonized Martin Luther King, Jr. They were the party that involved the US in the Vietnam war. Don't get me wrong I also lived through the Presidency of Richard Nixon and Watergate. But I found much more to dislike about the goals of the Democrat party. I voted for Gerald Ford and later Ronald Reagan.

The one thing that I understood very early was the dominance of the two party system. Third party candidates don't have a chance due to the way that the Republicans and Democrats have set up the system. Between gerrymandered districts and carefully crafted election laws, plus the spectator type relationship the general populous, the two parties have in effect locked third parties out of the system. The only way to change the system is to change the parties from the inside. As I discussed in Part 1 the two parties seem to be occupied by a number of people with the same goals. This goals are exactly opposite from my ideas of what makes this country great. But I could be wrong in believing that many of these people would have the integrate to actually stand for anything. In general many people drawn to politics seem to be self-centered and only worry about the next election.

The most dangerous person on earth can be the zealot. The person who has a mission and the determination to pass their agenda, no matter what. When a President stands before the American people and tells them that there is a crisis that requires drastic action, but once it is passed says that it was a 100 year old goal, we see agenda being more important then the country as a whole.

To save our country we must get more people to understand that there is good in our system and to get them engaged. We must educate more people on the system and how some of the changes that are occurring are endangering us all. We must be willing to make the sacrifices needed to save our freedoms and liberties and those of our children, grandchildren, and the future generations. We need to fix the two party system or we could find ourselves with a one party dictatorship or foreign domination. Our enemies are large in number, but we must be strong enough to resist the temptation of Socialism. We must fix the system before it is too late.

Part 2 of a series. Part 1 is here.

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