Why I hate political parties

[radioactivez0r]

Maybe it's the culture that now exists in this country and now passes for "politics", but most parties, and especially the two dominant ones, seem obsolete to me. I could go into a myriad of other tangents, but mostly what I see is elected public officials voting along party lines because it helps their career instead of voting based on what they think is best for their constituents. Yes, this is nothing new, but really, what purpose is there anymore for Democrats and Republicans (besides using them in name-calling)? I registered Independent because I vote for the person, not their party, and I certainly don't understand anyone who does otherwise.

Again, this could easily spawn a rash of other topics on special interests, career politicians, and the like, but for the moment I'm focusing on the present day necessity of parties in our system.

[Jack]

Politics!...Hmm...Nothing wrong with politics or it's "Parties", but politicians...., is another story indeed.

If you were to change the way campaigns were run and organized, how would you do it?
If you were to start up a new political party, how/ and what would you decide what was good for your country?

One more!...

If you were to run for congress, what would you do to show your competence in politics?

[tundra]

No need to hate, grouping into parties for mutual benefits is what humans do, isn't it?

All you need to do is show you don't care and abstain. ;)

[Jbmontag]

I don't like political parties. In our current "two" party system it has set up a false dichotomy. As if those are the choices, the only choices.

It seems as if the parties are less and less about finding the best solution, and more about staying in power. Petty attempts to one up the other don't accomplish much.

[toonia]

Sometimes I think politics, like so many other features of our culture, are modeled on the football game (which is likely modeled on tribal culture). It might sound silly, but this dividing into two arbitrarily opposing sides into which people are encouraged to blindly side with and get worked up over, is basically a football game. The media manipulation of the issues and the parroting back by people in general is painful to watch. I haven't found any way to gather facts in a non-biased way in order to form an opinion, and so I avoid the mess.

[Jbmontag]

Sometimes I think politics, like so many other features of our culture, are modeled on the football game (which is likely modeled on tribal culture). It might sound silly, but this dividing into two arbitrarily opposing sides into which people are encouraged to blindly side with and get worked up over, is basically a football game. The media manipulation of the issues and the parroting back by people in general is painful to watch. I haven't found any way to gather facts in a non-biased way in order to form an opinion, and so I avoid the mess.


I like your analogy ;D I think our adversarial judicial system is a great example.

[Nomad]

Sometimes I think politics, like so many other features of our culture, are modeled on the football game (which is likely modeled on tribal culture). It might sound silly, but this dividing into two arbitrarily opposing sides into which people are encouraged to blindly side with and get worked up over, is basically a football game. The media manipulation of the issues and the parroting back by people in general is painful to watch. I haven't found any way to gather facts in a non-biased way in order to form an opinion, and so I avoid the mess.


Heres an interesting thing. Which tribal culture? Competition seems inherent in human beings, conflict is normal. There were tribes where missionaries were killed, because they had introduced completion in the form of team sports within a tribe. In the extremely harsh environments in which these tribes lived, competition within the tribe was seen as a great evil, however, they would cheerfully attack and kill neighboring tribes. These tribes were in the arctic, I believe, but I can't recall where. That being said, examinations of environmental processes and various ecologies clearly show that a lack of diversified inputs and outputs result in degradation. You have expansion of both competition and cooperation until you reach a critical mass of biodiversity, and then it stabilizes, until some sort of cataclysm happens, diversity gets blown away, and then the only the fittest survive and the process repeats. If you interrupt the process the system degrades. Such is the two party system, and most other political entities. There is no essential difference between the parties anymore, the process is the goal, beginning and end. Product does not drive process. The American political system is no different from a pond with too much scum. No oxygen. S'all right. It'll fix itself, gonna be nasty to watch though.

-Nomad

[bman954058]

Heres an interesting thing. Which tribal culture? Competition seems inherent in human beings, conflict is normal. There were tribes where missionaries were killed, because they had introduced completion in the form of team sports within a tribe. In the extremely harsh environments in which these tribes lived, competition within the tribe was seen as a great evil, however, they would cheerfully attack and kill neighboring tribes. These tribes were in the arctic, I believe, but I can't recall where. That being said, examinations of environmental processes and various ecologies clearly show that a lack of diversified inputs and outputs result in degradation. You have expansion of both competition and cooperation until you reach a critical mass of biodiversity, and then it stabilizes, until some sort of cataclysm happens, diversity gets blown away, and then the only the fittest survive and the process repeats. If you interrupt the process the system degrades. Such is the two party system, and most other political entities. There is no essential difference between the parties anymore, the process is the goal, beginning and end. Product does not drive process. The American political system is no different from a pond with too much scum. No oxygen. S'all right. It'll fix itself, gonna be nasty to watch though.

-Nomad

That's not so easy to do when your in the mix with them. The everyday lives of Americans are surprisingly affected by the U.S. Government. It's as if your a fish in the scummy pond, where do you go? Either you worry about it, ignore it, or accept it. Hell, why not mess with it? :)

[Santana28]

I've been out gathering petition signatures to get Ron Paul on the ballot in Illinois. I had an interesting encounter with a Polish immigrant... he was at first very turned off to signing, but when i told him it was for Ron Paul he grabbed the pen and paper out of my hand and said boldly "For Ron Paul, i do this!" He then went off on a tirade about how in America, a 2 party system is not Democracy..."there is no choice!." He told me that in Poland alone they have over 20 political parties to choose from.... i can't say i disagree with him - our system is completely screwed up. Ron Paul is our last, best shot at setting things straight.

[bucolic_]

I've been out gathering petition signatures to get Ron Paul on the ballot in Illinois. I had an interesting encounter with a Polish immigrant... he was at first very turned off to signing, but when i told him it was for Ron Paul he grabbed the pen and paper out of my hand and said boldly "For Ron Paul, i do this!" He then went off on a tirade about how in America, a 2 party system is not Democracy..."there is no choice!." He told me that in Poland alone they have over 20 political parties to choose from.... i can't say i disagree with him - our system is completely screwed up. Ron Paul is our last, best shot at setting things straight.

A large part of it has to do with our system of democracy, where the winner takes all. In such a system, it's only natural for two parties to arise.