Every election season, Americans tune in to election programming on one of many television stations – Fox News, MSNBC, CNN or NBC. Regardless of the station, the electoral map is always split into two colors: red (for Republicans) and blue (for Democrats). While there are a few “purple” swing states, most are considered either “solidly” blue or red. In our civics classes, we are taught that America is a two party system, where the Democrats represent the left/liberal spectrum while Republicans represent the right/conservative spectrum.
The truth of the matter, however, is that this dichotomy is a lie. In reality, the American political system has morphed into a crude facsimile of a single-party state where the two parties share the same positions on the vast majority of issues (defense spending and civil liberties) and only differ on a few fairly minor points such as tax cuts and entitlement spending.
Senior Rebecca Standler said,”Even though I don’t really agree with either Obama or Romney, I feel like I have to vote for one of them or my vote won’t really matter much.”
Rather than thinking about the political spectrum on a one-dimensional basis, it is more helpful to think about the spectrum as being two-dimensional. While the first factor is economic policies (i.e the left and right), the second factor is a measure of a political party’s belief in individual freedoms, stretching from libertarianism (personal freedom) to authoritarianism (governmental authority).
On the economic front, both parties have moved closer and closer together over the past decade – supporting a corporatist economic system where business and government work together for the benefit of politicians and corporations. The result? Trillion-dollar deficits, billion-dollar bailouts, a growing military-industrial complex, and a state of nearly-permanent warfare. One example of this blatant corporatism in the federal government is Monsanto – an agribusiness company worth billions of dollars. Monsanto is considered a controversial pioneer in genetically modified foods and heavy pesticides.
President George H.W. Bush appointed Margaret Miller, a former Chemical Lab Supervisor in Monsanto, the Deputy Director of the Food and Drug Administration. President Obama has appointed the former Director of Monsanto in Danforth to be the head of the United States Department of Agriculture.
On the issue of personal freedoms, both parties have become more authoritarian as well. Both parties support the use of drone strikes to kill terrorist leaders overseas (some of whom are American citizens). Both parties help to keep the Guantanamo detention center open, and both parties supported the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The NDAA declared the entire United States a warzone in the war on terrorism and allowed the government to detain American citizens indefinitely and without charge – a clear violation of the Bill of Rights and the right to habeas corpus.
The only solution to the increasingly one party system in our country is the introduction of seriously competitive “third-parties” that can truly represent the variety of view that many Americans hold. Unfortunately, many of these parties such as the Green and Libertarian parties are marginalized in American politics and hold little support even though their policies of libertarianism in terms of civil rights are fairly popular. According to uselectionatlas.org, The most successful third-party candidate for office was Ross Perot, who only won 19% of the popular vote in 1992 – but even then won 0 electoral votes.
The reason for the failure of third parties in American politics lies with the electoral system itself. The following example helps illustrate the folly of the “First-Past-the-Post” system that America uses for local elections:
In some imaginary Congressional District in Florida, a vote is held for a representative. The Republicans gain 40% of the vote, the Democrats gain 30%, the Libertarians gain 20%, and the Greens gain 10%. The Republican candidate wins the seat and gains representation in Congress even though 60% of voters did not vote for the Republican!
Contrast this system with that of some European democracies, where the percentage of the popular vote gained by a party is proportional to the seats they earn. This system allows for a more diverse spectrum of voices to be heard and creates a government that is more representative of its people.
Sophomore Steven Bikker said,”If I could vote, I’d probably vote for Gary Johnson [the Libertarian presidential candidate] because he actually supports my personal philosophy on what our government should be like.”
In the end, real change in the democratic system can only come from within and it is up to the citizens of the United States to call for a fairer, freer political system that is not monopolized by two increasingly similar parties.