There really are more than 2 parties.
Bottom of the barrel Congressional approval ratings, growing deficit, more problems with the economy, the list goes on and on. With yesterday being primary election day across the country one thing was abundantly clear by the end of the evening. Incumbents are going to need to find another job at the end of their term. Not that I’m surprised too much actually. It’s taken a little while to grab hold of the public, but it seems they may be partially waking up to the fact that if you keep electing the same people over and over and over, you’re not going to see a whole lot of difference.
In Pennsylvania, incumbent fence hopper Arlen Specter was defeated in the primary by Naval veteran and current House Rep Joe Sestak. Is taking an existing Congressman and shuttling him to the other chamber the best idea? Probably not. Is it better than re-electing the 80 year-old Specter would would be pushing 90 at the end of the next term? Most likely. You could compare this with the defeat of Senator Bill Roth in Delaware years ago by the currently serving former governor Tom Carper. It was just time for younger blood. To be honest, I can’t see how having people in their 80s making decisions on how best to run the country is beneficial. Things change over time and one thing I have observed about politicians is that they don’t change. Which brings me to my next point and frustration.
This whole two party system we’ve been humping for the last however many years. It’s old, and tired as well. Isn’t it about time we vote that out as well? Did anyone take a gander at what has been happening in England lately? They have 3 or 4 parties in their Parliament and neither one of them were elected to a majority this election cycle. That meant that essentially nothing could get done without two or more parties agreeing to work with each other. Each party has their own set of ideals but each party also realizes that if an alliance is not formed, nothing gets passed through. So what happened? They compromised. They worked with each other. Just imagine what that would be like in our country. Republicans want to say no? Fine, Democrats ally with the as yet unnamed third party and get stuff done.
Oh well. One can dream right? I do know that things are shaping up to be pretty interesting come November when the entire House of Representatives is up for grabs and 36 Senate seats are up. Is it too much to hope for a third party gaining traction this year?
*Edit: By third party, I do not mean the Tea Party since they’re pretty much Republicans who thought they could put one over on us by changing their party name.
