The 2 party system must end.

In 2008 the economy was in terrible shape and Americans were angry with how George Bush and the Republicans had been running the country. So what did the voters do? They did the only thing they could, they voted in a bunch of Democrats.

Now in 2010 the economy is in terrible shape and Americans are unhappy with how Barrack Obama and the Democrats are running the country. So what did the voters do? They expressed their anger in the only way they can, they voted in a bunch of Republicans, you know, members of the party that they were so angry with two years earlier that they replaced many of the Republicans in Congress and many Republican governors with Democrats. They took the party that was seen as being responsible for the severe economic down turn and put them back in power because they really didn't see any other way of punishing the Democrats who they were not happy with.

Imagine if there had been other choices besides the Democrats and Republicans in this elections. Imagine if there had not just been a viable third party but a viable 4th and 5th and 6th parties as well. Some people will imagine this and think it sounds like chaos, but to me it sounds like a way to make government work.

With just 2 parties there is little incentive for either party to try and govern effectively. They realize that it is easier, far easier, to win elections by making the other party look bad than it is to win elections by governing effectively. This is why between 2008 and 2010 the Republicans became the party of "No" and offered steadfast resistance to any policies promoted by the Democrats no matter what the policies were. Now that the Republicans control the house I would be willing to bet money that Democrats in the House will take on a much more obstructionist stance as they see it as the easiest way to stand out in voter's minds. In other words we have institutionalized grid lock and a nearly complete inability to deal with the problems facing our nation.

But if you had five parties in Congress with similar numbers of representatives things would change considerably. Any two of these parties could join up (and since the divisions between the parties would probably be diluted with the inclusion of more parties the likelihood that two parties would join up should increase) and get a considerable amount of legislation passed. This means that all the parties would be encouraged to start working together to make themselves look good instead of just trying to make one other party look bad. Additional parties would also help spread out the money being donated by large corporations and other special interest groups and reduce their over all influence.

So what do we do? Continue swapping out the 2 parties every few years or do we eliminate the 2 party system and make our government work again?