Our Two Political Parties Need Real Competition

One very important subject that is well understood but rarely mentioned in the media is the fact that the two party political system as now practiced is a disaster that is destroying our nation.


Permanent political parties did not play a significant role at the time of the formation of our country. They are not even mentioned in the Constitution. As pointed out in a previous post, however, (June 13, 2011) we were warned against the concept, by several Founding Fathers. Unfortunately, we foolishly disregarded their warnings and are now attempting to live with the results.

The two parties have:

Created a ruling elite that have loyalty to their party beyond that toward our nation.

Exhibited typical elitist behavior by creating many special privileges for themselves that are not available to the citizen.

Limited the voters’ choice of candidates almost entirely to loyal party members.

Done a disastrous job of managing our economy

Allowed their servitude to the special interests that fiancé them to create a warped tax and economic environment that is severely harming American citizens.

Because their only competition is the other party they operate under a very low bar for competency. The parties struggle to accomplish even the simplest of legislative tasks and fail to address serious issues. The latest poll shows Congress with a favorable rating of only 17%.

In a truly competitive situation the parties would either reform or be replaced. Both parties are so entrenched, however, that they can ignore the citizens and still survive. It is unbelievable that we have turned the governing process of our democracy over to two self-serving organizations that focus almost solely on their own power.

These multiple defects are now deeply embedded in current practices. Although the failings have become even more obvious during the recession there is no evidence that the parties are seriously attempting correction. With over 150 years to rig the system in their favor there is not much hope for significant change in the near term.

There is always the fantasy that a new party standing for all the right things will somehow be formed and have sufficient funds to give the competition needed to spur reform. Unfortunately, because of the organization and funding requirements third parties have not had long term success. Our best hope is a conscience epidemic that results in serious reform in one of the existing parties.

If we don’t set a course for correction of the problems of the current system we can expect to silently watch the American dream disappear. We must have a major improvement in our Congress.. This could be done if we could somehow open up the selecting of Senators and Congressmen to match the quality and dedication that was present at our founding. This is difficult because the only new candidates we see are products of the current parties.

The country now has 300 million citizens. We can surely come up with a better mix of candidates and leaders than the current population of career politicians and lawyers that characterize the two parties. We have to increase the talent pool available to give the major parties competition.

One step in this direction would be to greatly simplify how qualified citizens who are not affiliated with a political party could more easily seek office. If the voters could judge and vote between better qualified candidates the quality of congress should improve. This would be possible if there was a third set of primaries to select candidates from a talent pool that is not affiliated with a party. We need a state registered non profit organization, similar to the League of Woman Voters, dedicated to supporting the administrative overhead of the electoral process for unaffiliated candidates. This would not be a third political party but an advocate for equal and fair treatment of all unaffiliated candidates by the system. There would be no promotion of a specific candidate. That would be the job of the candidates themselves.

The parties could continue as now, except they would have real competition. The competition should force them to move in the direction of reform and offer better candidates. Unaffiliated voters would have the same input level on candidates that members of a political party now have. In the general election voters could choose from Democrat, Republican, or Unaffiliated candidates on an equal footing.

Could this happen? Not likely. But we must continue to push for major reform at every opportunity. It will not happen naturally.