[trebor]

You need to understand that the division in American politics is intentional. It's the entire intent of making a dual-party system: to make government less efficient. An efficient government structure with a centralized power base could quickly and easily transform into a tyranny, in theory a decentralized multi-branch dual-/multi- party government would require more time.

[shubb]

If you are saying the division is by original design, that is kind of awesome. Did one of the founders say anything about it in a speech? That would actually be pretty cool.

I guess what I object to is the black and whiteness of the discussion. About 20% of the US electorate are swing voters. That's a lot of people who would never vote republicrat, regardless of policy. They will vote Democrat after 2 terms of drone strikes, or Republican after the tea party nearly caused an econopocalypse. That is really sad.

It also means that only the swing voters count. And the only swing voters worth trying to persuade are the ones with simple priorities, i.e. the nutty ones. It's not very healthy.

[JunkDNA]

Initially, the founders did not want political parties. But factions quickly formed anyway. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_parties_in_the_United...

[trebor]

It's at least a strong tradition, if not by design. But I believe it's actually by design. I wish I had time while at work to find a link for you, but I'll give it a shot when I get home in a few hours.

[biafra]

It would be even better if the two parties would be different.