The Terrible Two Party System, part 3

A Possible Solution

I find the majoritarian aspects of American democracy very objectionable.  If I could have my way, the United States government would lean more towards the consensus model. I consider the American two party system as objectionable because I feel that during election time we as American citizens are only really presented with two platforms that almost look exactly the same.  The mainstream media’s blatant refusal to include third party candidates of any kind proves to me that members of third parties here in America have obtained the status of second-class citizens.  In Ira Glasser’s testimony to the Senate to comment on the McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Reform Bill, he argued that much of campaign finance reform legislation is harmful to the rights of third parties (ACLU, 2000). The restrictions on donors to third party candidates violate freedom of speech.  These restrictions suppress open fair and public debate and this simply should not happen in a free and open society such as the United States of America.  The Freedom of Speech should be protected at the maximum and the government should not intervene in it at the minimum.

The one change that I would make would be a constitutional amendment to change our election system from a pluritarian to a proportional representative system for the House of Representatives and every state legislature.  If this were ever to pass, the consequences would have a huge impact on the American power structure.  Third parties would be able to get their voices heard in the government directly.  More importantly, minorities would be able to surpass the current political hierarchies and make their own platforms instead of the Democratic and Republican parties that only desperately do so to get our votes.  Ethnic minorities would no longer be politically subservient.  Many people would argue that this would only divide this nation even further and send us back to days past like in the1960’s when Eldridge Cleaver and the National Black Panther Party for Defense scared the living daylights out of white suburbia.  I do not appreciate this kind of reasoning, not one bit.  To suggest that all black people or all Hispanics would create solely ethnocentric political parties is to continue to stereotype minorities as people who do not have the ability to think outside the box.  It is the exact same logic that many prominent academia and black clergy alike use when they all but accuse African Americans of being slaves to the Democratic Party.  As a matter fact, the Reverend Al Sharpton’s 2004 Presidential campaign disappointed many because he only got 17% of the black vote  (Wickham, 2004). Ethnic minorities and third party members are two perfect examples of American citizens who are systematically excluded from political power and influence.

Truth and Peace,

Rod

Sources:

Wickham, DeWayne.  (2004, March 3) Sharpton’s presidential campaign disappoints.

USA Today, p.13A.