are you fine with USA being bipartisan country or do you want this to change?

47 comments

  1. If the question is whether I would want one party controlling everything forever, then no.

    I would, however, like to see more parties have a chance of gaining anything resembling power. I like the democrats insofar as they aren’t republicans but I’m not exactly thrilled with either of them. It would be nice to have some other parties that can actually be part of the debate.

  5. More parties that actually have political power, yes.

    One party that controls everything, no.

  6. I mean, i don’t want to eliminate political parties and have one supreme ruler. That sounds terrible. Unless it’s me. Lol

  7. The US desperately needs more than two parties. A country of 330 million+ people can’t be expected to be accurately represented by two parties.

    Not that it would solve every problem, but it would likely help Americans speak with more nuance about complicated issues.

    As it stands, it’s become a dreadful escalation of competing beliefs that share little overlap. It’d be great to have multiple parties where the population can at least agree on certain issues while disagreeing with others.

    I don’t think we’re going to see more than a two party system anytime in the future.

  8. There should be at least four parties. One to represent the actual left, and the other to represent moderate conservatives who haven’t been lost to MAGA zombiedom.

  9. What I really want is to be able to express my desires meaningfully on a more granular, issue-by-issue basis. I only get to do that with certain things at a very local level.

    More parties would accomplish that to some extent and are the most common mechanism for it at the national government level, but it’s not the ONLY mechanism for it.

    It is very frustrating to continually need to actively support an entire platform that I disagree with chunks of in order to oppose a platform I disagree with more. That lack of granularity/platform based voting would still exist if we suddenly had 6 parties, but it would be lessened since I would have more chances to pick one I line up with better.

    Edit: and FFS no one tell me to write congresspeople. I’ve never voted for any of them, the things I would write about most would cost them votes to comply with and they know it. So they don’t give a shit what I think, I’m not their demo.

  12. 100% want a system more similar to a proportional parliament. Though I’d want some modification to prevent gridlock like Argentina’s primary system or Armenia’s majority bonus system. I don’t want a Belgium-style over a year to negotiate a government, or a Sweden situation where there’s two basically equal blocks that only rule by 1-3 seats.

  13. There are oodles of disadvantages to a two-party systemthat I’m sure people will mention. However, we often ignore that there are some advantages, too. One of the traditional advantages of a two-party system is stablity– it’s really hard to implement radical policies (at least in many large populations) because the two parties (a) have to attract larger coalitions with somewhat divergent ideas, and (b) have to work with each other. It makes it harder for factions to form and take control, and thus for insurrections to take place.

    Madison talked about this in Federalist No. 10 (though he wasn’t thinking about a two-party system but rather a republican form of government):

    [https://thefederalistpapers.org/federalist-papers/federalist-paper-10-the-utility-of-the-union-as-a-safeguard-against-domestic-faction-and-insurrection-continued](https://thefederalistpapers.org/federalist-papers/federalist-paper-10-the-utility-of-the-union-as-a-safeguard-against-domestic-faction-and-insurrection-continued)

    As a result, we’ve had one of the most, if not the most, stable democracies over the past nearly 250 years. Progress is slow and incremental, without the need for serious rebellion.

    The problem, of course, is that this stifles ideas from the fringes and reinforces power in the hands of the already powerful. And when a *faction* controls voting processes to keep minority power, it’s a triply-big problem, because there aren’t enough ways to unseat the majority-minority government.

    So, yeah, it’s time for some electorial reform. But focusing on ensuring popular representation (and preventing gerrymandering) is probably the first start. Ranked-choice voting, which will help third-parties, is another option. But I don’t think I’d go for more serious reforms, like multi-member, proportionally represented districts, or voting for parties rather than individuals, or similar reforms.

  14. I understand why people dislike the idea, but honestly I prefer it. Parliamentary countries that have dozens of parties still have to form coalitions in order to form a government. We essentially are voting for *coalitions* rather than parties. Sure I don’t agree with everything that the Democratic Party stands for, but I know what I’m voting for if I cast my vote for them. I’m not casting a vote for the Greens and then getting upset that they are compromising on *everything* to try and help Labour govern. That’s what happens when we have primaries and then a general election, and I accept that when casting a vote.

    Our parties are essentially a “right coalition” and a “left coalition” – the Republican Party isn’t *just* one party, it would probably be best described as three or four. Same with the Democratic Party.

  15. I think we need more parties, because 2 parties is getting excessive! There should be at least like 5 or 6 parties that can get a say in politics.

  16. Define bipartisan, are you talking about the polarization, or the two party system?

    I am fine with their being oppositional parties

    I am very not fine with the trend of these parties becoming identities, and the nightmare that comes with that

    I would greatly prefer a multiparty system

  17. There are already multiple wings inside each party that vie for control of the party in primary elections. I’m not sure how much of a difference it would make.

  18. I’m fine with there being two parties at the time of election. I’m not fine with the core of the individual parties having so much power that the caucuses other than the core have little to no power.

  19. Do you mean do we want more parties? I’d be happy with that, but I’m not sure how well that’d work in our system.

    If you mean do we want only one party, I think most Americans will agree: Not only no but hell no.

  20. I don’t want a single party state, but I sure as hell don’t want Republicans in charge of anything.

  21. Minnesota has the DFL (Democratic farm labor) party that is in control right now, it’s different to the democrats. They’ve gotten so much shit done this year and I’d love to see them get bigger!

  22. we need more parties in power. i am sick of the republicans. i think that entire party needs to be put in the trash. everything that comes out of that party is pure hot evil dog shit. it’s like “how can we make everything 10000x worse for americans?” that’s their policy.
    i am sick of the democrats. they don’t do jack shit. they lie through their teeth. they tell you they are gonna do one thing and then do the opposite and when the republicans do something awful they are like “yeah whatever… who cares if this is gonna cause ppl to die at least i get my paycheck at the end of the week.”

    I think we need a government overhaul. complete redo. start new parties and more than just 2. george washington is rolling in his grave watching the state of this country. he did not want the 2 party system. just start over. what we have clearly is not working.

  23. I’d like to see more real parties. Not fringe stuff but parties with an appealing platform. The two parties we have are both owned and managed by corporate America and do little other than play a 30 year game of Gotcha! Meanwhile, we, the people, are neglected and left behind. With more parties attracting votes, I believe the two existing parties would be forced to compromise and to actually do something good for America to retain their support.

  24. I want the system to be reformed in such a way that there is a viable 3rd party so that the two larger parties can compromise. I do not believe a true mult party system found in other countries can effectively govern Americans because of our history and culture. But the status quo is untenable — no one can deny that. Also, I believe gerrymandering should be ruled unconstitutional.

  25. I’d prefer a back and forth between a left and center-left party rather than whatever the hell republicans are.

  30. I would prefer a more parliamentary system where there are various parties that have to work in coalition with each other to form a majority.

    I wouldn’t want one party. Even if it was my own party!

  31. I spent my whole life wishing we had a multi-party system. As I get older, though, I start to wonder if the two-party system has been a rather stabilizing force *so far* in American history. It has – again, *so far*, and unfortunately this seems to be slipping – generally kept our government locked into moderate politics and ostracized the political wings, for better or for worse.

    I compare this to contemporary multi-party democracies, in which so often the winning party has to form coalitions with actual crazies in order to form a government, and that’s stupid. It’s absurd to me that some radical nationalist party that won 5-10% gets to be in the government because the conservative party that won 25% of the vote needs the extra nudge. Now that’s an extreme example, but the point stands I think.

    Of course as I’ve alluded to, we’re seeing the rise of radical populism here as well, but I suspect we will ultimately have an easier time excising that than the Europeans. And there are many reasons for that beyond just the electoral system. But our electoral system does create incentives for both parties to drift towards the center of wherever the Overton Window is at any given point in time.

    So all of this is to say that, yes, more diverse viewpoints are obviously represented in a multi-party democracy. My question is whether that is necessarily desirable. And that’s a question of values, one isn’t objectively better.

    Additionally, I don’t really see any structural advantages to either system. Both can suffer from crippling gridlock, and neither seems to really do much better or worse in this respect, they just come out in different forms. Like in a two-party system you might get obstructionism from the opposition party, while in a multi-party system you might have a long-term failure to even form a government at all.

    On the whole, I may sound arrogant when I say this, but America has – with the great and terrible exception of the Civil War – enjoyed 250 years of general stability and prosperity. What we need to focus on is how to make sure that gets maintained and that everyone can have a piece of the pie. I don’t see why the two-party system stands in the way of that and I don’t see pressing any reason to abandon it.

    Now, reforms to make our electoral system more accessible, accountable, and fair? That is absolutely a conversation we should have.

  32. I would rather these political parties have much less power than what they already do. These parties I feel are more about beating the other party than actually helping the people

  33. I’d *personally* prefer if it were more left wing but it also isn’t and I don’t think it’s my place to be dictator.

  34. If it is between the current incarnation of both political parties, then I would rather have Democrats in control. I do not align with 99% of what the current Republican party seems to stand for. I believe the Republicans are focused primarily on social issues rather than actual policy. I am sick of hearing the word ‘woke’ being tossed around. The culture wars are a complete waste of time and do not do anything to enrich people’s lives.

  35. We should never have become a two party system. We need ranked choice voting, approval voting, or proportional representation. We need an end to gerrymandering. We need campaign finance reform.

  36. A lot of people here don’t understand why the US only has two main parties. That’s because they don’t understand Duverger’s law, which states that two parties are a natural result of a winner-take-all voting system. We have a winner take all voting system. As such, nuanced parties with views that lean too heavily into one side of the political spectrum are unlikely to win. You have to appeal to the median voter in order to win in the US, and that won’t be achieved if you’re in the Green Party or libertarian party.

  38. The whole system is so limiting. I’d be up for a system that does away with parties entirely and only runs independent candidates, but I doubt it’d ever happen. Any kind of change like that means a lot of rich people are going to be slightly less rich…

  39. I think the two parties are both drifting far on the fringes. I wouldn’t mind something more in the middle. I know people make fun of enlightened centrists, but the idea that we can only have what either parry are running on right now is ridiculous. Politics in the US has become far too polarized

  40. I want this to change. I want to move away from a 2 party system and let other parties have a chance to run things for a bit. Americas political stagnation is a big part of the problem nowadays.

  41. I’d love to see the rhetoric cool off, but honestly social media has ruined that. (I believe social media turns everyone into influencers, and the only way to get noticed as an influencer is to be a jackass.)

    But no; I’m happy with political discord: it means things take their time and we seek compromises rather than “perfect” one-sided solutions. Compromises may be imperfect, but the alternative: a small clique of people controlling everything–that would be so much worse.

  42. No, I voted for one party based on their platform. Why would I want to dilute it or have them bend over backwards to reach out to the party that stands in opposition to what I want done?

  44. I’d prefer proportional representation. I know we’d still have coalitions, but I feel like it would moderate our politics quite a bit. Like, nobody would want to be aligned with the most radical groups/parties, but our current 2-party system kind of forces each party to align with at least some of them.

    I could also see something like Democrats agreeing to cut government waste to attract libertarians (who aren’t universally conservative leaning), or Republicans agreeing to some environmental restrictions to attract Greens.

    Mostly I just think that a system that necessitates compromise is something we could really use right now.

  45. the US needs to be multiparty. I think most of us can agree that the bipartisanism of this country is causing more problems everyday.

  47. The issue with American politics isn’t bipartisanism, it’s cancel culture and the complete inability to compromise on any level that’s the issue.

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