Marc on Power to the People

Oddly enough, after the election, the headlines all said that the democrats were busy blaming each other for the loss of Ted Kennedy's seat to the Republicans. Why were they blaming each other?? If I'm not mistaken about how this democracy thing works, the PEOPLE of Massachusetts made their choice. If the dems are going to be mad at somebody, then they should be mad at the citizens of MA.

The implications are significant to our government because of our two-party system. To be honest, I'm not thrilled with the two-party system at the moment. I know that in the end it's a great system, because it usually guarantees that we will at least continue to function as a government. Other countries with 29 parties and 15 different coalitions of those parties have a hard time accomplishing anything; it is damn near impossible to get a majority for anything.

My problem with it is that if neither of the two parties fits with your own views or beliefs, you're left with no voice. And right now I feel that the two parties are being pushed to opposite extremes by the radicals within each one. It sucks.

Another huge problem with the two-party system was highlighted after the MA election results were announced: the parties actually do all that they can to make sure the OTHER party fails. As soon as the results came out I noticed the scores of posts on Facebook from Republicans doing virtual celebration dances at the prospect of failing health care reform. I'd like to believe that they all were celebrating purely based on the health care reform bill, but the fact is that they were celebrating because Obama and the Democrats were going to fail.

Neither side is innocent. While GW Bush was in office every Democrat in the country was hoping that he would fail. The thought of anything looking like a victory for Bush was more than they could stomach. The "poster issue" then was the Iraq war. Now things are simply reversed. Too many Republicans don't care about issues any more. They only want Obama to fail. And health care is the new "poster issue".

So we now have a situation where the two parties are no longer working together as a single government. They are more like opposing soccer clubs screaming at each other and getting in brawls at the local bars after the game.

I love that we can vote and our votes count. But I don't like the fact that at any given time half (or a little less) is hoping that the other will fail.