Color Our Country

By Al Horn

Show of hands, please. How many people voted in the last election, especially a primary election, for someone who was not in either of the two major political parties? How many voted for a Democrat or a Republican simply because they didn't like the other party's platform? You are not alone, simply disorganized.

Several countries in our world run with more than two strong political organizations. Most of them have bipartisan governments that work more in the interest of the people while serving their own agendas. Does that make their governments stronger than ours? Not necessarily. The question that we, the American people, should be asking: would a third (or fourth) political party strengthen our government?

Currently our government is run by a two-party system. Yes there are many political action groups that call themselves party's. The problem is they are so splintered in their beliefs that they have no recognizable strength. They appeal to small groups and in some cases are so radical in their thinking that people will shun a candidate because of the platform his party represents. As a consequence, many people turn to the two major players and find some way to identify with one and vote along those lines.

Major races have been won on state and local levels by outside parties. The trouble is that in most cases, they didn't represent any party. Minnesota elected a governor that ran as an independent. After the election, had he claimed affiliation with someone other that the 'big two', he may have helped to change the political landscape. It's a shame he didn't.

Right now, we have the two major players trying to claim credit for anything good in this country while trying to shift the blame to the other one for it's problems. In the past the Democrats and Republicans have been able to work together for the good of the country. Recently they have been becoming more polarized. Their agenda's have shifted so far apart that many things are viewed in terms of black or white. Each one wanting to claim they are wearing the white hats.

I think it's time we throw those hats in the dumpster and bring in a new set of colors. One party could wear aqua and the other orange. After that, lets organize a group to wear purple. A third party would open up our choices and would force politicians to work together.

If no one party holds a clear majority, then the only way things will get done is by compromise. Politicians would become more accountable for their actions if they had to rely on a voting record that was in the people's best interest. Voters would stop saying they voted for John Doe simply because he was not a member of the other party. We can stop sending bad politicians out to represent us because our only alternative was something we believed to be worse.

Something that would bolster this system would be to eliminate voting by a straight ticket. That would force voters to look at all of the candidates. Of course, if nobody goes to the polls, then it wouldn't make much difference. Voter turnout deserves it's own write-up. Sometime in the future I will attempt to address it. For now, let's think outside of the only two choices we are given.