You hear people, somewhere under the din of all the screaming that passes for political discourse, that we are still hampered by our two-party political system, that we need a third choice.
And there have been times when that seems logical but looking at the current political diorama, I can only conclude that we are in a sort of three party system right now.
The Republican Party is in a low ebb right now with only about 28- 34% of the population reporting themselves as being Republicans, according to national polls such as Gallup and others. The Democrats pull in about 10 % more voters on average, which, as the past presidential election revealed, is a significant difference. The remainder are independents with “leanings” that are split pretty much equally between the two parties.
So one would think that with this clear difference in political power, the majority party would have the last word in governing.
Alas, we have the Democratic Party which has chosen to become a two party system of its own. Instead of bonding together behind the issues that the electorate chose to support they have splintered and have given us, for all intent and purpose, a three party system. Republicans, Democrats and Blue Dogs, who have decided that the mandate of the electorate was ill-advised and that they, with some advice (and a little cash) from their amiable lobbyist pals, have better answers.
The result seems evident. Little will be accomplished. Because of the splintering of the Dems, the weakened Republicans are strengthened and emboldened and become even more of a barricade to any sort of legislative progress. It’s like a Three Stooges episode, where Moe is nailing up a board and while he turns to get the next, Curly pulls down the one Moe has nailed up and hands it to Larry who hands it to Moe, who turns and nails it up. On and on, with nothing getting done until Moe catches on and bangs Curly and Larry’s heads together.
Well, I’m watching and waiting for Moe to catch on…
Redtree Times 