What to do about a do-nothing congress focused on its own political pissing contest while the nation deteriorates into a disfunctional impoverished third world country with no middle class?...Give a big majority to one party?...Get rid of one party completely and forever and have a one party system?...
My take on the problem of a politics-only congress is that we have too few political parties. Why would we possibly want more parties when with just two we are already in such a mess? Wouldn't more parties just make it even worse and harder to get anything done?
A recent WaPo poll found that US citizens are really turned off by the congress doing nothing for the country and everything for themselves. The business of congress has now become only politics.
Two-thirds of Americans are "dissatisfied" or downright "angry" about the way the federal government is working, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. On average, the public estimates that 53 cents of every tax dollar they send to Washington is "wasted."
When things come to a ridiculous stalemate the action that many voters take is to vote against the majority party, even if they disagree with the opposition's position on the issues. In frustration some people vote against their own interests "just to get out of the box." Since we only have two viable parties we only swing back and forth between two poles. That just keeps both parties in power and the voters out of power. We are trapped in this game of political "keep away."
Having three parties, and more might even be better, there would be at least one political party in congress that could hold the balance of power and broker deals. That would be in the third party's own interest and could move legislation forward rather than keep it stuck.
We need more political parties that truly represent the diverse points of view of the American people, not fewer. We need more parties, not one weak one and one strong one...regardless of which is the stronger. Maybe what needs to be done at this point is to abandon both parties and form new ones more receptive to the needs of the people and not just the moneyed special interest groups. That seems to be what the Tea Party is trying to do. Though their goals seem irrational and misguided their anger is an attempt to break out of the stalemate box.
To continue with just two unresponsive parties it a special kind of mass collective neurosis.