I feel overwhelmed with political parties. They are on the evening news, the Sunday talks, the blogs... There is a constant din about good strategy, bad tactics, financing, framing, etc. The public, according to Gallup, has either "a great deal or quite a lot" of confidence in the three branches like this: Presidency 33%, SCOTUS 40%, and Congress 19%. Are they really talking more about parties than the three branches? Don't parties dominate all three, even SCOTUS? I suppose that parties were good for something in the early days, but I don't think they are making a net positive contribution to America. Am I wrong? What good are they?