Is Civil Unrest the New Norm?

I agree with everything except the “two-party system” part. I think its been hijacked by bankers (the FED and the giants) as well as larger corporate interests (GE et al). I’d like to hear your take on why you consider the two-party system to be the problem, and how you believe the two parties have hijacked the system. My take is that there is room for libertarians and maybe a fourth party but if you add more than that you simply flood the system and achieve nothing but gridlock. With 2 parties, one party always has a majority; it’s never exactly even, so someone gets their agenda through, though they have to compromise a bit.

I agree that the two party system is completely bought off, and it's telling to note how these "donors" grease both the Republicans and the Democrats.

I think the whole Republican vs. Democrat thing is pretty much a charade put on for public consumption. In reality there's only one party, and it's the "green" party, and I don't mean "green" in the environmental sense.

A third party is desperately needed but can it get enough traction, that's the problem. I think the gerrymandering is a factor in this. There's also the issue that some people will vote R or D no matter what, and an Independent voter might feel as if a third party vote would be a waste of his vote since the candidate wouldn't get elected anyway.

Are they right to think that? I say no, I vote my conscience, chance of winning or not, but others don't.

Remember they told Republicans that Perot was the reason for Clinton, and they told Democrats that Nadar was the reason for Bush.

reply to post by jlv70

I agree that the two party system is completely bought off, and it's telling to note how these "donors" grease both the Republicans and the Democrats. I think the whole Republican vs. Democrat thing is pretty much a charade put on for public consumption. In reality there's only one party, and it's the "green" party, and I don't mean "green" in the environmental sense.

If there were 10 parties right now, the people pulling the strings would still have their money in all of them; hedging their bets! With legitimate, meaningful and thorough campaign finance reform (like we’ve never seen) we can fix the 2-party-system IMO. Without it, we will fail regardless the number of parties.

A third party is desperately needed but can it get enough traction, that's the problem. I think the gerrymandering is a factor in this. There's also the issue that some people will vote R or D no matter what, and an Independent voter might feel as if a third party vote would be a waste of his vote since the candidate wouldn't get elected anyway.

If ever there was a time to introduce and achieve multiple parties, right after the 2012 elections seems appropriate. I predict one of two outcomes:

If republicans sweep it massively, we’ll see people in the country calm down and give it a try for a minute. However, if the new elects continue with business as usual, even for a short time, we’ll see another uprising even bigger than the current. All of the OWS’ers and Tea Partiers will finally join forces and it will get ugly. A third party (maybe 4th) will rise and the midterms will be a 3rd party massacre.

If the outcome is an Obama reelection, I think we’ll see conservative Tea Partiers (like me) go absolutely nuts! Nothing will change with an Obama second term, so OWS will still be in full effect. Third parties will rise! If we make it to a midterm, it will be a massacre!

This is an exciting and scary time to be an American; we could witness change on the scale of the American Revolution; we could witness a democratic transformation that blows us away; we could see the country destroyed.

No matter what, America as we know it will not be around much longer IMO.