Forget a Third Party, America Needs to Adopt a No-Party System

Polls suggests that voters don't like the way the Republicans are running the country, but don't believe that Democrats have any answers or can do terribly much better. While I personally disagree-I don't think it's humanly possible to run a country any worse than the GOP has done this millennium-it does point to a specific problem with the way our government conducts itself.

We pride ourselves on being a two party system. Never mind the fact that the difference between Democrats and Republicans are far less than between most parties of European countries. In countries like France, Germany, and Italy, you really do have a choice. You actually have liberals running against conservatives instead of the moderate conservatives running against slightly more radical conservatives we have in America. In a European country, a socialist can actually get elected. For that matter so can a fascist. They have real choice there. Here, well, not so much.

Americans love to point to totalitarian countries and compare ourselves. They have only one party and you have to choose from that, they say. We have two. We have choice. Aside from the fact that it's a misleading choice, our system is rife with another problem that is increasingly making our so-called two party system the problem and not the answer to our difficulties.

I hereby suggest that we become a no-party system. In other words, we do away with labels such as Republican or Democrat or Libertarian or Socialist or whatever. Imagine if people actually had to investigate what a candidate was saying rather than simply looking to make sure they had a little "R" or "D" next to their name. Imagine a country in which candidates had to raise money based on their own ability to raise funds rather than benefiting from the huge party coffers. Honestly now, would you know what the average politician believes in if you didn't immediately notice his party affiliation when he is interviewed?