Friday, January 20, 2006

Illusion Vs Reality:Democrats&Republicans

Illusion: The Republicans and Democrats are opposition parties.

Reality: Republicans and Democrats are two sides of the same coin. Look at their votes on key issues like the Bush tax cuts and the vote for the war in Iraq. If elected, John Kerry would've stayed in Iraq. The electoral process in America is one big scam. Millions of Americans were givens only two choices during the 2004 election. If the two candidates are almost identical on key issues, how many choices does the American voter really have?

What type of system are we living under in America?

Wikipedia calls it a "Dominant Party System".

Let's look at what wikipedia has to say:

A dominant-party system, or one party dominant system, is a party system where only one political party can realistically become the government, by itself or in a coalition government. While opposition parties are legally allowed to operate, they are considered too weak or ineffective to seriously take power. In contrast to single-party systems, which tend to be authoritarian, dominant-party systems can occur within a context of a democratic system. Dominant-party systems have been criticized because corruption and insensitivity to public demands tend to arise for lack of an effective opposition.

A further distinction from a single-party system is that under the latter, other parties cannot compete to become the government because they are banned. Dominant-party systems exist only in states where other political parties are tolerated, but do not receive enough votes to have a realistic chance of winning. However, in some dominant-party systems, opposition parties are subject to varying degrees of official harassment and most often deal with rules and electoral systems designed to put them at a disadvantage or in some cases outright electoral fraud.

On the other hand, some dominant-party system occur in countries that are widely seen, both by their citizens and outside observers, to be textbook examples of democracy. The reasons why a dominant-party system may form in such a country are often debated: Supporters of the dominant party tend to argue that their party is simply doing a good job in government and the opposition continuously proposes unrealistic or unpopular changes, while supporters of the opposition tend to argue that the electoral system disfavors them (for example because it is based on the principle of first past the post), or that the dominant party receives a disproportionate amount of funding from various sources and is therefore able to mount more persuasive campaigns.

It's not that the opposition is ineffective. The opposition is never given a fair chance because the two major parties of our system makes laws that favors them and keeps the other political parties out. Keep in mind that these two parties are almost identical and should be viewed as two sides of the same coin. Americans are given the illusion of choice but in reality there's only one party in America.

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