The End of the Two Party System?

This election cycle just keeps getting more and more interesting. Both parties seem at war with themselves and appear to be crumbling from within. Personally, I abhor the two party system. It perpetuates the problem in every election year of giving me the choice of voting for dumb or dumber.

I have to say that I was particularly surprised to see how acutely acrimonious this nominating process has been for the Democratic party. I guess I really shouldn't have been though with a Clinton in the race. Talk about dirty politics- we've seen it all - and the majority of the states haven't even had their primaries yet. It started with Hillary getting "teary" and playing the gender card. How many times can she mention she's a woman and making history in one sentence? I've lost count.
Then the democrats moved to quibbling over who did more for the Civil Rights movement in getting legislation passed - Lyndon Johnson or Martin Luther King, Jr? It is almost impossible to believe that this is even a legitmate conversation in the year 2008 - let alone even a question in the mind of any American.
We have had debates on unions ~ should culinary workers be able to vote at their place of work, which just happens to be a casino? Some citizens don't think so, and filed a class action lawsuit to stop the said culinary workers and others from doing so. (Strangely, no law suit was filed when the legislation was passed... only after the culinary workers union endorsed Barack Obama for President...)
Just the other night I watched Barck Obama and Hillary Clinton circle one another like two rabid dogs, both going for the oratory jugular. Can a party this divided against itself survive the primary season? Well... the answer is that it remains to be seen.

While the Republicans aren't as vicious in the personal attacks, they actually have much more to worry about, as far as the survival of their party. The Republican vote seems to be split into fours - McCain, Romney, Huckabee and Guiliani. You have political pundits like Rush Limbaugh on the attack against more moderate candidates like McCain and Huckabee 3 hours a day - 5 days a week. You have Tom Delay, a convicted criminal, claiming that if John McCain, a decorated war hero is nominated then Delay can not, in good conscience support him or the Republican party. I wasn't aware that Delay had a conscience. The rabid right simply refuses to acknowledge the fact that the American people may be ready to embrace a more moderate stance on so many issues that face our country. Apparently Rush Limbaugh and others have all forgotten the most important governing factor in our country:" All legitimate power comes from the consent of the governed."

You see, it is the AMERICAN PEOPLE who have influence, not Rush Limbaugh, not Bill Clinton or any other political pundit. In the end, we will decide what We the People really want for our country. In the end, we the people will decide what type of governing bodies we want and what our political parties will look like. We will determine whether the republican and democrat parties survive this nominating process. (I'm pretty sure that at least the Democrats will - anything but a Republican seems to be their primary mantra...)

This flawed two-party system is further sustained by the winner take all mentality in the majority of the states when alloting delegates for nominating conventions. More on that in my next entry.