re: #276 Big Beautiful Door

Multiparty is desireable because our political system has polarized into two enemy camps creating gridlock in Congress. If the two parties are broken up, Congress will no longer be divided into “us” and “them” and hopefully the arts of compromise and deal making will return. The Constitution doesn’t require first-past-the-post district elections, but introducing proportional representation would be hard because the two parties will be implacably opposed, and its foreign to us. But its not unconstitutional.

For most of our history, the two-party system actually worked to create compromise legislation and deal cutting. Even during the Reagan years, and even Clinton and to a lesser extent Bush II, there were still deals cut and effective compromises made.

To be blunt, what happened was that the power and benefits started to spread beyond white men. As long as it was white guys making deals with white guys for the benefit of white guys, it was generally civil. But when women and minorities started gaining power and asking for a share of benefits, it all went to hell. Not because the women and blacks weren’t civil. No, it was the white men who threw tantrums and started things like shutting down the government, Impeachment as an electoral do-over, Congressional investigations as an electoral tool, and eventually the simple refusal to move anything at all. This is practically all driven by the desire to preserve white male power and privilege.

So, honestly, the problem isn’t that polarization is inevitable with two parties. It’s that polarization is inevitable when the dominant group is asked to share power and privilege.