The two party system

These days it is popular to bash the “two party system.” Nothing about Republicans or Democrats appears in the Constitution and when and when you look at the frauds and losers who currently comprise the leadership of the two dominate party here in Delaware it is not hard to fall into the trap that the system is broken. But is it?

While the detractors are correct, the phrase two party system does appear in the constitution, it a does appear in American history from the days just after Cornwallis surrendered in Yorktown.

The two party system is part of our political DNA because it is derived from the British legal system. The British system in which a prosecutor faces off against a defendant through argumentation, the bringing of witness and answering clearly proscribed questions of law through open debate is a two part system. Even the vocabulary of the courts underscores their belief that the arguments of two opposing parties can uncover the “truth” in a legal sense.

Imagine a clearly innocent man on trial. Would the truth be able to battle its way out of a courtroom contained one prosecutor and four unaffiliated attorneys working for his defense? What if those defense attorneys all had a slightly different approach to proving the innocence of their client. Wouldn’t an unscrupulous prosecutor be able to exploit those minor differences to his own ends?

Of course he would – and he has. That prosecutor is the GOP and they have exploited the minor differences among liberals. They have gamed the court of public opinion and sold the country on going to war foolishly, allowed rich people to escape paying their fair share for the country’s upkeep and allowed the President to accrue kinglike powers.

If the two party system is sick the cure is not more parties. The cure is better and more debate – and by debate I mean primaries. I’ll get more into what liberals should be doing in lieu of wasting their time and energy in third parties in a follow up post.