Should we Ban Political Parties?

In the United States we have two extremely prominent political parties: Democrats, and Republicans.

From my own observations, I've seen that people will often vote for a candidate not on their policies, or views; but on their party, which seems to be counter productive to any progress.
I suggest that political parties be completely abolished, so people are forced to judge based on their policies rather than their party.

An interesting quote on the subject:

What are your opinions on this matter Sythe?

 

how about you just have more parties and have their representation be based on the votes gained.

we have this type of system in canada

 

We do have more parties, but the democrats and republicans are the only ones with any sway.

 

look at how canadian politics is run to know what I mean.

its not just that htere are more parties, its that there is a different form of representation.

"the 308 members of the lower house are directly elected by eligible voters in the Canadian populace, with each Member of Parliament representing a single electoral district, commonly referred to as a riding."

sorry, when i mean there are more parties, I mean there are more parties that you could realistically vote for.
america traditionally uses a two party system

 

You brought up America's only downfall.

They should be banned without a doubt, because no matter which way we choose we will still get some sort of major issue. And simply switching like we did from Bush to Obama doesn't get us anything. He where helpless and all we could do was bailout companies so they could continue to run and spend money we dont have.

With a split party you only get extremists to run for a presidential also, from what i can see. With a couple exceptions.

 

I didn't read any of this thread tbh lol, but where I work I hear people talking all the time I am republican so I vote for them and same with democrats.

Vote for the right person not the right party I mean dang...

 

That applies in the US as well.
Representatives are elected for every state, and I believe senators are as well but I don't remember. They all go in the House and do their thing.
The fact is there is no way to get enough demand up for any party other than Dem or Rep. The coalition system would work here if there were enough major parties for it.

 

Third parties have caused enough divide in a vote to impact elections (including national), but they have not won any national elections.
Edit: Unless you want to count Teddy Roosevelt.

Anyway, the founding father's didn't want to have a two-party system to form, but it did.

The two separate parties hold the views of a majority of people. It's always been like this, all the way back to the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists. Which in turn explains why there is generally a lack of support behind third parties. You do have some third parties rising up though, for example, the independent party.
The problem there seems to be with third parties is the fact that they can be quite extreme; even on polar opposite fields. Such parties as: The Green Party, or the Tea Party.

I don't believe the problem is within the dual-parties itself, but the ignorance of people. If people would actually research their candidate (what a concept) then maybe they'd have a better idea of whether they were actually a Republican, or an Democrat. People just often say they're one way or another (most-likely based on how they were raised since we seem nearly incapable of thinking for ourselves) and in turn vote that way.

They shouldn't be banned, people should just think before voting.

 

What I'm arguing is people would have more of an inclination to think before voting without the parties.

Can you actually list any benefits of parties?

 

If we ban political parties, we have to redo our whole political system. Can you say Anarchy?

 

The political system does not need parties to function.

 

I've always thought that they should get rid of the representation of "Democrat," "Republican," etc. while campaigning. As you said, people will vote for someone just because they're of a certain political party. It's wrong.

In school, we do a student body mini-election for the presidential election when there is one to see what the kids think. Obama won. Anyhow, when I was in the hall, I heard this:

"Hey! Who'd you vote for?"
"Romney."
"Why not Obama?"
"Because he's a democrat!"

 

The problem is in most country's with a parlimentary system, there is always two main party's who dominate the system and it will always be so as people are too set in their ways. In the UK there is the Conservatives and Labor, in the Us there is the Democrats and the Republicans e.t.c. It will always be one party or the other.

 

Well the whole political system in the United States is fucked up, so an obvious quick fix would be to ban political parties... But that wouldn't work because people will still be corrupt and find other ways to work the system in their favor just like they've done now..

The truth is, in this country, people don't vote for the candidate that they want. They don't have a chance to know who they want because all the other legitimate candidates are pushed to the back by the big two parties candidates and people are forced to choose the lesser of two evils..

But an even more realistic truth is that people's votes do not matter in this country. Even if the votes were counted and that whole part is legitimate, candidates who win the majority vote do not get office because of the electoral college system. Skipping all that though, do you really think people that have the means to decide elections don't play a part in the outcome? To think that is to put too much trust in people's ethics when they obviously don't hold to them in other situations. Not to mention most candidates, especially those running for a second term have the financial power to basically buy votes...

Bottom line, your typical voter is an uneducated baboon, but even more-so, an ignorant sheep.

 

couldnt say it any better then you did. You forgot the tea Party however.

 

The tea party isn't really a party, it's just an extreme faction of the republican party.

 

Absolutely, forget about them, I wish that they never existed, these parties are how former president bush, and former presidents like bush got elected, and a second time at that, because people look up the word "republican" or "democrat" in a dictionary, and pick which one sounds best, or which one has a cooler name, or a cooler representative animal, and people vote on that, not the values, if we did not have political parties, we would not have such a tremendous amount of debt, or at least not as much as we currently do.