I think that most people blindly follow the beliefs of their party.
I bet 80% of you that agree with the above statement agree because you think members of the opposite party are stupid, bull headed and blindly follow their party. They never listen to you. Right?
We waste way too much time pitting Democrats against Republicans and vice versa. And in reality both parties are so close to each other on the political spectrum that it makes our debates ridiculous. I mean look at the grand scheme of politics, the extreme right is some sort of dictatorship and the extreme left is some form of communism. Our Democratic and Republic parties (with capital letters of course) are right next to each other somewhere in the middle. And the members of those parties cross the lines quite a bit. I mean, how many Republicans do you know that are prochoice? And I know a few Democrats that are prolife. And that’s just one issue in the larger portfolio of war, terrorism, voting, and educational systems to name a few.
Yet an independent will never make it in our political system because they don’t have the financial backing of a party and all the votes a party can pull in.
I think debate is absolutely necessary. But a debate that only has two sides – the same two sides! – for the hundreds of issues that face us today is bound to reach some strange compromises. Compromises that we can’t afford.