How Many Political Parties ….

How many political parties are too many? Why does the US only have two that are allowed on some of the major stages?

When WWI ended and Germany was run under the Weimar Republic at one point there were approximately 22 political parties (https://www.facinghistory.org/weimar-republic-fragility-democracy/readings/weimar-political-parties) They were having trouble with the fact that there so many that there were too many and so there was no way to get a majority for one to be able to take care of the people. We have seen the problems that it caused.

One of the problems is that the current political parties often don’t want to do the job that they are paid to do. Right now, there are two major parties the Democrats and the Republicans but that isn’t the end of it. There are those there who want to run as Independents, and they should be allowed to run but the two major parties have made it difficult to do so. To get on the major debates a person who is running as an Independent must have a minimum of 11 to 13% on the polls and a lot of money (https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/279624-third-party-candidates-face-uphill-climb-to-get-place-on-presidential)

So right now, we have both Democratic and Republican parties that get on the debate stage but when you look at the ballot there are other people that we haven’t heard. So, we basically are stuck with a system that was started in the 1850’s. (https://www.britannica.com/place/United-States/Political-parties)

If we want to have change in the way that our government then we need to work at it. Writing a blog series, writing to your congress person, get to know that person and what they stand for. Go to town meetings, get involved. There are many things that you can do if you want to … the choice is yours on what you can do and chose to do.