Another major flaw of the two party system

Representative democracy has the potential to work well. But what happens when a broken two party system is all you are left with? Well, you don’t really have many options.

You know that saying “if you don’t like what your elected official is doing then vote them out?” Well that saying is malarkey (yes, I just referenced Joe Biden.) Why is this saying “malarkey” you may ask? Because we have a two party system that does not really leave you with choices.

For example, say your congressman is a Democrat who happens to be against medicinal marijuana. While most Democrats now support medicinal use of marijuana, some do not (cough, DWS.) Let’s also say this issue is very important to you because medicinal marijuana helps your disease or illness. Now let’s put the “vote them out” theory in to play. Since we have a two party system, this Democrat will be running against a Republican. And there are much more Republicans against any use of marijuana than Democrats. So you vote your Democrat congressman out and replace them with a conservative Republican. The odds are this person you just elected will not be advocating for medicinal use of marijuana.

The problem with the two party system is that you really are not left with many options at all. And if your a Democrat and have a Democrat congressman, you would much rather have a Democrat congressman you agree with more often than a Republican congressman who is the complete opposite of you.

Another major issue is the TPP. Yes, you can oust your representative because of their support of this trade deal, but since our system leaves us with only one other viable option, the candidate taking over may also support the TPP.

We need more voices because the two party system rigs elections so that you vote based on your fears, and often Plan B is not much prettier than Plan A.