What do you think about political parties?

[Jax Humanhater]

I share George Washington's view in that political parties are an obstruction to the political system and it is more based on agendas of personal/collective gain rather than the good of the country itself. Though, in the United States, Democrats and Republicans are the same party with a few differences. The Democratic Party discreetly supports corporatocracy while the Republicans openly support corporate greed policy.

 

[Miguel Gonzalez]

Today's parties are so far right or left common sense usually gets lost in the middle in favor of blind fanaticism. Two parties one agenda. As much as they sound different the policies that trickle out of both sides usually benefit one group and takes freedoms away from the average person.

 

[Terry Rock]

We basically need a three party system to get America moving again.
It'll never happen because the two major parties would never hear of it. I'll tell you why it would work....
First, in the current form when one party gets elected into office, the other immediately starts obstructing in an attempt to discredit in an attempt to win the next election. The gridlock means we get nothing done. At the next election, it starts all over again.
With a third party competing, they'd all have to concentrate on the issues and find solutions to show they were worthy of the vote. They'd also have to work harder and smarter to compete.

 

[Lee Knight]

We have a similar problem here in Oz with two major political parties....

To compound the issue we also have tied up in it all mandatory voting, 'Donkey' voting laws(which means if you write on the voting slip or it damaged in any way -besides the traditional 'Donkey Vote' filling it out by just numbering 1-to-xx or xx-to-1 up or down the slip- then it's counted as a vote to the incumbent party & the same goes as a 'conscious vote/conscientious objection vote', & to top it off the parties & candidates have the right to 'Preferential vote' which is saying "OK we don't have the votes each to take down candidate
X, but if I give you mine, you nail him & later you help me out" kind of thing....

We actually do have a constitution that limits the power of government & outlines it's responsibilities but it basically ignored now that the Governor General's (the True representative of our country's ruler, the Queen of England) position is merely that of Ribbon Cutter since being castrated of it's power to dissolve a government....

What ends up happenning is a country run by a bunch of backstabbers riding in on a wave of apathetic voting that comes about by a populace being inundated by the disaster enriched, always urgent & late-breaking propaganda reports commonly called News Updates every ten minutes.

Meanwhile the country gets raped of it's natural worth by the cheapest tender using cheap overseas labour & with imported & subsidized equipment to the highest (often foreign) investor, those that are at the top cut themselves a bigger slice & if there's a cost to any of it gets passed onto those that manage to find work & can't afford anything else other than to be paying taxes.

 

[Lee Knight]

Oh, what do I THINK of political parties?
...Sorry, I side tracked myself....
Get rid of them.
Those that are in or form government should be placed there by a direct vote FROM the people with NO preferential voting involved.
NO mandatory voting either, if less than say 66% of the voting populace fail to show for a vote then it means a new group of candidates are cast for.
The opposition is formed by those that came second in the election for each constituency & (for Australia at least) the Governor General AND the constitution are given their power & responsibilities back, fully restored as well as imposed on those that are elected...

It won't happen though as we'll just end-up as a banana republic in the 'greater southern province' of the Asian Economic Union....

Or has that already happened?

 

[Rhys Gardiner]

Australian politics as a whole is screwed up. I've only just turned voting age and have shut out politics for most of my life (sick and tired of the deluge in the media...), so I don't pretend to be completely well-informed.
But from what I have seen of parliament sessions, from what I have seen of interviews of politicians and the like, Aussie politics is less about running the country and more about tearing a hole in the opposition. Nothing but personal attacks and petty insults, like clique groups at high school. A complete joke!

I agree with Lee in that Australia should get rid of the two-party system and abolish mandatory voting. At the moment, for me at least, the next election will be a case of choosing the lesser of two evils. I hate both parties and their respective candidates equally, so why should I be forced to vote for one and continue to contribute to a political system that's making a mockery of my home?

 

[William Levesque]

Australian politics as a whole is screwed up. I've only just turned voting age and have shut out politics for most of my life (sick and tired of the deluge in the media...), so I don't pretend to be completely well-informed.
But from what I have seen of parliament sessions, from what I have seen of interviews of politicians and the like, Aussie politics is less about running the country and more about tearing a hole in the opposition. Nothing but personal attacks and petty insults, like clique groups at high school. A complete joke!

So it's the same as for Quebec's politicians eh ? (Can't say about Canada as a whole)

I'd vote for the guy, not the party, the problem is that they are all dickheads.