>How about we do away with all political parties and just have a popular vote to decide who should hold any political office?

Considering political parties are not mandated anywhere, doing away with them would involve outlawing them - and of course that is a government restriction on free association, and an invitation to underground movements (which, granted, would have the advantage of reducing robo-calls).

Actually, I think they represent some primal need, an outlet for the True Believers and a way to entertain the illusion of meaning by being part of something larger without actually calling it a mob. <s> Thinking of the Blues and Greens in Byzantium circa 6th century. (cf Nika riots)


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>>But we do lack an official Raving Loony Party. To compensate both of our major parties have entire wings of raving loonies to which an aspirant must pander in order to become a candidate who must then appeal to a voter base not nearly as extreme but not necessarily less crazy. A strange system indeed.
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>>The Libertarians (or at least the most rational of them) could easily be a majority party on the strength of ideas. Unfortunately, politics is not about ideas, it is about telling people pretty much anything in order to get your hands on the levers of power. And of course first and foremost, for exactly that reason, the Libertarian philosophy is about restraining that power as much as possible so it can do the least damage. Rather a prototypical American concept, actually.
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