Good morning Terry;

Much of what you say is true. We do have more than two political parties. Here is a list for your amusement and mine:

Democratic
Republican
American First Party
American Party
American Heritage Party
American Independent Party
American Nazi Party (you must wear your arm band)
American Patriot Party
American Reform Party
Christian Falangist Party of America
Communist Party USA
Constitution Party
Constitutional Action Party
Constitutional Party
Democratic Socialists of America
Family Values Party
Freedom Socialist Party/Radical Women
Grassroots Party
Green Party
Green Party USA
Independence Party
Independent American Party
Knights Party
Labor Party
Libertarian Party
Libertarian National Socialists Party
Light Party
Multi Capitalist Party
Natural Law Party
New Party
Pansexual Peace Party
Peace and Freedom Party
Pot Party
Progressive Labor Party
Prohibition Party
Reform Party
Revolutionary Communist Party
Social Democrats
Socialist Party
Socialist Action
Socialist Equality Party
Socialist Labor Party
Socialist Workers Party
Southern Party
Southern Independence Party
The Third Party
The Revolution
U.S. Marijuana Party
Veterans Party of America
We The People Party
Workers Party USA
Workers World Party
World Socialists Party of the USA

As you can see we have more than two parties. Two important words appear in this list and those are “American”, and “Party”. Anything American is good. Some people love to party. Of course we are narrow-minded when it comes to using the word “American”. We exclude all the rest of North, South and Central America, including the Caribbean.

On occasion we have been known to elect someone to a position in congress from one of “the other parties”. As you said we in fact have two parties. More than a few citizens of our nation are not satisfied with our system so they start his/her own party. It has to do with our Protestant roots. If you do not like the message start your own political party.

There was a time before the Clinton years when our political parties worked together. Since then it seems that our politicians are at odds with some basic ideology and that takes preference over everything else. Things are a bit sick in my opinion.

Ours is less than a perfect political system. In fact it is frustrating at times to realize how our country is run. To pass a bill as an example that would cost say one billion dollars, the person who introduced the bill has to gain support. What happens is there will be perhaps 50 additional riders placed on the original bill, which bring the cost to place the bill into law say one hundred billion dollars. It has many names – log rolling being one of them. You scratch my back and I will scratch yours. Who wins? Why the politicians! Some politicians from small states have a great deal of power and know how to play the game.

Speaking of game, politics can be likened to a game regardless of the system. It is important to not take anything too seriously as you have no true voice and once a politician is elected to office they soon forget every promise they made. When it is time for reelection politicians suddenly appear out of his/her cave and again make promises that cater to the majority of possible voters.

I call my right to vote my “passive right to revolution”. I take my best shot in the voting booth and pray that we and the rest of the world somehow survive. As we saw during the last presidiential election we registered voters have the right to vote but do not have the right to have our votes counted.

Historically, we have had the names of voters long deceased who voted along with people that would vote more than once. That was a favorite way to win an election in Texas some years ago. You would have more votes cast than there were living persons. A famous cry from Chicago politics was, “Vote early and vote often”!

On occasion we have had Presidents who have actually tried to do what was best for the majority of our citizens. I note that not everyone agrees with what is best so we have been known to loose Presidents such as JFK. Who needs to vote when we have the NRA?

Where is Mark Twain when we need him!

Tom