All over the news flashed the latest reports on who was winning what state. The date was November 4th 2012; the latest presidential election was taking place. On all the news station from CNN to Fox speculation was taking place over who would come out on top. White maps of the United States being colored in red and blue hovered around every screen. The two main candidates were Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. Everyone was talking about these two men and their political parties, Barack Obama was the Democratic candidate and the Republican candidate was Mitt Romney. However no one ever talked about the other candidates and their parties.

Our current political system is a two party system. The two main parties which are heavily represented in our political system are the Democrats and Republicans. However there are many other political parties which are not represented in our government. Some of these parties and there presidential candidates were Stephen Rollins for the Independent party, Stewart Alexander for the Socialist party and Buddy Roemer for the Reform party. There are numerous other parties in our country whose candidates were not represented let alone considered by the majority of the American voting population. The Democrats and Republicans have done a few great things for our country over the years which can be seen in such eras as the one with our 36th president Lyndon B. Johnson and the “great society”.

President Johnson was a democrat who during his presidency signed into law many different social programs which were supposed to be beneficial to the American people. Some laws which Johnson passed and approved of where the civil rights act of 1964, the voting rights act of 1965 and the economic opportunity act of 1964 he also signed many other acts into law under his presidency. The period of the Great society was one point in history in which the two party systems worked and a spirit of comradely was present among the Democratic and Republican parties.

Currently however our two party congresses is very inefficient and has done pretty much nothing to benefit our country. Due to their inactivity they are being referred to as the “Club med” congress since they have left such important issues hanging while they have gone on their numerous breaks while in office. Our current congress has passed a minute 60 laws, taken numerous breaks, forced a full economic shutdown of the government and caused the threat of numerous other shutdowns to occur.

The inability of congress to pass acts into law is from the two party systems. Having only two dominate political parties’ causes bipartisanship (a compromise for both sides to agree on the new policy in question) to have to be used. Bipartisanship can be a good and useful tool but if the congress is too divided than the effectiveness of working together tends to fall apart. This has happened in the past with such administrations as the Clinton and Bush II administrations and is happening now under the current Obama administration.

As Abraham Lincoln one of our nation’s greatest presidents who served in office during a time in which the nation was divided once said “A house divided against itself cannot stand” This is exactly what is happening right now. The only reason that the government has essentially stalled is because of the way our political system is run and the scarcity of opinions and ideas which are present in it. If the government were to become more intertwined with other political parties then bridging the gap between different political ideologies will be much easier. This is because there will be a new plethora of ideas which will cause high ranking officials to realize that compromising is a valid and sufficient option.

Looking back now on that night in November where the future of our country was being decided by the voting population of the nation I wonder. What would the country be like if we were to be more accepting of other political parties and political ideologies? Most likely it would be very different and I hope that by the time the election of 2016 takes place our country will be more accepting new political opinions.