Today, the U.S. seems completely divided on political issues. People are split into mainly the Republican and Democratic parties, and most decide to stick to their party without giving much thought to other minority parties. Especially in the modern U.S., the two central party systems are much too strong, leading to conformity in American politics.
According to a Pew Research study conducted in 2022, “Nearly half of those ages 18 to 49 say they often wish there were more parties to choose from.” Today, many people, especially young voters, want to see the ideas of more than two parties. However, with the current system in place, countless ideas are shunned from public view simply because it’s hard to spread ideas from underrepresented groups. In fact, a third party has never won an election in the United States, further depicting the dominance of the two major parties.
Often, voters support the same political party year after year, regardless of their policies or the individual who is the presidential candidate. People tend to be biased against specific political parties and do not truly consider the opposing sides’ candidates or their policies. For example, if someone doesn’t like the democratic party, they may ignore all of the Republican candidates’ policies and ideas and choose not to vote for them solely because of their party. This pattern has been dividing Americans for years and will only continue unless voters vote for policies, not parties.
However, some may argue that having two central solid parties encourages competition between them, therefore creating better policies for the people. For example, if there is a year in which inflation increases a lot, people will want to see prices go down. Therefore, one party might promote a policy where prices decrease by five percent, but seeing that, the other candidate promises a decrease of seven percent instead. While these policies may seem great, they might not execute the proposed changes.
While it is true that competition could encourage the creation of better policies, other minority parties, like the Green Party, could have better policy proposals and better courses of action. Still, they won’t get any recognition simply due to their party’s name. In an October 2024 Bark survey, 53 percent of students believe that a more neutral political party should feature more unified ideals. However, this type of party doesn’t receive much public attention because the distinct Republican and Democratic parties dominate the system. Having a party system with many different political groups will push Americans to vote for the individuals running for office and their policies rather than solely the political party.
