What if we abolished political parties? (Congress, revolution, lobbyists, lobby)

[dpow]

I think the divide between conservatives and liberals has gotten completely out of control over the past couple of decades. I've always wondered if abolishing all of the political parties would allow the country to become more united. Imagine if all of the candidates were allowed to have their own personal views instead of being forced to follow all of their party's views. There would be more constructive conversations rather than having the two sides of the aisle constantly screaming at each other for having completely opposite views on every single issue.
For the sake of uniting everyone in the country, do you think the American citizens could ever rise up and start a political revolution to force the politicians to abolish all of the political parties?

[T0103E]

I'd prefer to let people make their own choices and remove politics from our lives as much as possible. All the fighting comes from different groups trying to impose things on each other instead of leaving each other alone.

[Fifty Seven]

I've often wondered about that myself and although I agree with the idea on its face I'm not sure how effective it would be or how constitutional it would be. A political party is a free association after all, but they've become so entrenched in to our political system that restricting them might fall under the category of restricting the government more than restricting the people. If we did get rid of them though we'd probably end up with political coalitions and factions that acted as political parties in all but name so I'm not sure things would be so different.


There are also electoral college implications. Too many candidates may result in nobody getting enough electoral votes to win, which would result in congress choosing our president or coalitions to be formed among the several candidates in order to create an electoral majority of their choosing. In either case the politicians would essentially be choosing the winner for us, which would significantly erode the checks and balances built in to our system.

[Vegabern]

Liberal and conservative are not parties. They're beliefs.

I think we need a system similar to the UK where there are several parties and rarely does one party hold a majority on it's own forcing parties to compromise and work with other parties.

But I agree with you in that I don't like party platforms. Let politicians set their own platforms and don't hold them to the company line.

[NeutralParty]

John Adams in 1780:


"There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties, each arranged under its leader, and concerting measures in opposition to each other. This, in my humble apprehension, is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our Constitution."

[notnamed]

The entirety of American politics is grouped in one small part of the political spectrum in right authoritarian. Yes, even the Democrats. Ridiculous that there is such a hatred out there over relatively minor differences.

[prospectheightsresident]

I don't support abolishing political parties as they serve as a baseline of sorts for those who are unable or unwilling to sufficiently investigate individual candidate positions. Yes, there is some variation and nothing is a sure thing, but odds are that, if you can get your party's nomination, you align with at least its core values.

[Timmyy]

I say we remove lobbyists.

[sholomar]

As a species we have herd mentality, which means we like to associate based on groups.. it's the reason we still have so many distinct cultures despite the media pounding a melting pot, everyone get along mentality in our faces for 30 years.

It's very unlikely such a system would work. Having more than 2 parties would be helpful, however... at least 4.. if you want to get rid of the system where the rich oligarchs have so much influence.

[AFP]

"What if we abolished political parties?"


Sounds like a fantastic idea, and while we're at it abolish political adds and lobbyists also.