2 party system, democratic?

this have been bothering me since I started posting here, maybe its a stupid question but plz give me an intellegent response.

how the hell does the american 2 party system work?
can you form a new party if you wanted?
is it really a wide selection when the only to parties are both wright wing?

I'm not taking American Government until next year but from my current understanding the parties are NOT officialy recognizedl. People vote whoever they want, but since the Democrats and Republicans are the most well-known (and therefore the most well-funded and publicized) they will gain the most votes. It is hard to start a new party with the funds and publicity needed to compete with the two major players.

[Edited on 26-4-2004 by Cutwolf]

well i see your point but there are more than 2 parties here, they just dont have enough followers to get elected. we have communist parties, nazi parties, green parties, libertarians, they just dont have enough people to get elected

I would say you are mostly right. The problem is in the money not the people. If the people were all educated let alone inclined to be, you would see quite a bit of dissention from the "2 party system". The problem is that hardly anyone seems to care about the real issues. Only "my party says...."
I still find it hard to swallow how many "citizens" are registered as "Republican" or "Democrat". What ever happened to free thought?

okey, but I´m still confused, does that mean that all parties buts forward a candidate for the elections?
what would happen if for example a social democratic party won a lot of votes in 1 or 2 states?
can people from other states vote for them aswell?

You can vote for whoever you wish I voye Libertarian almost every year ( one year I did not like the candidate)

Don't fall prey to binary (right/left, 0/1) system of politics that becomes an addictive bias disease that pevents your reality from seeing truth. See my Political Bias Disease Epidemic thread for complete details.

If it's not democratic, then I'm glad. Democracy should be added to the list of forms of government to either limit or eliminate in this country.

It's a loathsome term in my house, and a filthy way to do business.

As to the parties, there is a wide array of political parties. I encourage you to explore them. At the very least they will aid in making choices for the party that suits you.

Don't get caught up in the "protest vote" lie, because that's what it is, aside from a mental midget's defense of the indefensible.

Im not happy with either...But..Id rather just have 2 different parties to arise for a little while.. here why Im thinking even tho I usually love the idea of three strong parties Ive come to accept two parties for the time being. Bush came in with something like a majority. OK fine. Now if his poll numbers are like less than a third now and that accuratly reflects how many people thats working out for than a three party system could result in a series of presidents who might never really have approval ratings above 33%, I mean they could but, not a statistatician, but I imagine theres a curve with a heavy middle so Im just saying government could be slowed down by a series of executives that all have trouble asimilating a popular majority

In Canada we have a similar system, we have a number of parties that run candidates for office.

The problem is that not every party runs a candidate in every riding that is up for grabs. I have no idea to the real numbers but say there are 300 seats available in the election
only 2 parties have candidates for each of the 300 seats making it seem like there are only 2 parties that can form a government. Meanwhile the Green party had 40 candidates, the Rhinos had 50 candidates etc. None of the smaller parties could officially form a government even with all their candidates being elected, again making it seem like a 2 party system when there were more parties represented.

A lot of voters will only vote for candidates that they recognize the party eg. Democrat, Republican, Liberal, Elephant, Rhino, whatever because they are not familiar with how the parties operate or how the system works. If more individuals got involved in the political system there would be a much wider group of candidates to vote for because more segments of the population would be represented.

better than 1 party..thought

2 party is good because of their power are unique.
they can keep us to choose more easier.