I found the ending chapter's discussion of America's two party system and the analogy of an American's political party to his/her baseball team to be interesting.
"Although political parties are not mentioned in the constitution, the belief that there should be two and only two of them has achieved quasi-constitutional status - that is, an arrangement with which it is unwise to tamper - in the eyes of many voters" (p. 335). I find this a fascinating idea and one to be true. I even had to admit to myself that my initial thought of a "new" party or less known party being thrown into our election process was that of it replacing one of the two currently playing the game, not being in addition to.
I was shocked at how difficult it is for a third party candidate to get onto the ballot in most states. Where is democracy? Why is it not the same process for all parties?
Being in the age of television and the Internet, a third party candidate needs to utilize the media in order to gain popularity. And honestly, I think it could be done if a third party candidate had enough fame to gain attention.
However, the most famous of our current third party presidential candidates, Roseanne Barr, is not exactly what I think Friedman and Mandelbaum have in mind!
No comments:
Post a Comment