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Disclaimer: *sigh* This started as more of an attempt to figure out why a two-party system exists and how to change it without a total revamping of the gov, but dissolved into a rant about crappy negative politics while I composed it. If it feels disjointed, I’m sorry. Please bear with and offer insights on either or both problems.
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I hear it all too often, esp around here. Lots of people (US and otherwise) resent the fact that we have a two-party system, and it’s broken, and we need a parliamentary system like Europeans, etc, etc, etc.

The fact is, yes, the system has a tendency to cater to two parties. Most of this, IMO, is because modern Americans have a tendency to vote AGAINST a candidate as often as they tend to vote FOR a candidate.

For prime examples of this, you can look to the 2008 Campaign, where McCain is dubbed “McSame…” A vote for him is a vote for GWB Part II: Electric Boogaloo. Or the flip side, where Obama is a “Sekrit Mooselim” and a vote for him is a vote to deliver us to the evil communist UN forces, and to create laws mandating we all turn gay and get abortions. Or have a gay abortion. Or whatever. You get the point. Or even better, look to the 2004 campaign; “I’m not Bush” was a plank in Kerry’s platform. (A more local example in the 2006 Cali governor’s race: The whole platform of Phil Angelides was “Governator likes Bush. I hate him. If you hate Bush, Vote for me.”)

Take it a step further. Go to The Democratic Party’s Official website and look at the front of it. McCain is featured in 10 articles, Palin in one. Obama 3, Biden 1. Of the four, two directly dealt with the DNC, and one was simply a pic with a link to BarackObama.com… the 4th a link to the Obama commercial from the Olympics. Over double the exposure on the Dem party’s main page is dedicated to the opposition.

Now go to the Republican website. Obama and/or Biden: 8 mentions, including a rather childish ticker “Time since Biden’s last gaffe!” McCain/Palin? Two.

I personally want to place the blame of the above squarely on the shoulders of the American public. They LOVE the dirt. Not just political dirt, any kind of dirt will do. Look no further than your local “town gossip,” or on a more relevant level, places like TMZ, Perez Hilton, etc. I personally believe that the political parties have developed this tactic simply to give the public what it wants. They ALSO believe that a vote for [$3rd party candidate] is a vote for [$Party you don’t want to win]. See: Perot, 1992 and Nader, 2000 for examples of the bitterness that comes about when a 3rd party receives votes in quantities significant enough that an election’s outcome might have been altered. 3rd parties, combined with the negative campaigning of the big two, have perpetuated the two-party system much longer than it should have gone.

Coincidentally, 1992 should prove to anyone that a successful third-party candidacy is possible. Remember, at one point Perot actually was leading in opinion polls, before he temporarily dropped out of the election… and he actually came in second place in two states’ ballots (beating out Bush in Maine, and beating Clinton in Utah). He was the most successful 3rd party candidate in nearly a century, and managed all that AFTER the debacle where he dropped out and re-entered.

I believe this can happen again, but the American MINDSET, not the system, must change.