what are the benefits of having two strong political parties and would a proportional system be better?

Answer 1

The benefit of having two strong parties is the clear distinction this provides. On major issues concerning life and death, right and wrong, good and evil there can be no gray areas. On less important issues there can be shades of gray.

Before one can select a party one must decide whether or not they wish this Government to adhere strictly to the Constitution which forbids the Federal Government from involving itself in areas not specifically specified by the Constitution or if one prefers the more European Socialist system where the central government provides many, many services resulting in the loss of a degree of liberty.

One must research the platforms and voting records as well as speeches and writings of major players in both parties and strictly avoid allowing one party define the other for you.
See for yourself what they say and what they do.

The current "winner take all" system provides the best accommodation for all States large and small, densely populated or sparsely populated. It provides protection to the minority by limiting the tyranny of the majority.

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Answer 2

There is no benefit - except for the two monopolistic, corrupt political parties. "Republicrats" are all the same; they simply create the illusion of distinction to misled a gullible and ignorant public.
If "conservatives" and "liberals" would look up definitions of the artificial labels they attach to themselves, they would be surprised to see how vaguely similar both political dogmas are; in fact, there's a little bit of "conservatism" and "liberalism" in most of us.
By keeping the hatred, bias, and bigotry fueled, the Republican and Democratic parties remain in total control of our archaic political system, offering voters no real choices of candidates with broad, varying spectrums of ideas and ideologies honed more toward 'the people's' interest instead of the interests of big government and the corporate elite.The political stranglehold remains in place, and nothing ever changes (except a Democratic do-nothing Congress is replaced by a Republican do-nothing Congress, etc., etc.).
I don't know what you mean by a 'proportional system' - but I believe we need another independent party to rise to prominence in this country before the "Republicrats" force our society to implode on itself. -RKO- 09/25/07

Answer 3

From my prospective we have only one strong political party with two wings. I am so sick of, Me too, but I can do it better policies in elected government. Hillery or Giuliani, what is with this picture? I know Hillery is almost a woman and so is Giuliani!