Why are there only two pol. parties?

Question

I'm not from America and this is kind of strange... We have Libertarians, Socialists, Christian Democrats, "The Green" and some fascist nationalistic parties. Candidates like Schwartzenegger, Giuliani and Ron Paul aren't really typical Conservatives... So why is it still just the Democrats and the Republicans in the US? Is it forbidden by law to found a third party?

Yeah lol agree on Italy ^-^ But then again two seems so little... Five or so would be more representative to the people's opinion, don't you think?

Well, actually I can't say that too much as I live in Belgium - in which parties have just succeeded to form a government. They did 190+ days to agree with each other :p

Answer 1

Its part of our political culture. The first Political Cleavage started with the Constitution. Then those parties realigned after that point into an urban central government party and a rural federal government party (however the urban central government party was named the Federalists.. highly amusing.)

For a brief time we had one party but then the split went along regional lines and that formed what we call the second political party system. Which lasted until the conflict over slavery happened and lead to a new cleavage a temporary 4+ party situation and then a re-allignment into a new 2 party system. which was broken down along class lines. But as tradition and class lines went the parties were not ideologically cohesive and united. Then in the 1960s (for the republicans) and the 1970s (for Democrats) their parties began to have a united Ideology and we saw the party system we have today.

During each of these changes into how party politics worked their was a surge of third party support and a reallignment. There is in the Republican party of today trends which show (in Mike Huckabee and Rudy Guliani) a drive towards a new form of Reallignment. Will it happen? who knows? but if it does happen their will be a new surge in credible 3 party votes.

Answer 2

Because it is actually just one party. Like the wings of the Christian Democrats, you know the ACV CDV people are one party and the Peter Decrems are the other party. Democrats and Republicans represent similar ideology and they are determined to keep third parties out who could really challenge the status Quo

After the latest collapse of the Democrats’ antiwar posturing, Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin of Illinois admitted that even with a larger majority the Democrats would have failed to cut off funds for the war. “There are always going to be Democrats who oppose the war but won’t support removing the funding,” he said—inadvertently previewing the conduct of the Democrats under a future Clinton or Obama administration.

The Washington Post summed up its scathing review of the 110th Congress with the comment, “Efforts to change Bush’s Iraq policies took on the look of Pickett’s charge at Gettysburg.” The rout was, indeed, of those dimensions, with one difference: the Confederates at Gettysburg were actually trying to win.

The congressional Democrats came to power because of mass popular opposition to the war in Iraq, but they never genuinely shared in that opposition. The Democratic Party, like the Republican, is an instrument of the American ruling elite which upholds the interests of American imperialism.

While there are, and remain, sharp divisions within the ruling elite over the Bush administration’s foreign policy, which is widely regarded as both incompetent and reckless, these are divisions over tactics and methods, not principle. A future Democratic administration, should one take office in January 2009, will continue the US occupation of Iraq and the effort to establish US hegemony over the Middle East, including control of the Persian Gulf and its vital oilfields.

Answer 3

There are many political parties in the US, but Democrats and Republicans are the two big ones. They are so big that most of the other parties cannot compete in terms of getting their messages out. Most people serious about a career in politics try affiliate themselves with one of those parties. That is why some candidates don't quite fit the mold of what you might expect a typical Democrat or Republican to be.

Answer 4

Because of the expense to get recognized by each state. The party has to have a certain amount of support and pay a registration fee to each state.

Answer 5

There are many political parties in the US. They even made independent an official political party.

Answer 6

Because those two factions of the corporate party have a monopoly on power.

Answer 7

Ask the Liberal.'s They have an answer for every thing. The rest of us don't have no say so Because they say so. ask them if you don't believe me. It their way or the high-way..