Should we turn to a three party government system?

In President Washington’s Farewell Address to the United States, he warns us about the dangers of a two party system, even any form of a multi-party system. Party loyalty is likely to get in the way of a voter forming his/her own opinion. To make it worse, if there are only two options, you will pick the candidate you dislike the least, not an option that you actually want. When there are two parties, you will choose the “lesser of two evils,” or, if you are party affiliated, your party. The United States would be a better nation if we chose to stop being a two party country.

The United States has a history of always having two parties. Always two, never three. One can take the place of another,  as in the 1850s, when the Republican Party replaced the Whig Party. There is occasionally a third party or independent candidate who has gotten a large amount votes  - we have several independent senators right now. In presidential races, Ross Perot got nearly 19% of the popular vote in the 1992 presidential election (but no electoral college votes) and George Wallace got 13.5% of the popular vote, receiving 45 electoral votes, and winning five states in 1968.

One of the biggest advantages of having three parties is removing the false dichotomy of “I hate the Democrats, therefore, I must vote for the Republican.” or vice versa.  This false dichotomy allows for the divination of the political party. Each party’s media outlets will support their members to the end, and because the government helps fund both the media and the campaigns, it seems that the political parties resemble more and more the all-powerful Party in George Orwell’s 1984.

With only two parties there is a pendulum of power, and control will go from one side of the political spectrum to the other. With three parties, there is the advantage of the government not flipping back and forth from Republicans to Democrats and having to deal with the whiplash going from Left to Right to Left to Right. Because we have turned rival political parties into enemies, there is no interest in helping everyone involved, because you will be seen as a traitor to your party if you work for a bipartisan compromise.

Because we have never tried having more than two parties, we have never seen the benefits. If a new party were to arise, we would not have the pattern we have “enjoyed” for more than two hundred years. We would finally actually have what the people want, as opposed to the binary choice that they have been making. This is the way to get past the problems that have plagued American politics for years.