Of the Problems with Political Parties

                     Historically, American politics have been divided into two political parties with a third party consisting of a small minority.  Usually, the two parties are willing to compromise to accomplish legislation that is necessary for the federal government to operate smoothly.  However, over the last decade the two parties have become increasingly polarized.  Thus, making it more difficult for them to get anything productive done.  Traditionally, democrats have been for increasing domestic spending and decreasing defense spending.  While republicans have been for cutting domestic spending and increasing defense spending.  Indeed, both parties have proven their willingness to prolong limited wars while allowing America's infrastructure to decay.  Also, the middle ground is being lost on many issues as both sides move to extreme ends.  Political parties homogenize political thought.  When people vote some will look at the political party rather than evaluate the candidate.  The last time congress passed a brand new budget the I phone had not even been invented yet.  In other words, it was been over ten years since real fiscal reform has been implemented.  Meanwhile, the national debt is over $20 trillion and interest payments on public debt will reach a trillion dollars a year within the next decade.  Also, the federal government is gradually losing sovereignty to countries such as China, Argentina, and the U.K.  It is important to note that China is using the interest payments it receives from the U.S to fund major infrastructure projects including the One Belt, One Road project.
                Recently, a failure for democrats and republics to compromise on a spending bill that would have secured America's border and ensured that the government would be funded for another year caused the government to shut down.  This has been the longest government shutdown in American history, so far it has lasted about 34 days.  Trump recently indicated that he would accept a bill that would appropriate $5.7 for a wall at the southern border and temporarily extend DACA.  It has yet to be seen whether Democrats will accept this offer.  Although at first some Democrats rejected the offer, its possible other Democrats will change their mind and accept Trump's proposal.  This is not to say that building a wall is absolutely necessary to secure America's border.  Hundreds of thousands of federal employees are either at home without pay or working without pay.  Its likely that by now many of these people are struggling to pay bills.  Many of these unpaid employees have filed unemployment claims for unemployment benefits and have gotten help from local charities.  It is important to note that about 26% of the government is shutdown and the other 74% is up and running.  Government shutdowns have happened and they did not do any notable harm to the economy.
                There are several possible solutions to the impasse in Washington and probably more than what I will mention in this blog.  One is that when it becomes evident to congress that legislation needs to passed have the leaders of both legislative caucus meet and negotiate on legislation that would pass both the house and the senate.  Also, take steps to ensure that the president would sign the legislation into law once it passes both the house and senate.  Another solution is to diminish the role of political parties in policy formation and this is a more difficult task.  Political parties would still play a big role in elections.  Political parties have a platform that are intended to be guidelines for policy making in government.  In other words, since political parties function to try and get certain public policies in place it would be almost impossible to separate them from their role in policy making.  An easier option may be to elect more third party and independent candidates in office especially at the state and local levels.  Indeed, it would be difficult to replace a powerful democrat or republican representative with an independent or third party candidate.  This is not to say that there not good government officials that are republicans or democrats.  Indeed, there are many wonderful, hard working government officials that are republicans and democrats.  Too much focus is put on the federal level in politics.  People need to get to know their mayor and city council men and women.  Also, getting good local government officials elected is a wonderful starting point for reducing corruption.