Debate: The Two-Party System is Making America Ungovernable

[Phillyguy12345]

BULL CRAP...The Democrats and Republicans are controlled by CORPORATIONS!!!!!! We need Greens, Socialist, Communist, Libertarians, and Independents.

[Phillyguy12345]

Ralph Nader should have been on the panel........ Not these people.

[pantheon777]

It's kind of a difficult to defend (but extreme sounding) proposition to begin with. But really we don't have a two party system, just the appearence of one to make us think we have a choice.

[cobybcdude]

YEAHHHHHHHHHHHH

[brucepig]

Definitely dishonesty posing as "Fair & Balanced"

[rikmikel]

IQ2-worst panel, worst debate I have watched to date...this whole debate should get a do over with a new panel. I feel less intelligent for having watched it.

[brucepig]

All this talk but they fail to mention the elephant in the room. Washington, The Beltway or whatever you want to call it is right wing so whether we have Bush or Obama in the White House it's right wing ideas which win the day and progressive policies are binned.

[brucepig]

Democrats are prepared to compromise Republicans are not. Obama is prepared to do almost anything the Republicans want from dropping the public option to extending the Bush tax cuts and cutting social security in the name of bipartisanship. The Republicans will not compromise on anything. Republicans have staked their position so far out to the right that the centre is still on the right. The American left don't get a look in

[Mutex50]

@brucepig Yeah, that annoyed me how it seemed to be conventional wisdom in the debate that both parties are controlled by the fringe and neither is willing to compromise. How can anyone objectively say that is the case. The Republicans are controlled by the extreme fringe and the Democrats make endless compromises.

[brucepig]

@Mutex50 The idea that Obama's White House is an extreme left wing fringe akin to the Tea Party is like saying the UK is a Stalinist dictatorship because we have a public health care. This whole debate is superfluous because it's based on the erroneous idea that Dems and Reps are both as bad as each other. Attempting to be "fair and balanced" in the face of a weak Obama administration prepared to bend over backwards to a bunch of Republicans that make Bush look like a moderate is rank dishonesty

[brucepig]

Left and the right, Rep and Dem, MSNBC and Fox are not equivalent. You can't equate the two. The Republicans, Fox and the Tea Party can scream blue murder, lie and obstruct government in the most dangerous ways from the START treaty to the debt ceiling and the Dems buckle. If progressives make a stand Obama is the first to tell them to shut up. MSNBC does not lie like Fox and the only real progressive in power is Bernie Sanders who I believe is independent. Obama is a centre right politician

[Mutex50]

The guy at 1:16:45 misidentified instant runoff voting as approval voting. The core problem though is the first-past-the-post voting system which makes us choose between the lesser of two evils. The lack of competition ensures that the two parties can get away with murder.

What we need is open non-partisan primaries with approval voting. The two candidates with the highest approval rating would go on to the general election.