Will or should political reform ever happen in this country? What will it take for that to happen? At what point will the tipping point be for moderates? It seems to me that it doesn't benefit the country to have life long politicians in government, at some point they have to lose perspective of the real world. With that being said these same politicians are able to win time and time again for various reasons including earmarks to bring funding to their states. With that thought also, whats good for the states may not be good for the country as a whole. I have been a little surprised that there hasn't been more opposition to this stimulus pork package, mainly because of the amount of money involved. To think that generations after us will have the burden from this bill makes me ill. Please, I don't really want the whole discussion to be about this last part. It is important but am interested in the first part also, that was my original intent.
Actually both parts of the question can go together. Politicians are driven, re elected, supported by, and funded by special interest groups and lobbiest. As long as this is the case there will never be true reform. Hence we get an 850 billion dollar stimulus package developed and taylored for special interest groups and lobbiest. We the people are to take this great accomplishment and digest it like some horrible cold medicine, and believe it will make us better. Sure, Ok???????? I don't buy it.
The problem with the "stimulus" bill is not just the amount of money involved, but that so little of it is designed to stimulate the economy. Most of it goes to pet Democratic social programs.
As long as we have a two party system, there will never be significant political reform in our lifetimes. The system is in place and locked down. Anyone seeking office must go through the party system to have any chance of winning, which means that they are beholden to the ideology of the collective party, instead of individual initiative. The party's only goal is obtaining and holding onto power, so they do their best to keep their incumbents in power, because most of the time that is the best bet. A candidate with Party money and resources is going to trounce the one without, almost everytime.
They are self-protective, too. The "winner takes all" electoral college system effectively keeps third parties from ever getting their feet in the door. The constant gerrymandering of congressional districts is also calculated to keep the established parties in power. This country needs a viable third party right in the political center--47 percent of the electorate describe themselves as moderates. But every time that the big 2 start getting so polarized that a political vacuum might open up in the middle, one or the other party will move towards the center and occupy part of it for a while. Sadly, only third parties that have gotten anywhere at all seem to be uncompromising "green" parties to the left of the Democrats or xenophobic ideologues to the right of the Republicans.
Another Civil War? Seriously, You would have thought that we, the people, would be fed up by now and demand more from their representatives or potential representatives. Yet every year we continue to get the same old tired candidates who only out to get a permanent political job so they will say anything to get the votes.
It is not that politicians are "beholden" to the ideology of their party, but they naturally tend to graviate toward the party whose values most closely match theirs. Voters tend to do the same thing. For a politician to get elected it is more important that he reflect the political values of his constituents than the values of the party. In most cases this means Democrates will normally lean toward the left and Republicans will lean toward the right because that is where their constituents lie. But there are exceptions, such as Olympia Snow of the Republican Party.
