A political party affiliation is not life term. Its not an identity - its not for ever. People have been known to give up their religion and embrace new faiths and religions. This is but a choice they get to make every four years. The divide in the country is the misconstrued notion that someone is either a republican or a democrat. There is no such perfect correlation. I am not a democrat or a republican. I agree with or share the same stance of one of the parties in some issues. But that does not make me a Democrat or Republican for life. I happen to think that one might be a better choice for government in the current times - that's about it.
I think - the biggest problem facing America now - is this divide. This assumption that a person is a democrat or a republican and that is their identity. People seem to have forgotten that its just a party and having voted for one of the parties last time round or the last few times or always so far - does not mean they have to again. It is just a choice they make for four years of governance.
This strategy is apparently working out very well for the parties. But not so well for the people. Of late, the two party system seems to be doing more bad than good for the people of America. The two parties seem to be representing two ends of the spectrum and the people are deprived of a chance to choose what's best for them - but are rather forced to choose one of two broken choices. And all elections seem to be about the same issues over and over again. Pro choice vs Pro Life (This is a really smart choice of words - good marketing. You can't be against life - can you?) and tax issues and a few other of the sort. And all people seem to think about - or are made to think about - is these few things when making the choice. People already have strong opinions on most of these - which seem to decide where their vote is going.
From what I have heard (and seen a bit of in the past decade I have been here) of the American people, their biggest factor for success has been their willingness to see the mistakes they make and work to resolve the issues/causes that lead to the mistakes. I hope I get to see more of this quality in their approach to their politics and government in the coming years.
