A nation divided

Living in a country with only two major political parties can greatly limit the amount of legal change that can be achieved on a national level—especially if that country happens to be the United States.

The two major political parties, Democrats on the left and Republicans on the right, are so fundamentally different that it makes it nearly impossible for them to agree on anything. In many cases, the inability of lawmakers to find a compromise that both parties will accept is ultimately what slows or stops political progress.

There are other, minor parties in the U.S., but the Republicans and Democrats have the most influence over the bills that get passed and the presidents who get elected. If you are part of a minor party, you won’t have the power or the influence of these larger groups. The amount of money, funding and supporters that each of the two major parties have makes it nearly impossible for anyone else to have a voice on the national level.

That’s not to say that small political groups are not capable of making a difference on a local level, but when you consider the sheer number of people in the U.S. it becomes impossible to create enough parties to focus on all of the things that Americans find important. And even if it were possible, it would create a whole host of different problems.

The size of the U.S. and the number of differing beliefs and values made the rise of two major parties, representing different ends of the scale, inevitable. However, the country might not have initially realized that these differing opinions would divide Americans into two groups as well.

Republicans, who are known to support big businesses, religion and low taxes on the rich, are at odds with the Democrats, who support human rights and programs to make health insurance and contraception available for everyone. The U.S. is nearly at a standstill when it comes to issues such as women’s health, marriage equality and programs to help the poor. What does the future hold when the two strongest political parties in the country can’t agree on anything?

If we continue on the same path we are on, without being able to compromise, the future is not going to be any different. In order to make social, political and economic progress in the U.S., lawmakers must realize the way their inability to compromise is affecting the citizens of the country.

If we continue to pass bills that favor only one side of the political spectrum, we are telling the rest of the country that they are not as important. If we continue to support low or nonexistent taxes on the wealthiest people in the country, we are telling the low-income citizens of the U.S. that their opinions and struggles aren’t important. And if we continue letting lawmakers bicker without making any changes, we are telling them that we are OK with it.

With only two major parties in American politics, the debates and issues become more heated and more diametrically opposed. It becomes easy to let the struggles and the voices of everyday Americans fade away.

If that has become the mindset of lawmakers, then we need to reevaluate our belief system as a country. Rather than constantly pushing to undermine the power of the opposing political party, we—and this may seem obvious—need to learn how to compromise.

That may be easier said than done, but if we continue down this path—where lawmakers, Democrats and Republicans alike continue to argue and nothing gets done—we are going to require, for better or worse, a new way to generate change.