Political Parties and how they hurt America

Why does America have political parties? I myself have pondered over this question. Our representatives are coralled and herded into party pens where they are forced to go with any policy the party wants to be passed. This makes the rulers of the parties the people who decide what laws are passed. Not the people who are supposed to be represented.

Let's say that the state of Arkansas(why do people pronounce it,'arkansaw' and not,'ar Kansas'?) beleve that abortion should be legal, so they vote for a republican who believes in pro choice. Now, he gets into congress and is herded into the republican pen where he is told to vote against abortion being legal. Now I'm not saying that I agree with abortion and disagree with republicans(in fact it's the opposite, but I don't want to stir up that hornets nest... yet...=P), but the party system is downright unfair to the people who send those representatives to the capitol!

Also, parties are a constant source of conflict amongst everyday citizens of the U.S. For instance, I was in debate class and all of the issues we debated on where just regurgitations of what was going on between the Democrats and the Republicans of that day. It's like people clutch to their party identity and as such, they lose their common interests that people of an opposing party hold. Let's take my grandfather for instance. He's the perfect example of a redneck. He does masonry and drives around in an old pick up truck. He tells tales of skinning racoons, grinning down bears and holds some pretty harsh views on issues such as illegal immigration and racism. Everyone of his views would be classified under "extreme right". There's just one problem. His family has always voted democrat so, when it comes to election time, no matter what the issues are at stake and what views the candidates hold, he votes democrat.

That is a wasted vote. Because of stubborness and the existance of political parties, he just threw his vote away to people who hold views completely contrary to his own.

How many more people are there like that. If we only elected candidates based on their views and not on their party, how much more will our own views be represented in the capitol?