My opposition towards political parties probably started way back when my family got a set of encyclopedias, which I would leaf through during my youth (I've forgotten how much of an information nerd I was back then). So when I came upon the Republican and Democratic political parties in the encyclopedia, I thought it was quite amusing and strange that they associated themselves with donkeys and elephants. I still think it's odd. Even when I filled out my voter registration, there was doubt in my mind that I did not want to be affliated with any party. It all seemed to be like a bunch of siblings fighting over who got the best toys.
During discussion about the midterm elections, someone told me that most independents were independent because they were uninformed. So what about all the people who simply vote along party lines? They don't know if the person they are voting for necessarily has the values that they'd like to see in government, yet they vote being uninformed. When I voted, I made sure to research all of the candidates several times until I was certain who I was voting for. Who did I vote for? People all across party lines. Even my roommate researched who she was voting for, and we walked a mile to and from the polling place, which happened to be in a bad neighborhood. Inconvience did not stop her from voting. Even after the elections, I still hear things about how the republicans should try to do every thing they want before the democrats 'take over'. Why does it seem like the two political parties dominating American politics are in a war with each other? In Europe, there are more political parties than just two major dominating ones. Yet our political parties seem to have been corrupted by the republicans and the democrats.
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