Darren New wrote:
> ... American politics will never surge forward.

Thank God for that.  The last time any country "surged" politically, a 
guy named Adolph Hitler got elected.

> Our system makes it exceedingly difficult to run on just one plank of a 
> platform. You'd never see a politician elected without hearing every 
> single opinion on every single element under debate.

What generally keeps things locked up is that large numbers of people, 
on sides of the aisle, think that they will be utterly screwed if the 
other party gains power.  It usually isn't quite that bad, but the 
longer either party remains in power, the more the prediction gains the 
appearance of truth (and a bit of the substance as well).

But the general condition is that on any topic, on party wants to have 
things a certain way, for everybody, whereas the other party wants 
everyone to decide for themselves.  The party that is for controlling 
changes from topic to topic.  On some topics, such as firearms 
ownership, the Democrats want the government to make the decisions 
(whether or not you have a gun), whereas the Republicans generally want 
each person free to decide.  On other topics, such as abortion, the 
Republicans want the government to make the decision, whereas the 
Democrats want each person to decide for herself.  There are no issues 
where both parties want the people to decide for themselves, because 
when that is the case, the topic is not an issue.  There are topics on 
while both parties want the government to make the decisions, but 
generally they both want the same decision to be made, to the topic is 
not at issue.

The upshot of this is that on any issue, you are either with one party, 
or you are with the other, or you are in wacky territory altogether and 
will find your home in a fringe party.

If you are not consistently with one party, you will lose support from 
that party.  Although much is made of the swing vote, getting out the 
party base--that is, getting those who either vote for one party or stay 
home--is actually the most important thing in any election, and the 
turnovers in the 1994 and 2006 Congressional races, and the 1992, 2000 
and 2008 presidential races, were the result of the losing party largely 
failing to do this.

Regards,
John

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