Reply #15: Our two party system seems to be designed to put centrists in office [View All]

except for Bush, of course, who ran as a centrist in 2000 but who governed like an off-the-charts right wing extremist. I wish it were possible to just try, not permanently implement but just try a parliamentary system say for a dozen years or so. If it doesn't work, it doesn't work and then we could go back to the old system. In our two party system, compromises must be reached before the general election and the result is usually a middle-of-the-road candidate. In a parliamentary system, many parties can participate, center, left, right, and the extremes and get to have some representatives in parliament who then have a direct conduit to the people. By having many parties gain legitimacy by having representatives elected, you would see fewer clowns in the media totally disparaging moderate mainstream viewpoints like Edwards' (and to me he's still a moderate although slightly left of the others). In a parliamentary system, compromise is reached by forming coalitions after the general election and voices that go unheard in our current system can get heard.