I am starting to find American Politics/United States Politics/USA Politics boring be

I completely agree. The US two party system depserately needs to be torn down. Neither of those parties truly reflect the people of the country. Libertarians and Greens should both have substantial voices, but won't so long as it is a first past the post system and so long as gerrymandering is rampant.

Politics??? LOL no comment!!! Had too much of that on facebook

Very true. I agree with what you've all written above. I actually thought the Libertarian and Green Party candidates had some very good ideas to turn things around. Funny thing is that their debates weren't even given real national attention on TV. Larry King moderated it. Lack of money is really the main reason why they're not heard.

That and people are so used to the status quo that they tend not to bother listening to those ideas from other candidates in the other parties. I think this election season in particular was extremely negative and really showed how one-sided everything is. There isn't a real choice.

The Soviet Union also claimed to be a Democracy.

It's a pseudo-democracy show, nothing more, nothing less.

On the contrary, I have found American politics to be a most amusing spectator sport, especially after 2008 when Obama got elected and half the Republican Party went ----- insane.

I spent half of last wednesday browsing the internets for Republican outrage at Obama's reelection

Yes, and perceive is the keyword. In politics, perception matters more than facts.

If Malcolm X was alive today he would've been sick to his stomach at the re-election of the worst house negro in history, sports a Muslim name but not a Muslim, drones muslims, black but offers no help to the black or anyone for that matter. Teleprompter-reading-black-messiah who receives revelation from bankers and the zionist lobby - yes - Malcolm would be sick to his stomach.

format_quote Originally Posted by glo

But doesn't that beg the question, if Republican and Democratic policies in the US are so similar, then why are the Republicans up in arms at Obama's reelection?

Clearly they must perceive some very strong differences ... otherwise it wouldn't matter. Or would it?

I know certain members here hate me talking about it, but this is really very much another case of simple tribalism. It doesn't matter that their policies are similar, or the same, or even that one "side" wholesale adopted the policy of the other side. As soon as "our" good and just and wonderful policy is turned into "their" policy, it is vile, evil and bad, not because it is in any way different, but merely because it is now "theirs" and not "ours".

And 3rd parties can't get involved because it is a first past the post system, and because of this tribal polarization people care more about keeping that other guy out than getting their guy in, and if you fail to vote for one of the two sides then your vote will be framed as voting against what "should have been your team". People who vote Green are painted as traitors against the Democrats and enablers of the Republicans. People who vote Libertarian are painted as traitors against the Republicans and enablers of the Democrats. Libertarian and Green are hardly ever seen as parties in their own right.

format_quote Originally Posted by Pygoscelis

I completely agree. The US two party system depserately needs to be torn down. Neither of those parties truly reflect the people of the country. Libertarians and Greens should both have substantial voices, but won't so long as it is a first past the post system and so long as gerrymandering is rampant.

Very true. In Canada we have a first past the post system, and more than two large parties, but there still haven't been any governments formed by any party besides the big two (though in the last election, for the first time to my knowledge, a party other than the Conservatives and the Liberals "came in second"/formed the official opposition).

Really for anything to happen the system would need a massive overhaul. European states seem to have interesting ways of doing it.

Political parties everywhere are starting to seem more similar because of the 'professionalisation' of politics. Politicians are groomed and trained, not found. Political parties go more by research groups than principle. The same thing is happening in other professions.

But in the case of Obama v Romney, I'm surprised people see this as 'more of the same'. I think something very different has been going on in the last few years. This is the rise of the Tea Party and a new willingness for politicians to refuse to support the mechanisms of government in any way at all, if that government doesn't suit them.

This matters because the US system (in my view) has a major flaw. It's bicameral with a Presidential executive. All 3 power bases have significant ability to at least block legislation if it doesn;t agree with them. Therefore for political progress to occur, all 3 need to cooperate to some extent.

However, in practice these power bases are not usually held by the same party at the same time.

That's where something different is happening. In the past, there was a convention for political compromise that allowed the president to pursue his agenda successfully. Today, with the influence of the Tea Party, there are many politicians who simply won't play ball at all. They won't play by the old rules. They insist on their way, or no way. This is the reason for the total log-jam over the US budget deficit, which is actually more fixable than the European crisis if there was some degree of political willing.

The Tea Party have been playing a game of ultimate brinkmanship. They are prepared to risk economic Armageddon rather than compromise. It seems to me that, for this reason, the victory of Obama is significant because it gives him new authority to break that legislative log-jam. What will be interesting from here is to see whether the right wingers continue to block legislation, even though they have lost the election.

In my view, whether you support the Democrats or the Republicans, what the Republicans have been doing in the last couple of years is serious because it undermines the successful functioning of the US political system itself.