I recently came across an article that I had tucked away in a textbook that I had forgotten about. The article discussed how there is a decline in party politics, and it expected that there would no longer be a two-party system in the United States in the near future.
The article discussed the fact that many people no longer consider themselves as Republicans or Democrats. It explained that the continuation of the trends toward the area between the two parties was causing more and more people to consider themselves as independent voters.
It also pointed to the fact that some politicians were giving up their political parties to run on either an independent ticket, or in one of the new small parties that are popping up across the country.
Some of these smaller political parties were gaining not only support, but also a lot of campaign money. The article explained how these small parties could one day gain more popularity then the current two parties that make up our system. That could cause for either one of the parties to be replaced, or it could cause for a third-party system.
The article explained that the politicians are doing a lot to try to keep up with this trend towards the middle that the Nation is going through. It pointed out how recent candidates from both parties are grasping ideas and ideals that were only considered to be from the opposite party.
This changing of sides on certain issues has been weakening the political parties. It would eventually cause for the collapse of the two-party system as more people realize that they do not need a political party to tell them what it is that they should think.
This article also pointed to a few ideas that had once been voting issues for the two parties that had since been pushed onto the State level. Since the parties had a few less things to argue about, that gave a little more room for other groups to create new issues to argue about.
When I finished reading this article, I realize that I did not have a way of stating it as a direct source. There was not a listing of what paper this originally came from. Chances are very good that it come from either the Detroit News, or the Detroit Free Press since they are readily available in the area (Metro Detroit).
The way that the page was cut also made it impossible to tell the exact date of the article. All I could make out for sure was the four numbers that made up the year for the article. I could see that the article was printed in 1965.
The interesting point is the fact that recently, many of these same arguments have come up for the breakdown of the Republican and Democratic Parties. I think that it is interesting that 42 years ago, the same signs that are happening today were getting people talking. I guess that there truly is nothing new under the political sun.
