Democrat, Republican, Both or Neither

Does it really make sense to continue to have political parties? Most of our national issues get stuck between the Congress or the White House between the party lines.

Parties help an unknown candidate when voters go to the poll. No doubt that it helps to know "generally" where a candidate stands on an issue by voting along with the party that you find yourself most aligned with. But is our world really that black-and-white where a candidate is liberal or conservative? We all have varying opinions on a number of different topics from energy to social security to health care reform. These number of possible opinions to each of the issues is far greater than two, meaning that one cannot be placed into a Democratic camp or a Republican camp based on where they stand on the issues facing our nation.

Once an official is elected, our problems begin. Voting is more often about aligning with how the party votes, then the elected officials opinions, or for that matter, the collective opinion of the voters that he or she represents. Every issue becomes a battle where negotiations are made to have someone from the other party "cross party lines". Why? Why must it be this hard?

Presidential candidates such as Barack Obama promise to bring together both parties. How many times have we heard bi-partisan efforts from Republicans and Democrats? And how will they ever solve it? One answer. Get rid of the parties to begin with. And start voting on issues like we should have been doing all along... by representing the people who elected the official.

It's not as hard to communicate issues and thoughts, or to gain feedback as it was 200+ years ago when our constitution was formed. Just like this post could reach many viewers, the Internet is a great medium to get quick responses from voters on how they would like our government to react. Perhaps it is time to redesign how our decisions are made in Washington and use new tools for communication, instead of the designs back when horse and buggies were required to get information from state to state.