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How can there only be two political parties if there infinite ways of thinking about politics

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If you can only choose between two candidates of the same party, as in California, the political engagement could be very low. Looking at California, Republicans may not vote at all if there only option is to choose between two democrats.

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I agree, it creates stubborn and blind voters who are willing to look no further than a candidate's party

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There is more than just two sides to every matter. Independent voters may have a hard time deciding which party they agree with since one may share their same views on one topic but the other may on a different topic.

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I agree with this! This causes the minority or less popular party to not make any decisions that help the citizens who side with them.

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i agree, the split beliefs creates gridlock

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I agree, unfortunately, the two party system is too deeply embedded in our political system due to majority rule, in spite of the large number of voters who identify as independent.

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Do political parties make people feel like they don't have to learn about candidates? Do they just blindly vote for whoever is for their party? I feel like this could lead to corruption or an extreme amount of power to the parties.

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Even though it is smart for the top two vote getters to be the ones who get to run it may make more people not want to vote at all. As in California, if two democrats are the only ones you can vote for, many republicans may choose not to vote at all.

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It could create gridlock due to Republicans or Democrats not voting for legislation or a supreme court justice just because the other party wrote it or recommended the person

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agree, they allow people who do not know what to vote for, but have some choices.

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I really agree with this! It's give and take with the political parties, there is a ton of division between the parties making it almost impossible to get things done!

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It takes the voice away from the people. They dont necessarily believe in the candidate they voted for, only what the general party believes in.

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Parties can be bad because of how much power they hold. Today, the two major parties control so much that it represses minority opinions.

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They blind the true thoughts of the public. If the people who arent informed vote for one party because they like it more, it could be detrimental not only to them but to the public because it is our duty as citizens to vote for the general welfare.

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agreed, they allow less informed people to vote.

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Political Parties allow people to express their views and campaign their beliefs freely

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If parties are unable to compromise the government is unable to function

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Political Parties can divide people. They can cause conflict. Less informed voters may vote for a candidate based on popularity instead of policy.

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They can help people understand and identify their own beliefs and can help give more than one side to conflicts. Although, they create division which can cause tension but they can also bring out the good and bad in each party.

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Political parties often do what is better for their own cause rather than the public good

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Parties set a platform that allow voters to understand the politicians views on issues easily just by knowing their party

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I think that political parties are good because it encourages political engagement from the the people. People also like to take a side and belong to something, and parties allow people to do that. They also allow people to easily find others that think similarly to themselves.

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Good- they help sort and organize ideas on different policies and conflicts. They give a base for people to relate to.

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help the public, or people, identify there beliefs and who they agree with

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Kath

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While political parties do provide platform for people to unify with others, I see a lot of people choosing to only vote for candidates within their general party than focusing on the specific candidates. Lets people have "blind votes". People also get caught up in fighting with opposing parties than using compromise or civil discourse.

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I think that political parties are mainly a good thing because it helps people to identify who they want to identify with if they are not familiar with the candidates such as voting for candidates.

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They divide the country. The hyperpartisan nature of today's government makes citizens feel at arms with each other instead of bringing us together and creates gridlock. This has caused the government to shut down often.

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Political parties can cause too much conflict within the government, and can lead to gridlock, especially when there is a divided government. For example, right now there are only 8 Supreme Court justices, because the Republican Senate is refusing to approve of any of president Obama's suggestions. It's not good to have only 8 justices, because this can lead to ties within Supreme court and cause more gridlock.

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Political parties are somewhat good, as they allow us to identify which candidates share our political values. However, they are quite divisive and the current two-party system does not truly allow for freedom of choice. In my opinion, parties should still exist but in much greater numbers and less focus on a two party system.

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Political parties are good because they offer citizens choices in who they want to run the country

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They give us a basis to form our  opinion on policy. If we didnt have parties it would be hard to get a majority to vote for one thing

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Hyper-partisanship causes internal conflict and polarizes the nation into 2 possible opinions. It restricts independent thought by labeling people as one or the other. More citizens see people of the opposite party as threats.

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They divide people and some people are not willing to vote on anything that isn't part of their party. When gun control laws were introduced after a shooting nothing passed, some people think it's because they didn't want to vote a law introduced by the other side.