To Party or Not to Party.

Florida Governor Charlie Crist is a Republican. No, make that WAS a Republican. Whether or not he's successful in his bid for the U.S.Senate, I don't know. But it does bring up a good point. Exactly how important are political parties? I mean, come on, be honest, how do they help you or me? The short answer is, they don't. But then the long answer is, they don't. Here's the way it works. We have two parties. they reward some chosen members, who want, with the opportunity to run for office. If you're a party faithful, you may get their backing, which means they'll spend some money on your behalf and help get out the vote in your favor. If you're not the chosen one, they'll campaign against you. All this happens in the Primary. Then in the general election, the public gets to vote for the two people the parties have chosen. And you thought you voted for the winners of the Primary. Well, you do, but the winners of the Primary are the hand picked of the Parties. So if these "winners" are chosen, financed and campaigned for, by the Parties, who do you think they will owe their allegiance to? You? You're kidding, right? The top two candidates don't run in the general election. The party favorites run. Which means you generally don't get to choose between the two best candidates. Just the two people the Parties like the best. They go to Washington, or your state's capital to represent the? Who do you think they go to represent? If you said the Party, you win. Well at least you win a correct answer. You don't actually win. In fact you loose. So. how important are political parties? To the parties, they're very important. To you they're less than helpful. In fact political parties are downright bad for the people. They are the ones who cause gridlock in Washington. So that nothing gets done, or maybe even worse, bad things get done. Wouldn't it be great if there weren't any parties any more? It is possible.