Don't get me started

I know, I sometimes get pretty hot and bothered about how to govern this country. It wasn't until August of 2001 that I decided to join the American party after 25 years of sitting on the side lines because I felt it was time to take responsibility. Ridiculing what is going on is not that hard, but taking sides, or at least playing my part, seemed to be the adult thing to do. Agreed, I am a late bloomer.

As a first observation, after almost 10 years, I have to say that part of our problem is that we have a two party system. No party occupies the middle ground, although both parties are fighting for it. Because there will  always be at least two opposing philosophies, neither one can permanently occupy the center. On top of that, our winner-take-all election system makes it all but impossible to launch a successful third party. We are a democracy in which the winner takes all, not a representative democracy, in which the number of representatives for each party accurately reflects the percentage of votes they received in the election. To be successful as a third party you have to win many congressional elections in the same election cycle, which makes it almost impossible to upset the status quo.

It makes you wonder how America has been able to dominate the global stage for such a long time. To be a winner, you either need both parties to buy into the idea that the rest of the world is out to 'get' America and that it is therefor not just o.k. but a necessity to only give a damn about America. Besides paranoia, a strong sense of nationalism would feed the same narrative. Believe me, both elements are present.

In principle, you could have a shared set of principles, which are embraced by all citizens. The desire to have a reasonable debate, to inform, to teach, to learn, to decide. The reason why America is so polarized lays in its political system, where there are never more than two points of view.

Maybe it is not so surprising that we are always fighting wars. In my lifetime: Korea, Vietnam/Laos/Cambodia, Panama, Nicaragua, Bosnia, Somalia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya. Here is a more complete list.

Of course, there is another side of America that balances our aggression. It's the part that represents our better angels.