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Political Equality in America

            Americans are guaranteed certain rights such as life liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Political equality would fall under these guaranteed rights, however America has struggled very much with this throughout history and continues to today. Political equality is the idea that individual preferences should be given equal weight. (textbook p.8) It is clear that this law is not has not been upheld in the past and still has flaws today. One of the factors that hinders political equality is our current two party system. With a two party system there are only two parties that have a realistic chance in gaining control of major offices of government. (textbook 235) Citizens can vote for minor parties, which can occasionally effect elections but they usual don't have an impact. With only two choices a lot of the time there's a good chance that neither party will be appealing enough to vote for. This can be a problem for equality because it is tough for our representatives to properly do their job of representing the people when there are only two sides to choose from. The two party system causes politics to be more about gaining power instead of properly representing the people (Ted Talk, Barry W.) and when citizens aren't properly represented there can't be equality. After World War II less than thirty percent of the worlds democracies have remained a two party system. (textbook p.235) Republicans have largely dominated the executive branch from 1860 to 1932 but both parties even in defeat have major political power. (textbook p.237) The previous statistic reiterates the point that the two party system is mainly driven by possessing power instead of directly representing the people. American government is supposedly all about representing its citizen's views and opinions but the two party system is not sufficient in doing this. .
             Political inequality started before the two party system, when inequality first started in America, ironically was when this nation was conceived.


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