Thread:Comments:Former Salt Lake City mayor Rocky Anderson announces presidential bid/Abolishing the multi-party system?/reply (2)

I fail to see anything in the article that suggests Anderson wants to abolish the "multi-party system". It is difficult to conceive of the abolition of an entity which does not exist. Unlike most democracies, the United States of America has never enjoyed a multi- party political system, rather a two-party system has been institutionalized for most of our history. In recent years both the political parties have fallen under the nearly absolute influence of corporate lobbying. So while there may be two parties on paper, the range of ideology and policy proposals of both parties is quite limited in most matters, and in both foreign and domestic policy tends to serve the interests of large multinational corporations rather than common citizens. The sole exception to this are hot-button "culture war" social issues e.g. gay marriage, abortion, which are used by politicians from either party to pander to their respective bases during election campaigns. As playwright, essayist and author Gore Vidal once so eloquently put it: "There is only one party in the United States, the Property Party...and it has two right wings: Republican and Democrat. Republicans are a bit stupider, more rigid, more doctrinaire in their laissez-faire capitalism than the Democrats, who are cuter, prettier, a bit more corrupt—until recently... and more willing than the Republicans to make small adjustments when the poor, the black, the anti-imperialists get out of hand. But, essentially, there is no difference between the two parties"

Recently a landmark 5-4 Supreme Court decision known as Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission" further entrenched this system by affirming the "right" of corporations to engage in electioneering through control of the mass media. If Mr. Anderson seeks to abolish this system, and replace it with a transparent multi-party political system unshackled from the stranglehold of Corporate money then I heartily applaud him for his efforts.