Abstract

Breaking out of the Two-Party Rut
Nader, Ralph | July 20, 1992 issue

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This article briefly discusses the political situation of the United States. Every four years, presidential campaigns fall into a predictable pattern of a two-party duopoly, occasionally livened by unique gaffes. The candidates select themselves, develop a fat-cat funding base, perfect a standard speech with practiced cadences and then toss their hat into the ring. Meanwhile, the voters' politics remains frustrated, simmering with angry alienation, painful powerlessness and cyclical cynicism. What's needed is a citizen-side politics. The civic vacuum of electoral politics comes from the people's low expectations of politicians and even lower expectations of their own role in the pre-election period.

See Also:

POLITICS, Practical; POLITICAL campaigns; POLITICIANS; COMPETITION; CYNICISM; UNITED States
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