
It may be hard to imagine today, but when this country was first founded by the infamous "Founding Fathers" that everybody loves to talk about, there were no political parties. The first President, George Washington (you remember that guy right?) was an Independent President affiliated with no political party whatsoever. The second President, John Adams, was a member of a political party that no longer exists (the Federalists). In fact, this whole Democrat vs. Republican battle that we all know and love today didn't even start until 100 years after the country was founded when America's first Republican President, Honest Abe Lincoln, was elected. So we know for a fact that our country can get along just fine without Republicans or Democrats.
Moreover, the number of Independent voters in this country is on the rise. Nearly every state this year has reported a rise in registered Independents. In the 2008 election, 39% of all the people who voted were registered Democrats, 32% were registered Republicans, and not far behind them, coming in at 29% were the Independent voters. That's roughly 1 in 3 Americans. So in addition to knowing that our country can get along fine without Republicans or Democrtats, we also know that about a third of our country has outright rejected the opportunity to affiliate with either party.
Given all this info I have few questions:
In addition to Mayor Mike Bloomberg in New York City, why have we not seen more viable Independent candidates take office?
Is it even possible at this point to remove the Democrats or Republicans from their positions of power as parties?
Can our current political system be sustained as it exists today?
What needs to change?