Election Disappointment

Just a brief thought on the election. I've really only been paying attention to politics for the last ten years. What seems to be increasingly clear to me is that there really is no reason to expect any improvement out of parties or legislators. Why do so if your party is swept out of office in one election, then can come back saying the exact same thing two years later and sweep back in?

To me it seems ludicrous that people should be fed up with Republicans in 2008, then think that the best option is going back to many of the same people in 2010 because they don't like what the Democrats did in those two years. If there was ever an opportunity for a third party to establish itself, it seems like this was it. Instead of a legitimate third option arising, all that we saw was what appears to be a faction of the right wing that's further away from 'center' and so doesn't really pose as a long term third option other than moving the Republican party further to the right and polarizing the process even more.

I would really like the American public to realize that politics need not be thought of as a continuum, where every issue falls on one side or the other, and the degree to which it varies from center determines how appealing it is. If you disagree with some issues but agree with others for a party, there really isn't going to be any candidate that can possibly appeal to you.

But like I said, if ever there was a time to establish this possibility, this year's election was it. As such, I suspect another method may be necessary if that system will ever change. I know we've discussed alternate voting methods before, but I suspect those will be nigh impossible to implement, as those in power are complicit in maintaining that power structure, so they have no incentive to change it.