Government is a human institution and therefore we can never expect it to be perfect; but, I think that the lack of differences in the two main parties is a big problem for American politics. The two main parties are the democratic and republican party. The democratic party is more liberal and wants the government to be more involved in the lives of their citizens with programs like welfare. And the republican party is more conservative on social issues, craving more independence from government for the citizens. However, there really isn’t that big of a difference between the parties. While in theory the democrats are the supporters of welfare and other social programs, the republicans support them as well, just not with as much zeal. Also, the republicans were the hawks in the war against Iraq. Yet, most democrats supported the war with only a few dissenters. And only after the war began to appear not such a good idea did democrats as a united front speak out against the war.
The American people as a whole are moderate. And so the people that come to power, lie in the middle of the political spectrum, not too liberal, not too conservative. But that middle doesn’t provide a lot of opportunity for change. If a republican is in power rather than a democrat, the change is certainly not life altering for most people. If we as a people look for promises of change in our politicians we must first ourselves be more open to change.