Alright, I have been absent lately and now that I have time I am back.

This is a serious topic, at a picnic with my family I realized that people are quite ignorant. I am a moderate, who quite honestly, votes more Democrat over Republican. However my family pointed out that Democrats are idiots and Republicans are the only ones able to save this country. Now if I recall correctly these are the same people who told me to respect others opinions, but now they only want us to believe in their views. So my question to you all is why are people so unwilling to listen to anything other than those who agree with themselves? Maybe you can shed some light why people won't see others viewpoints.

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Non concupisces domum proximi tui; nec desiderabis uxorem eius, non servum, non ancillam, non bowem, non asinum, nec omnia quae illius sunt.

So, what is this post really about? Is it about the stupidity of the American sheeple in their belief that there are only two political parties in the United States? Is it about Republicans believing that only they are right? Is it about the idiocy of all views being relative? Is it about the idiocy of being "tolerant" of other views (though the preachers of tolerance are quite intolerant of views that aren't politically correct)?

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A panda walks into a cafe. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air.

"Why?" asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes toward the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.

"I'm a panda," he says at the door. "Look it up."

The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation.

"Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."

Actually LISTENING to what someone else has to say means that I might have to really THINK about my own ideas and opinions and that I might even have to logically defend them from 'attack'. This is something MOST people are unwilling to do. I think there are two main reasons for this unwillingness. One is intellectual laziness. We simply don't want to put the necessary energy into thinking about what we 'believe'. We just want to take someone else's soundbite, repeat it and be done with it. The second is intellectual dishonesty. Many people know, deep down inside that what they say is total BS. That is, they would know it if they took the time to really think it out (see laziness). But they continue to cling to stupid dogma that's been drilled into their heads in spite of the facts right in front of them. Maybe 'dishonesty' isn't the best term, perhaps 'loyalty' to stupid people would be a better way to put it. The bottom line is that most people are unwilling to defend their own views for various reasons. This is why they don't want to listen to someone else's. And for the record, this isn't just an 'american' phenomenon. It happens all over the world.

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"Yes. That's correct. Making a statement that's 100% true can't be bigoted."

To simplify what Mono said, ignorance is bliss.

Basically, they don't want to think in depth about politics, why? I can only guess, probably they don't want to stress and worry over it, they have enough things going on in their lives and feel that they can just pass the buck, that is the way it is for my wife.

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Set your destination with your heart, get there with your mind.

"The wisest men follow their own direction." - Euripides

There are certain things I agree with the Democrats on, other things I agree with the Republicans on.

Nether party can possibly represent people in full, and the platforms and philosophies morph over time. We all used to consider the GOP a better steward of fiscal responsibility, now NOBODY thinks that anymore. Etc.

Personally, I would like to see a few more parties representing a broader spectrum of opinions. Parliamentary, rather than "winner take all". That way, the 49% of people in a district that voted opposite the winner have at least somebody in to represent them.

As the saying goes, there's always more than two sides to the story. So, why only have two representations?

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Unfortunately, the Founders did not address the possibility of this nation becoming populated with obnoxious twits.

In a way, we do have a parliamentary system. Parliamentary systems work by have a large number of parties and no one getting the majority (or even close), so like minded parties would join together to form a coilition, and so when that happens, you are left with two main parties (or two teams or parties) that fight on everything. In the US we have skipped the step where the two parties are actually made up of smaller parties and have cut the voice of the people out in the process.

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Set your destination with your heart, get there with your mind.

"The wisest men follow their own direction." - Euripides

I was thinking more about the coalition aspect, which I would think would at least get some less mainstream ideas in. And, a more parliamentary system isn't "winner take all". We'd probably end up with 36% Democrats, 35% Republicans, 19% Greens, 9% Libertarians and 3% Socialists, or whatever.

It'd be more interesting, at least.

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Unfortunately, the Founders did not address the possibility of this nation becoming populated with obnoxious twits.

True, but what happens in congress is the dems, greens, and socials will ally together (to make 56%) and the others allying together (to make 44%), right now that is what they are doing, but they are not just allying together, they are completely merged together. I would love to see it broken out of a merger and back down to allies.

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Set your destination with your heart, get there with your mind.

"The wisest men follow their own direction." - Euripides

We need to have multiple parties, the more the better, options can't hurt anyone accept those that wish to steal your freedoms.

I can't remember who it was that said it, but to paraphrase, "in this country [the USA] we have 50 options for Miss America and 2 options for President of America."

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Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils

Never take life seriously. Nobody gets out alive anyway.

When I die, I want to go peacefully like my Grandfather did, in his sleep -- not screaming, like the passengers in his car.

A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing.

The only reason people get lost in thought is because it's unfamiliar territory.

I could've eaten Alphabit soup and crapped out a better post!

One of the problems is that the media doesn't cover the other parties. Another problem is that the Democrats and Republicans automatically have ballot access but other parties have to fight to get ballot access every election.

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A panda walks into a cafe. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air.

"Why?" asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes toward the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.

"I'm a panda," he says at the door. "Look it up."

The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation.

"Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."