In the past few months, my social media accounts have been filled with various presidential candidates speaking and tweeting about their views and beliefs to gain support for the primary elections in early 2024. 

I’ve found myself agreeing and disagreeing with candidates from both parties about various relevant political issues.

This experience has reinforced my belief that the two-party political system is outdated and incredibly harmful to the American people as a whole.

The division between the two parties was warned against by George Washington back in 1796 during his Farewell Address.

This system has not only divided America but caused conflict for many centrist and moderate voters.

Politics is known to be an unsafe dinner conversation topic among most peers.

People are often passionate about their beliefs, especially when the differing opinion is so polar.

The fight between Republicans and Democrats is one that has forced people to put their political beliefs into a box.

People like Joe Biden, who previously openly spoke out against same-sex marriage, seem to change their minds years later when the priorities of the party change.

When Biden was a senator, he voted for the Defense of Marriage Act in 1996, which federally defined marriage as a contract between a man and a woman. President Bill Clinton signed it.

Now that the Democratic Party has adopted zealous support for pro-LGBT policies, Biden completely changed his mind.

Biden signed the Respect for Marriage Act in late 2022, which required all states to recognize same-sex marriage as legal.

While it is possible that our 80-year-old president changed his mind almost three decades after voting, I find it highly unlikely. 

What I think is more likely in Biden’s case, as well as many other politicians, is that he subscribed to the Democratic Party’s modern ideas to gain more votes.

If Biden had stuck to his original statement that marriage is solely between man and woman, he likely would not have won the Democratic nomination or would at least have had significantly fewer votes.

During an interview with NBC in 1999, Trump spoke out about being “pro-choice in every respect.”

But later, before the 2016 elections, he changed his mind and agreed with the Republican Party’s current stance on abortion. 

The Washington Post reports that he even went so far as to say that women who had abortions should receive “some sort of punishment.”

While that extreme viewpoint may not have represented all Republicans’ views, Trump became the radical representative of the Republican Party’s policies. 

In many cases, political parties forcibly radicalize the beliefs of the average American citizen.

Peer-reviewed research by Cambridge University indicates that Americans’ political beliefs are not as polarized as the media makes it seem.

Most Americans are moderate or centrist. 

A citizen who is against late-term abortions but not against abortions before a heartbeat may be severely conflicted when trying to decide which party to vote for.

A female who agrees that gun laws need to be put in place to prevent school shootings but also relies on her concealed carry firearm to make her feel safer going out alone may not know which way to vote.

An election should be run by individual candidates who speak on their personal political beliefs, not a bunch of puppets parroting back what the political party wants them to say.