J.D.I would suggest that we're getting pretty close to a multi-party system in the USA. The divide between Sanders and Clinton, and between Trump/Cruz and Jeb Bush is growing wide enough that you could realistically split the Dems and GOP into two parties each.
Imagine a scenario where you have democratic socialist Bernie Sanders running against far-right wingnut Ted Cruz. Could you see a bunch of socially liberal but fiscally conservative democrats, independents and a bunch of libertarian republicans voting for a "Classical Liberal" party led by someone like Rand Paul? I could.
We were talking about the benefits of this on the skin track yesterday. Both of us could see a centrist minority party that could force either of the main parties to form a coalition government. This would still allow the wide swaths of American Political view points to be represented and voiced in our republic while bringing actual governing back towards the center.
I think it is important that as one of the world's oldest and largest representative governments we acknowledge the importance of both listining to and recording the 'extreme' views held by minorities on the left and right. It is important that we have your Sen Sanders, Cruz, and Warren, your Rep Cottons. I don't even mind seeing them in the presidency as long as they understand that every two years they have an increased risk of loosing party seats to a party that can move to the other side of the isle.
MLBI also think it's very easy to be fiscally conservative when you don't see where your money goes. It's always funny to see how people react when government budgets come out, but really have never actually seen how their money is spent.
I work as a wildland firefighter and most people don't know how many lives, property, infrastructure is saved by their tax dollars each day. Im Canadian so the same can be said about our health care system, and policing services. Not to mention emergency services (flood remediation work, avalanche control, etc.), and education.
I could go on and on. I understand that some services can become bloated or corrupt but that can happen to any political party in power. Corruption happens to both sides.
Taxes are not just money coming out of your paycheque.
Dude, wildland firefighting is so bloated... Nothing like just watching folks delay putting out a fire so they can keep the gravey train rolling.
Otherwise yes, taxes fund necessary spending. The issue is that (in the U.S.) you see taxes being predominantly spent on two things: entitlements and defense. One sizable minority sees one of these as funding needless and oppressive imperialism, another sizable minority sees the other as paying for people to be lazy. Neither are totally true, but provide easy fodder to rally votes to your cause.
The other big issue you see right now is that the increadably complex US tax code pushes corporate money overseas, rewards risky investment, and has enabled wealth to be accumulated faster at the top than at mid and lower wealth brackets (wealth begets wealth faster than work accumulates wealth). There are other issues outside of tax law that leads to it (cultural differences are huge, as is intellectual inheritance) but tax law provides a juicy policy target for the angry masses.
You also have other polarizing issues such as immigration, religion, and social issues (guns and abortion). But the majority of anger that has allowed extremist candidates (Trump, Cruz, Sanders) to rise to popularity are based largely on the affects of a complex and inadequate tax code.
/tangent-ramble
