I'm confused about the American Republican party

[Kevin]

I feel our current political environment can be described best, and possibly only, as obstructionist. From all sides, and it has infected all levels.

Then again, I recognize that I don't have a memory of political maneuverings spanning decades into the past, and my viewpoint therefore considers THIS time to be the "worst ever." However, I've heard of 40- to 50-year politicians stating publicly that this is the most toxic political environment they have ever seen, so I think there may be some basis in that outlook.

My local house rep has been in office since 96. I voted for her a couple of times mostly based on the fact that she didn't just tow the party line and would vote based on feedback from the constituents. That has been changing in recent years. I've mailed her a few times in the past on various issues, most recently SOPA/PIPA. I got a party line form letter this time (and I mailed before the internet blackout on it). She now pretty much never crosses the aisle and I think you are absolutely right about why, though it goes beyond just the major networks.

There are smaller bloggers and other information sources that people use that do the same things the big boys are doing and in some cases louder and even more biased. It's very hard to find any unbiased source and while both have a liberal bent I still tend to use NPR and BBC the most of the bigger sources, but they tend to have a big bias in selective coverage. What they do cover tends to still be mostly just reported with multiple sources, but there are some things that they bury or simple don't report on at all.

I would love to remodel our voting system so that we would end up with more distinct parties. I understand the downsides of having to form coalitions to get anything passed this way as with more parties that are hot on more specific issues the chances of a majority or plurality diminish and it is not a cure for obstructionism, but I'm in the same boat as Mav and Shoju on views about a lot of the issues and will admit I share most of the ones Mav posted (and I'm willing to discuss them if people are curious though I generally tend to not put my own views forward in these discussions because they tend to not matter to the core of the topic). But I would be much happier voting on a party that may not cover all my views but does share my views on whatever issue I feel the most strongly about. When I look at most of the parliamentary governments out there that tend to have people form 5+ parties elected this seems to be what happens more.

We need a system revamp, not a party revamp. Both the R's and D's suck because they are just playing by the rules of the system.