[Bonded]

The teapartiers are delusional in my opinion. They are grossly misinformed on a lot of topics, and mainstream republicans have started to distance themselves from the rightwing fringe because they are scared that if the party rums with tea-partiers they will lose harshly to the democrats.

I think the main problem with American politics is that there is little to no middle ground because of the two-party political system. There is no middling party that can bring about compromise. Every time a divisive issue comes up both parties revert to bullish politics that disallow smart compromises for fear of looking weak. It has really split the american public into two camps that hate each other. Hard lines are drawn and will not be broken until crisis. It worsens the inborn shortsightedness of democratic politics and hampers effective long-term planning and policy even further than is seen in other Western democracies. While election cycles and choice are what democracy is built upon, it also emphasizes for short0term gains over choices that may hurt in the short run but provide a better long-term gains and stability.

Yes, it is a disadvantage of having fixed election dates, and I worry that it will only get more ridiculous because of the supreme court's decision that corporations have free-reign on how much money they pump into elections, Karl Rove and the Tort 'reformers' swayed judicial elections to favour corporations over consumer rights, and now with unlimited contributions I fear that the US will become further entrenched in corporatist politics that favours business interests over citizen interests.