Dear Future President,

The first and only president not affiliated with a political party was George Washington; who served from 1789 to 1797. Federalists and Democratic-Republicans, Democrats and Whigs, Democrats and Republicans; America has favored a two party system throughout history. That seems great right? Two nice neat categories for the American population to fall orderly into. But it's not great; with the current two party system voices are being silenced, the democratic process is being hindered, and it has divided the American population more than ever.

While it is important to note that there are multiple political parties active in America today and people can freely identify with whatever political party they want; it is also important to note how little these other political parties are represented in the legislative and executive branch, outside of the major two political parties: Democrat and Republican. The people who identify outside of the two major parties are under represented in Congress and, during election years, forced to chose between candidates they don't agree with. Even if there are candidates within their party running for an office it is often viewed as "throwing away their vote" if they chose to support that candidate; as most believe that these candidate have no chance of winning. The voices of the multiple different political parties are being drowned out by the two major political parties.

This all hinders the democratic process as perfectly capable candidates are often over looked for important government roles just because of a party affiliation. This two party system narrows the scope of potential leaders of this wonderful country drastically, and makes it so that the decisions made for this country is done by just two groups. This creates an environment with little to no diversity. Our nations politics has formed the worse case of group think I've ever seen and I'm a senior in high school. If America was a movie we would be "Mean Girls". Where no one can question or oppose ideas made within each party and there is absolutely no room for compromise, but the greatest document in this country's history and the longest standing constitution in the world was built on the premise of compromise. When there was conflict between large states and small states we made Article 1 Section 1 forming the bicameral legislature of the Senate and House of Representatives. When there was a conflict between the Federalists and Anti-Federalist we ratified the Constitution then added the Bill of Rights. Compromise has been a key component that makes great leaders.

Yet within the country the word seems to make legislators and party affiliates cringe at the thought. Which brings me to my last and most problematic point: how divided the two party system has made this country. People, citizens and politicians alike, have put so much focus of on party affiliations that they refuse to even hear out what the other side has to say. Most of the time we all agree on the problem and what the solution should be but where the differences start in how to go about fixing it and since compromise is like a foreign concept it created huge divide between the citizens. A divided population between two solutions only causes conflict, while if here was a multiple party system in the country it would promote diverse thinking and more opportunity of compromise. If we take two political parties that fall on the polar opposite sides of a spectrum on a particular issue, and all other political parties fall somewhere in between; a solution can be sooner meet if we allow those other political parties to advocate their opinions. People are so fixated on party names they just vote their party without doing actual research into the best candidate.

So I hope as the future President of this great country of ours, I hope you listen to all view points and not just conform to what your political party wants. Don't be afraid to disagree with other members of your party, and compromise, compromise, compromise! And maybe just maybe when the next election year comes around you'll support or at least won't dismiss any third party candidates that are brave enough to run.

Sincerely,

Mariah Davis