Why do we have a 2-party system in the United States?

We're taking a look at how the US ended up with the two major parties we have now in our election process. Newsy National Political Correspondent Alex Miller has a Deep Dive.

[lukasmaturana]

After the civil war why didn’t they change the constitution so there could not be a 2 party system. Today it looks like we are facing the second American civil war. Not for exact same reasons of course but America is so politically divided and this is what caused an American civil war

[nolaserv]

Campaign reform is the answer so all parties or persons can be heard and put a ceiling on campaign funding or spread it out evenly.

[officialtsathenamontreux]

It's simple. It's because we don't have a direct democracy and ranked choice voting. Not to mention the super pacs which give incredible amounts of cash to both parties. The two-party system has failed.

[Davidsavage]

Should have 1 party ladies. 1 party gentleman. People would care more about the issues and the corporations would loose the lobbyists.

[eg]

You can definitely have a third party in this system, but the biggest issue is industry.

[GT-]

This doesn't explain why, it explains how.

[rodrozil]

That's why I say that, democracy is overrated un West.

[ikptbev]

Conflict that politicians to my commitment if Americans people doesn’t support my commitment anytime to withdraw my support to the government of America

[joelrionstaves]

We need to replace this with an all party system. The two party system is very anti-American.

[sadiedog]

She has it all backwards, and that is no accident. We have multiple parties, but only two prominent parties because everyone is either liberal or conservative. The political parties didn't shape the politics of our country, the politics of our country has shaped our political parties. There are only two worldviews, conservative and liberal, there is really nothing in-between. The Green party is a liberal party, the Libertarian party is conservative. People clearly fall into one end or the other of the "political spectrum", so we have the two main parties that represent the two world views that people can hold. Any other political position is only a slight change from either end of the spectrum. There is no middle ground any longer because the liberals have widened the gap with socialism and Marxism. Ranked choice or proportional representation is a tool to take votes from the winning party, and instead give those votes to someone who is a compromise.