(SeaPRwire) – Most Americans are unaware of this fact: back in 1988, the Republican and Democratic parties dismissed the League of Women Voters—a neutral, nonpartisan group that had overseen presidential debates for decades—and replaced it with a commission they control themselves. A lot of Americans only pay attention to politics in the lead-up to a presidential election, so the debates often become the key moments in the campaign.
When that body—the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD)—was established, it was co-managed by the heads of the Republican and Democratic National Committees. In reality, its purpose was to safeguard the two parties that formed it.
The CPD’s most prominent rule mandates that any third-party candidate hoping to join these nationally broadcast debates must get more than 15% support in at least five national polls—a practically insurmountable barrier. To put this in perspective: since the 1974 law offering federal matching funds was enacted, only two third-party candidates have ever gotten over 5% of the popular vote and qualified for those funds. The CPD’s threshold is three times that. In short, the two major parties have built a system explicitly intended to keep other competitors out.
For nine election cycles, the CPD fulfilled that role—until 2024, when it wasn’t even necessary anymore. Forty years had passed since the League of Women Voters last hosted the debates, so the two major parties chose to work out the details directly with the networks. Significantly, they only invited each other.
A dysfunctional government is a serious, dangerous problem. The two major parties bicker over power like stubborn kids fighting for a TV remote. When one manages to grab it, the loser storms out of the room—or the Capitol Building.
In 2011, their failure to compromise caused a government shutdown, and Standard & Poor’s downgraded the nation’s debt from AAA to AA—something that hadn’t happened in about a hundred years. This will probably cost future generations trillions of dollars in interest.
The system has remained largely unchanged for 250 years, but in the decades after the collapse of Communism, there was no existential threat to democracy pushing politicians to compromise. When Ronald Reagan and Tip O’Neill disagreed, they didn’t shut down the government—they famously found a solution, because not doing so would have given the Soviets an advantage. Once the Berlin Wall fell, the risks of not compromising no longer seemed more important to elected officials than chasing personal power and wealth. Putting country before party became a choice, and they chose party.
Are the American people happy with how this two-party system is performing? Ballotpedia reports that in January 2026, Congress’s approval rating is around 15%—a number pollsters refer to as “the floor,” since it’s nearly impossible to drop any lower. Gallup data shows that since 2010, Congress’s approval rating has rarely gone above 30%.
To give 15% some context: a YouGov poll from about a year ago found that Adolf Hitler’s approval-related ratings range from 11% to 23%, depending on interpretation—11% of Americans think some of his ideas were “correct,” and 12% described him as “a bad person who did some good things.” YouGov’s unfavorable score for Hitler is -88%. Stalin fares slightly better, with an unfavorable rating between -75% and -80%.
Hitler. Stalin. The U.S. Congress. Polling places all three in roughly the same range. That statement should worry every American.
Many of us have accepted the idea that there’s nothing we can do to fix this. I don’t believe that. Change does happen. It often comes when we least expect it, or so slowly we don’t notice—but it’s unavoidable. Just because you can’t see continents shifting doesn’t mean tectonic plates aren’t there. Just because you didn’t know the Republican Party started as a third party doesn’t make it false. The Whigs would agree—if any of them were still around.
Specific issues don’t matter anymore when we lack a working political system to pass laws. This isn’t a death sentence for our democracy—it’s a call to action. Citizens need to pressure their representatives to overturn Citizens United, reduce the influence of money in politics, expand access to presidential debates, eliminate the filibuster, abolish the Electoral College, implement term limits, and revamp the system so it functions properly again.
Even if Edmund Burke didn’t actually say, “Evil triumphs when good men do nothing because they could only have done a little,” the statement is still true. Change is bound to happen, but reform never starts at the top—it comes from ordinary people. More 18-year-olds now register as Independents than join either major party. The two parties have had a long run, but we deserve better. Vote Independent. Write to your representative. Hold them accountable. Do something small.
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