It's a big club, and you ain't in it

[davidn3600]

18. Both parties elect their candidates based on a system of elitism

You basically run for president your entire life. You rise up the ranks of the party and kiss the right asses and hopefully those people are in the right place to elevate you.

In other words, you can't run for President until you "pay your dues and take your lumps."

The problem though is this eventually becomes a very corrupt process. And it's very undemocratic because it begins to resemble a line of succession. When that happens....when you can predict who the candidates will be 8, 12, 16 years out....that's when you cease to become a democracy. You are now not much different than a monarchy.

This is what George Washington feared and thought would destroy the country. He despised political parties. He believed what will happen is you would would end up with a small group of party elites at the top who will pick the candidates and set the platform. Then, everyone else below them feels compelled to support what the elites have decided. He believed this destroys individual thought and was undemocratic.

Washington has a good point. But it's less of a problem in countries where you have lots of parties. If your country has 6 parties, you could probably relate to a few of them. And coalitions have to be formed in order for a government to function. Therefore it kind of provides a check and balance system within itself.
However, when you have very few choices, that's when the problems really begin. And especially when you get down to one-party rule....you no longer have a democracy at all. That's when things start turning into what you had with the Nazis in Germany and the Soviet communists in Russia. There is no check and balance at all. It is complete control of the state through one party's elitist rule. And I think that the danger we are now facing in America as the GOP continues to fade.

Remember the old saying....
"Absolute power corrupts absolutely."
The American government was designed by our founders to have checks and balances. It was designed to avoid corruption, abuse of power, and maintain power to the people. When one party has so much dominance that that check and balance no longer works because one party controls every element of the state.....then the American experiment is officially over. And this country will eventually end up in the dustbin of failed empires throughout history.

Do you want the entire American government controlled by only a few unelected people at the top of a political party? I don't. Not even if they were Democrats. That's too much power in the hands of too few.