In your post, Doug, you hit on the crux of the whole problem with political parties...and that is why I wish they were all abolished. They do not work for democracy or make for good government. They work for themselves, period. That is a bad system, guaranteed to turn rotten and betray the ideals on which your democracy was founded. It's the same problem in Canada. The very idea of political parties opens a Pandora's box of corruption and self-serving and cronyism.

It is entirely possible to form a city council with no political parties, and it would be equally possible to do the same at any other level of government.

And that is why I despise both the Democrats and the Republicans. They are self-serving, tremendously wealthy, morally compromised, power-hungry organizations playing a game called "defraud the voter and devour the spoils of victory by any means possible". It is folly to expect good government to result from such a system.

It's a game, but you have all gotten so used to backing the home team that you can't see that it's just a game. They will do or say ANYTHING that they think will get your votes. Once they are elected, you are out of the picture. They choose who runs, they choose how to allocate the money, you rubber stamp their choice every 4 years. It's not a true democracy. It's a sham, like one of those cheap western town sets in the movies...looks great from the front...nothing behind it that is real.