Concerning multiple parties: In 1960, just after college, I studied in Italy for a year. I thought it be would so great to have multiple parties that stood for something, because the two US parties looked like Tweedledum and Tweedledee (not the problem we have now, obviously). Then I saw the very big disadvantages of multiparty situations, as least as that played out in Italy at the time. Each party was so ideologically committed to rigid dogma that there was no hope of compromise, with resulting gridlock, and the system really did not work. It has hardly worked for decades in Italy.
We seem now to have the worst of both worlds. There are only two parties, and at a minimum one of them is so ideologically committed to rigid dogma that there is no hope of compromise , with resulting gridlock. Bruce
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