Maybe you have heard this song, but just in case I'll send it.com/// I can partially agree with your opinion of political parties, but in a pluralistic society, I'm afraid there is no other way to delineate ideals. In Fascism there are no opposing viewpoints, hence, with two or more parties, at least there is the possibility of a consensus of opinions or preferences. With a dictator there can be no compromise, and I would argue that opposing ideals are necessary to a "democratic" system. We call it "checks and balances"..

@fishline79 If you know about "checks and balances" then you've studied civics, something not taught anymore and that makes you more qualified for office then any Republican except possibly Liz Cheney.
Make education "cool" again, because in the right wing delusion their ignorance gives them no choice but to live by faith, so in fact ignorance becomes a virtue. It's just a sad fact, it goes way back, policy like "trickle down" was proven disastrous before it was implemented, but they learned enough to prop it up long enough to silence trade unions. All for the benefit of billionaires. If you're a Republican today in 2023 you're garbage and an international humanitarian shame.
Deal with it.

@Willow_Wisp Sad but true. See my reply to Fernapple below. We're fucked!

I think the main components of the problem are apathy, and lack of education, the former being a result of the latter. There is an appalling diminution of the level of education in both primary and secondary education, both in my country and yours. The average "American" student knows virtually nothing about history or literature or science or even their own language. Young people can't even write cursive script. The advent of PCs and the "Worldwide Web" has short-circuited their cognitive process. Teachers these days can't even assign research papers or other essays or theses, for fear that they will get some "A.I." app to do it for them. The old adage, "Those who forget history are condemned to repeat it", whomever first said it, is right, and not only have we forgotten, most people have never learned it in the first place! There should be intellectual requirements for voting, but of course, that is a chimera.

@fishline79 That is also very true. And the two are mutually supporting, for if you have complacency then there is no need for education.

@Fernapple It was a good idea but the "Founding Fathers" got it wrong from the start. To paraphrase the Declaration of Independence, "We hold these truths to be self evident, that all (wealthy white Land owning) men are created equal, etc."....Sorry, from the beginning they even established something called the "Electoral College" to insure that the tenets described therein would not apply to "all men" or even all women. The long Queues for voting you mentioned are an exception, which applies to the EX Confederate States. I never had to wait to vote in my home state of Pennsylvania, nor do blacks. Simply stated, the division that is occurring in our Congress is a continuation of the division that was happening in the first half of the 19th Century. The "Confederate" rallying cry in the " post war reconstruction era" was "The South will rise again". Well, my friends, it is rising again.

@fishline79 I did not think that the lines to vote were everywhere. But it would be regarded as even more of a national shame here, if they were in some places and not others.

@Fernapple Of course, you don't have the history that we have. Your country made a collective decision to do away with slavery long before Half of ours did. However, if you read Mansfield Park, by Jane Austin, and other literature, you see that the "Ruling Class" were still engaged in the trade. There is plenty of Hypocrisy to go around.