Let's say there's a Democratic candidate running for Senate I really like, but there's also a Republican candidate for the House I'd prefer to get the seat of my constituency. I can't vote for both in the primaries, no matter what, despite them running for different elections.

Jamie: Not everyone registered Democrat is a sheep, nor is everyone registered Republican a sheep. People should vote for whomever they want, no matter how they're registered.

Trump is a maniac and his supporters are insane. Seriously please reconsider.

If Trump wins, I move out on the countryside and build me a nuclear shelter!

People can vote for whomever they want in the general election. Party primaries are to decide who represents the party and party members should be able to exclude non-party members from doing so. Democrats shouldn't have to allow people who do not share their values and who do not care about the future of the party to vote in their own intra-party elections.

"If Trump wins, I move out on the countryside and build me a nuclear shelter!"

Another reason to vote Trump, I suppose.

"If you're a Democrat and you like Trump, you're not actually a Democrat."

No, you're probably from somewhere pretty white (so the party realignment on civil rights in the '60s didn't affect you much), working a possibly-union factory job (or formerly employed at same), and bitter about Democratic support for free trade. Or, you're probably from somewhere near the Mexican border, working in unskilled labor (or unemployed), in favor of the social safety net, but bitter about porous borders, undocumented workers, and the businesses that employ them.

Trump's target audience isn't a mystery or a joke. There's no reason for Trump's opposition to hamstring itself by failing to understand his supporters.

"they care enough that they know they aren't Democrats or Republicans"

Then you shouldn't be voting in a Democratic or Republican primary.

Then there shouldn't be Democratic or Republican parties. There's no real reason to keep them in the American system. In other system party's help a lot more than they do here.
Not to mention this non-party demographic helps hand the win over to candidates, but apparently we aren't good enough to have a say on any major candidates? Fuck that. We don't need a party driven sheeple society that exists to serve only the interests of the parties, and they play each other off as villains to encourage a perpetual system where neither loses power and no one can challenge that despite how much their necessity ceases to exist, therein caring less about voters themselves or even the state of the nation, and instead encourages candidates to further a party rhetoric that is flawed and dumb.
Fuck the system.

Someone is having anger issues. If you don't like either parties, you're free to vote third party. You can't force them to disband. If you are not a Democrat, you can't vote in the Democratic primary. If you're not a Republican, you can't vote in the Republican primary. It's that simple.

"If you don't like either parties, you're free to vote third party."
HHAHAHAHAHHHAHAHHAAAA
Encouraging people to waste their votes doesn't cure the system either.

The system literally is set up to make sure that anyone who doesn't identify with Democrats or Republicans can't organize nearly as well and so can't pose a threat to them. Parties exist to further the power of the parties. They used to be about the organization of ideas. In other countries they still contribute considerably. Here, in the states, a place where people want to elect people based on personality and individual ideology, parties are dumb. There's no reason to keep them around, but we can't really change it. What's most important is that I'm an American. Whether I'm a Democrat or a Republican, I want a candidate who lets me see the best option for this country, and if the primaries are strictly closed, that's not an option. People are restricted to the best option for the party, and then having to choose between 2 people they may very well despise.

If enough people wasted their votes, parties would disappear, but so many people equate voting third party as a wasted vote that there will never be enough momentum to elect a third party candidate.

Wups, the 'sheeple' comments are out in full force. And parties are useless, but only major party votes count, eh? What's the logic there?

They're useless, but their power is imprinted. They are the status quo, but they've ceased to contribute anything productive.

If you think it's a wasted vote, then why not register as a Democrat or Republican? Your circular logic is circular.

Which one do you expect me to choose?

Because, again, I expect to vote split ticket. So, no, that STILL does nothing.

Half a loaf is better than no bread. I think I read that somewhere.

Can anyone here think of a real, constructive reason as to why there should still be parties in the United States?

Politics necessarily involves connecting with others who share similar goals in order to implement legislation. Parties are an inevitable vehicle of doing this. They are also an easy method of organizing the structure of legislatures and the process by which laws and debated and voted on. You have chairmen, ranking members, speakers, minority leaders, etc. You need a structure by which to negotiate.

Furthermore, to remove parties means politics would be entirely personality driven. Weak party states with fluid parties tend to have frequent defections and cases of new party creation. It makes politics entirely about getting favors and nepotism (more so than it already is) rather than a battle over values.

The issue isn't the existence of political parties in the United States, it's the obstruction of all but the primary two.

No, Putin, factions are natural. Parties are unnatural manufactures born out of factions. Factions are issue-driven and seek to make a certain stance on a certain issue come about, parties are set up so that a group may gain power. In the American system of only two parties having a chance, each side exacerbates one another, and then flings on throwing whatever at the other so that they themselves look better. In the vast majority of other systems, parties contribute much more than this, and the government surely benefits more in those systems. The closest thing in the American system there is to where parties are worth much is the Speaker of the House selection process. And American politics is already becoming increasingly personality-driven. Considering the individualism of the American system, political parties are long past outdated, but their grubby little hands are still firmly grasping the institution.

What unnatural forces created the 2-party system, TrPrado? It is natural that there would be 2 ideological extremes.

On a series of arbitrary issues that don't necessarily associate in such ways. They made their stances broad and intentionally opposite of one another to encourage a divide among people and increase the strength of their support. A system of party whips is not natural.

Can you name a democratic system that has not developed into political party systems? People are naturally inclined towards ideological extremes, and true moderates are few and far between. In fact, even in the international arena, when was the last time you saw a major three-way war? No, it's almost always between two opposing forces: communism and capitalism, fascism and freedom, monarchy and democracy, etc.

Again, FACTIONS, not parties, are natural. Parties are artificial creations that occur as powers become more capable of manipulating powers.

What sort of all-powerful being do you accuse of creating the 2-party systems in all the democracies around the world? You sound like those loony neo-Nazis who accuse Jews of manipulating the world's political systems.

It's not all. Most countries with parliaments have several parties. Mexico has 3 that get seats. The U.K. had had three for a while, considering the divisions between Early Labour and Liberals, and more recently how the Lib Dems had played out. Americans consolidate better, but this also decreases voices of many who don't line up with a party perfectly.