Collegiate Times

As political cynics note, the American people have found themselves caught in a vicious cycle of accusation, spin, and counter-accusation, perpetuated by the two prominent parties and their foot soldiers - all at the cost of actual philosophical ideals.

There is news media and the water cooler talk enveloped by trivial commentaries by each party pandering to the public to get the upper hand in pop perception without having to make a logical defense of the next bill on the docket.

These elected officials, Ivy League scholars most, are certainly capable of applying economic and ethical theory and presenting sound reasoning for or against a law. Additionally, the American people are among, if not the most, highly educated in the world; they do not lack the capacity to stand in judgment of prudent and imprudent policy.

Still, there is a plethora of examples of arbitrary and unimportant measures stemming from pop culture that dominate Congress and news outlets.

The recent introduction of a resolution on the death of Michael Jackson is representative of the whole: party lines once again descended upon the Capitol and the resolution, wasteful or ortherwise, has not passed.

While the incessant news coverage may be annoying at best, there is one auspicious omen resulting from the squabble on Capitol Hill, albeit indirectly.

As politicians make fools of themselves attacking and defending the singer, who was acquitted on charges of molestation, but admitted to having children share his bed, they become too preoccupied to pose an additional threat to the rights of those they represent.

Ironically, for those of the libertarian viewpoint, hope shimmers in the notion that Madison's world of republican virtue has been inverted. Truth may no longer be sought by those in office, but as long as they are kept to inconsequential matters, neither can power.

Furthermore, it is safe to assume the longevity of both parties, with neither often gaining the 60/40 supermajority, even with a strong political tide. Because of this, the two parties canceling out has almost become an unwritten Constitutional protection.

In this way, the problem of imperfect information is countered by limiting the amount of dangerous legislation being produced.

But Congress will not deviate from policy-making for long, and even the safeguard created by the counter-balancing of the two parties cannot stop everything as one side must be in the majority.    As Madison showed in Federalist No. 10, the objects of the republic's protection and the faction's destruction are the same: rights of the minority. Noting that many oppressive regimes came to power with a majority's support, it is not hard to see his point.

More dangerous than the party lines President Obama campaigned against is a Congress undivided amongst itself, but imposing upon those who do not support it.

Even George Washington, who famously warned that a permanent two-party system would injure the nation, may have underestimated the utility of the political duopoly.

Madison took many lessons from his participation in the Assembly, including the pitfalls of a political system that centers on petty feuds and power struggles amongst factions, ideas he would expound upon in Federalist No. 10.

While the celebrity involvement, publicity stunts, and pop politics are bothersome byproducts, the systematic safeguards created by the two-party system are just one more protection for the rights of Americans, in both the majority as well as the minority.