Opposition

In my travels on the internet, I read a number of online newspapers but mostly the NY Times and the Washington Post. What I find disturbing is the number of people in comments who appear to be in favor of a single party government. I do not understand this.

I realize that people who comment do not represent the majority of readers nor do they represent the majority of any political party. Still, it disturbs me that anyone would ever think such a government would be a good thing to have.

Essentially, until the advent of multi-party systems of government, people throughout the world lived under single party systems. Autocratic systems are single party. Dissent is "discouraged"... forcefully. This means that monarchies are essentially single party systems (support the Crown or else), as are dictatorships, communist states, and any system where the opposition is heavily divided. What good is a multi-party system where the leader's party is overwhelmingly strong and the opposition is divided between weak and scattered political parties? These are essentially single party systems because the preponderance of power rests with one party.

Yet so many people seem to want cooperation over opposition.

Maybe it's my contrary nature, or perhaps I never grew out of the rebel phase of my teen years. But I think healthy opposition is a good thing, a viable opposing political party keeps the one in power honest. Or should. Too much cooperation is scary to me.