The Mid-Terms Will Be America’s First Taste Of A Parliamentary Election

It’s normal in places like Britain, Canada and Australia for voters to cast ballots for a party, not a politician.

America’s system is different. While some states allow straight ticket voting, many of us have to go through the ballot and chose the candidates that we support.

But as the mid-term elections approach next week, party identities are the clearest they have been in modern American politics — the Republicans swinging to the right, the Democrats to the left, locked in a bitter war with each other.

Caught in the middle, American voters will be acting differently than they have in the past, as I explained in my essay for ABC Australia.

Many people are vowing to vote only for Democrats, or conversely Republicans.

The result will be seen as either a protest vote, or one of support, for the ultimate political personality, Donald Trump.

In a sense, this will be America’s first true parliamentary election, a real break with our political past.

Bipartisanship eroding

Since the 1860s, American politics has been dominated by a two-party system.