A scary political thought for Halloween

Dorothy and her companions in the movie "The Wizard of Oz" chanted, "Lions and tigers and bears. Oh, my! Lions and tigers and bears. Oh, my!" Today, we are all trying to follow the chant of the populace that goes, "Democrats, Republicans and Tea Party. Oh, my!"

During the past 20 years, our political geography has moved from just Democrats and Republicans to Democrats, Republicans, Independents and Tea Party. We have evolved from two political parties to four, with none of them dominant. Yes, but, you say, the Independents are not an organized political party. True, but no one has ever accused the Democrats of being organized, either.

Twenty years ago a national polling group asked thousands which political party they supported. At that time, 34 percent said they were Democrats, 32 percent said they were Republicans and 22 percent said they were Independents. Not long ago, they ran the same poll asking the same questions. This time 32 percent said they were Democrats, 22 percent said they were Republicans and 38 percent said they were Independents. And, the poll did not address the group now impossible to ignore, the Tea Party.

One of our political strengths for most of the past 200 years has been that there has always been a majority party in each house of Congress. That means someone has always been in charge there. If any individual or group thought a problem needed to be addressed, they could take their petition to the leadership of one of the houses of Congress and get a hearing.

Now where do you go? The Republicans have the majority in both houses of Congress, but former Speaker John Boehner would testify that the party leadership has not been in control for some time. Today, there are four different groups vying for control in each house of Congress, and no group has a clear majority.

The voters in the United States tend to swing back and forth between the more liberal Democrats and the more conservative Republicans. Over the past 35 years, the presidency of the U.S. has moved in that familiar pattern. We have had Jimmy Carter (D), Ronald Reagan (R), George H.W. Bush (R), Bill Clinton (D), George W. Bush (R) and Barack Obama (D).

This year the Republican list of candidates for president reached 17 and the Democrats add another five. Each candidate has a support base that may range from the far right to the far left. That sounds more like the French multiparty system than it is the traditional two-party system of the United States. That can't be good.

To complicate matters, our presidential sweepstakes every four years has developed into a search for a wizard. We tend to vote for the one who can generate enough smoke and mirrors to make us think he can help us find our way back to the yellow brick road.

Now, that is a scary thought. Oh, my!