How should a two-party political system work?

[Lief 🗽]

A two-party system is fine, provided that the parties are relatively ideologically coherent and united (which is currently the case, but was not the case during the less partisan 1950s and such, where both parties were basically divided into Southern and Northern wings and party discipline was a lot less strict). Ideologically coherent and unified parties are a good thing, as is partisanship, as they make the consequences of elections more clear and allow voters to make better informed choices.

The problem with our current political system, what makes it so dysfunctional, is not partisanship or a lack of collegiality between the parties. The problems are the filibuster in the Senate and unequal representation in the House and Senate, which prevent a party that wins a majority of the vote from implementing its agenda, so that the voters are able to ratify it or reject it in the next election.