The United States has come a long way since Henry Ford’s dictum that the customer could have any colour car they liked, so long as it was black. Now, to be an American consumer is to exercise a flamboyant degree of choice. A lunch counter becomes an exercise in rapid decision-making. Ham, turkey, beef or chicken? Wheat, rye, white or baguette? American, cheddar, Monterey Jack or Swiss? Mayo or butter? And an alphabet of garnishes from arugula to zucchini.

For the average Brit in search of a simple cheese roll containing, well, cheese, this avalanche of decision-making can be overwhelming. The end result, in theory, is a product crafted to suit your individual taste. In practice, whatever you choose you get a bready melange of sweet, sharp, savoury, crunchy and soggy – tasty but indistinct.

There is one area where this range of options is curiously lacking. Here in the US, the political system isn’t quite as rigid as Mr Ford’s sales pitch, but it is black or white
– one party or the other.

Most winner-takes-all, first-past-the post systems encourage a two-party system. In the UK, the third party sometimes struggles to be relevant (although at the moment the Liberal Democrats are in government as part of a coalition), but we’ve also elected law-makers from the Green Party and the anti-European Union UK Independence Party. Smaller parties from both left and right sometimes win local government seats, while national parties are crucial in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The system encourages a profusion of parties with subtly different histories and philosophies.

Not so in the US. Whenever candidates from a third party have tried to stand for President, it has been a spectacular failure. Ross Perot and Ralph Nader both made a big impact, but they left few ripples. Once such individuals are defeated, the system ensures their organisation instantly evaporates.

Alternative parties do exist in the US, from the Prohibition Party to the Marijuana Party, and the Modern Whigs to the Objectivists. But it is hard to discern them ever making the slightest impact.
One might argue that Americans simply get to exercise their choice earlier than the rest of us. Party supporters decide upon their candidates in primary elections, which is a critically important choice. But primaries work along a straight line; Republicans and Democrats can move their party more to the left or the right and there’s rarely any debate of alternative ideas outside such very traditional parameters.

 It's election year, and many voters don’t seem totally enamored by what’s on offer. Perhaps a little lunch-counter philosophy might not go amiss.