I fully admit that I typically lean Right on most issues, but the reality is that the current two-party system will eventually destroy this country. If there ever were a time for a third party now is it!
The new party, called Forward and whose creation was first reported by Reuters, will initially be co-chaired by former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang and Christine Todd Whitman, the former Republican governor of New Jersey. They hope the party will become a viable alternative to the Republican and Democratic parties that dominate U.S. politics, founding members told Reuters.
Right now, people are tired of hearing from the extremes at both ends of the political spectrum. In that context, I can see this party succeeding at some level.
Post-Civil War, there have only been five elections where a third party candidate won electoral votes.
Each time this happened it was because there was a temporary big party schism that eventually ended up with the third party being absorbed back into one party or the other.
The only period of time third parties flourished for any length of time was from about 1824-1860. And they were always temporary. Eventually all but two parties would die out.
Basically for the reasons Jezcoe said…we have winner take all systems…that screams out two parties.
And the two parties themselves control the political apparatus so tightly third parties face enormous odds.
And those somewhat successful third party candidates were all household names before they ran. That’s the only reason they won anything.
Teddy Roosevelt in 1912 is the only third party candidate since the Civil War to actually win more electoral votes than a major party candidate. He won more states than Taft did as a Republican.
But both were obliterated by Wilson. So it was a pointless endeavor.
I don’t think switching to a parliamentary system would fix the problem either.
In those systems you tend to end up with a permanent coalition system. Where there are two different sides made up of different parties that toe lines to ensure representation in parliament.
The UK is a great example of that phenomenon. The Tories dominate the right coalition and Labor dominates the left coalition. There’s a few parties in each coalition but voting lines are established and the smaller parties tend to support their coalition leader parties.
There is one advantage to that system though. The smaller parties can threaten to leave the coalition and get their positions in big legislation. So it is ultimately a little more representative than we have. But not the extend that I would like.
Yeah they are. Contrary to many views, the Dems aren’t overwhelmingly dominated by the extreme left.
I would say the moderate center has been mostly neutered. But there’s a series of big fights going on between the remaining New Deal Left and the European style Social Democrat left.
It’ll be interesting to see who wins out in the end. The New Dealers are getting pretty old. They came into congress back in the 70s and 80s. They don’t have the vigor they used to.
As for Republicans… I must say the most surprising thing about them is how quickly the Trump Wing took over the most powerful positions within the party as well as being the most influential foot soldiers. As dumb as Trump was at politics, he certainly inspired a mass migration of view points.
At this point, a Republican must hold at least 75% of Trump’s policies. Otherwise they are DOA in terms of influencing the party.
It’s been interesting seeing the more traditional conservative wing getting drug along by a rope. They got blind sided by populism. Thought they could control it. But they ended up being consumed by it.
Can’t say it surprised me, the Republican Party has not stood FOR anything in a very long time. The one thing that ties them is the idea that Dems are “evil”.
Trump harnessed this and rebuilt the party around the principals of MAGA which implies that America is no longer great and it’s the Dems who are to blame.
It was brilliant, the old GOP was hollow just waiting for that vacuum to be filled. So ditching the old principles was easy.
It’s like the Republicans were arrogant about their success in the 80s and early 90s that they abandoned any ambition to create a new platform for the 21st century.
