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Most people hate the political duopoly of the Democrats and Republicans (some people insist on calling it a Uniparty and while there’s a whole lot of corrupt and faithless pols, if you really can’t see the difference between the people calling for the abolition of ICE and those funding it, well…) but it’s hard to look at true multi-party systems elsewhere (or in American history) and think they’re better.
Most multi-party systems depend on parliamentary coalitions which we fortunately don’t have. To see why they’re so terrible, take a look at the trouble that Geert Wilders had in the Netherlands or Netanyahu in Israel. Parliamentary coalitions maintain a kind of political center that is forever sliding leftward. In other words, it’s everything you hate about our political system, but made much worse.
There’s the Latin American model, which we are moving toward, but that’s even worse for anyone who doesn’t like civil wars every other decade. (Jefferson did argue in favor of them.)
How would an actual effective third party work in America today? The two parties used redistricting to minimize the number of swing districts. Much of the public hates both parties, but running a candidate in any district would require competing against that district’s existing formulation. That means trying to beat either party in a district created just for its candidates. And running third party candidates in swing districts would most likely chip away at whichever two party candidate is likely to pick up independent voters. And that would likely end up favoring Democrats over Republicans.
There are a number of reasons that no third party has taken off. Lack of serious financing is one. And the lack of compelling candidates is another. And then there’s the lack of infrastructure. Trump took off once he ran as a Republican. Not when he was trying to run as a third party candidate twenty some years ago. But the bigger picture is that while a lot of people hate both parties, they’d rather pick someone from either party than vote for a third party. It’s not just the perception that they’re throwing their vote away. There really isn’t any meaningful space for a third party to come into.
Some variation of fiscally conservative and socially liberal has been tried again and again. But for anyone who really objects to social conservatism, the Republicans are more socially liberal than they’ve ever been. They’re not fiscally conservative anymore, and that’s what some of the current controversy is about, but considering that political power comes from spending money, is a ‘fiscally conservative’ political movement even possible as a reality rather than just as rhetoric?
When push comes to shove, members of Congress get power from spending money. It’s easier to create a third party than to fundamentally change how this system works.
I’m pretty sure Musk’s new party is about the EV subsidies.
Life is binary. Everything is binary. Zero/one. 0/1. Dark/light. Male/female. 1\0. Hot/cold. Rich/poor. Beautiful/ Ugly. Republican/Dim OHcrap. Reality/fantasy. Yes/No.
All about EV subsidies and mandates!
No matter what hew says, these are the arguments that occurred in the white house with Sec. Treasury Bessent.
I disagree, Elon put everything on the line for DOGE and paid a huge price, and the GOP swamp House can’t even codify the DOGE cuts. How much political will would that burn? If they can’t bother with that, they need replacing.
They had a lot of 3rd parties in Ancient Rome. Caused a lot of trouble.
Such as rich Oligarchs, the Aristocracy, and the masses of ordinary people.
I’m beginning to understand the Aristocracy a little. In the British Navy they had something called “the habit of command”. Namely, those accustomed to giving orders and bossing others around, whether or not they were actually competent to give sensible orders.
Yes, the fiscal conservative party that participated in Republican Party is long gone.
The party of Barry Goldwater and the new wave of conservatism that started forming within the Republican Party has virtually disappeared..
Yes, there’s the freedom caucus but the leadership does not have a dynamic leader..
And there’s no articulate media advocates educating conservative policy, such as William F Buckley . and Pat Buchanan.
Most of the conservative media have become populist and trended away from Stallworth conservative principles.
What about allowing only registered voters from the district or state to donate money in congressional elections and only local voters in local elections? Easy and fair to all.
I suggested something like that a long time ago. It didn’t fly for some reason. Probably politicians wanted to keep the money flowing.
Judging by his rhetoric, Musk seems more pissed about losing some subsidies than anything else. He will get zero MAGA/MAHA votes. Some open borders. anarchy type libertarians may go with him but they will probably nominate more gay socialist candidates because they are morons. He may pick up some TDS type traditional republicans but they also hate one another. Democraps also have Musk derangement syndrome. What he does have going for him is a social media platform with massive reach, a ton of money, and massive army of government bureaucrats, trough feeders, military industrial/intelligence types who will back anyone and do anything in order to thwart Trump and MAGA/MAHA. There is still a chance this some kind of Trump/Elon psyop collaboration because it makes no sense otherwise (other than Elon is just a total loose cannon do whatever I want guy which is cool).
Imagine having three parties in a society where Islam or socialism is the dominant belief system of most voters, if this were possible that is. What essential difference would it make? None at all.
It’s easier to create a third party than to change the philosophical course of a society. The beliefs and convictions of the voters.
“The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next.” –
Abraham Lincoln
Quoting you”
” Parliamentary coalitions maintain a kind of political center that is forever sliding leftward. In other words, it’s everything you hate about our political system, but made much worse.”
Definition leads to clarity….. well said! I will be using this quote in articles about Canada, and Europe, especially Britain.
Let’s be honest. American voters are at best suspicious of govt spending. That is unless they believe it’s money that’s getting spent on them. I doubt that will change, Cynical, but true.
As long as there are 40.5% of the population that does not pay income taxes then they do no care who and how much the are taxed.
And as long as people can vote their own benefits, e.g. welfare, SNAP, Medicaid recipients, they also will not care who and how much the others are taxed,
As long as these people can vote, then politicians will pander to them. The Left wants to grow this block, and I fear that Trump does as well.
Our founders believed that those who have nothing to lose and everything to gain from government, should not participate in electing those who would grant them that gain!
The Whigs went to way of the Dodo and so should the UN/Globalists advocates
We almost have a third party now – COMMUNIST! The DEMOcraty/HYPOCRITE Party is a mix of socialists and outright communists! The R’s have MAGA and RINO’s. Fortunately, there were enough decent R’s and democrats to rid Our Nation of the biden bunglers! Together, that was sort of a third party!
Neither does the two party system. It’s evil!
“There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties, each arranged under its leader, and concerting measures in opposition to each other. This, in my humble apprehension, is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our Constitution.”
― John Adams, The works of John Adams,: Second President of the United States
This is EXACTLY why many Americans claim they are “voting for the lesser of two evils.” Remember, even the lesser is still EVIL and you’re saying it with your own mouths. Repent, our forefathers warned us of this divide and conquer that occurs in a two party system. Honestly, the federal government should be abolished at this point. According to the Declaration of Indpendence, it’s become a threat to liberty, life and property and the People have the right to ALTER or ABOLISH it. It should have been done some time ago.
Quoting John Adams, the man who wanted to silence and jail any one who spoke out against his policies, is not an effective argument.
Within a few years of his presidency 2 distinct parties emerges! The Federalists who espoused a strong central government (i.e. modern Democrats) and the Democratic Republicans (i.e. modern Republican) who espoused states rights and personal liberties.
Within a few decades the Federalists were no more and the Democratic Republicans eventually split into the parties we have today.
Get rid of the DuNCe party and start a new one – that is center liberal but moves to the right
This is only a smattering of how many Bible passages we are instructed to be on the “right” side of life:
John 21:6 And He said to them, “Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” So they cast, and now they were not able to draw it in because of the multitude of fish.
Acts 7:56 And he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and rthe Son of Man standing pat the right hand of God.”
Psalm 110 (A Psalm of David.) The Lord says to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.”
Third parties work if you want a party (e.g. Republican) to lose.
It easy to negate the value of a 3rd party and look at history as a defining medium. However, it would appear the US is not following traditional political party doctrine at this point in time. It could be argued the Democratic party has corrupted itself from its original intent by being too ‘far left’ , too far liberal, too socialistic, often Marxist, even as far as a Communistic (NY mayoral candidate) divided party. The Democratic party today has no leadership, no structure, is completely corrupted in its purpose, message and use of government, which is allowing the infiltration of parties adversarial to our country and the negative indoctrination of our youth. They would rather stand on a dead hill and rebel against Trump than face realistic bi-partisan support where it counts in order to protect their constituents, the American people. Its disgusting. As a woman who has voted Democrat for almost 40 years, for the first time I swung my vote to the Republicans. Not that the Republicans fill every void the Democrats have failed to, they too have a ‘far right conservative side’ that is hard for me to accept. But overall, they seem to have a more cohesive message, plan of action and a basic common sense approach and to be honest, Trump is doing a good job getting done what he said he would – and all this in spite of opening his frustratingly detrimental mouth that one time too often. I used to idealize myself politically as a ‘Republicrat’. Liking less federal government controls, while advocating for women’s rights, gay rights and certain social issues, but with less sense of entitlement. I think that is where Musk is coming from. He said he isn’t interested in being President, just advocating for a party and an alternative choice that provides clear and somewhat cohesive government which outside of the Republican party, the Democrats do not currently have AT ALL. So I say to the so called current Democratic party, step up, find a true leader, come together as a team on behalf of the Americans you are supposed to serve, find a purpose, find balance not governed by the crazy ignorant rhetoric and government/American hating people like AOC, Gavin Newsome and Bernie Sanders and you will likely see Musk dropping his new party in favor of supporting the Dems party once again.