I couldn't agree more.There is no future in the politics of the Democratic-Republican Party: there is only the present news cycle and the momentum of historical inertia. The two-party system is a nineteenth century electoral anachronism in the United States of the twenty-first century. Confronted with the rise of political independents, the duopoly parties are clearly in disarray, scrambling to retain some semblance of relevance for the many people who have already left them behind.
The question of why the Democratic and Republican Parties do not adequately represent increasingly large segments of the population is easy to answer: they simply can't. Unlike the political class, the US electorate is not bipolar in character, it is multi-polar. Arguably, it is structurally impossible for the two-party system to represent the diversity and the wide array of interests to be found among the people of the United States.
Perhaps finally, the internet will impact politics like it has impacted every other aspect of our lives.
3 comments:
No doubt about it, the "party" is over.
All over the print and electronic media this week, the poobahs and pundits are predicting major Republican gains in next year's elections. What is their basis for so bold a prediction? Historically, the party of a sitting president always loses in the midterm elections. It is as natural as autumn following summer. However, they fail to take into consideration one crucial factor: this is no ordinary time.
Given their weird behavior in the last year or so - and given the fact that they will only continue to self destruct in coming twelve months - I cannot foresee them gaining any serious ground in either the House or the Senate on Election Day next. In fact I can only see their numbers diminishing even further. By this time next year, Sarah Palin will be yesterday's news - count on it.
We can only hope that out of the carnage of the GOP's destruction will come a third party that is a tad more moderate and thoughtful - and I must emphasize the word "Hope". Than ain't never gonna happen, baby! It's easy to predict that the Democrats will be running things for a long time into the future. The problem with that little scenario is, as Machiavelli said, "power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely" - and the Democrats already have more-than-their-share of corrupt political hacks. For every Russ Feingold there are about ten Max Baucuses. If the Democratic Party is going to be taken seriously in their self-proclaimed roll as the "the party of the people" (and that's getting harder to believe by the day) they need to be purged of their dead weight.
http://www.tomdegan.blogspot.com
Tom Degan
Goshen, NY
The Modern Whigs might be singularly suited to taking on the duopoly then: fight anachronism with an atavism! ;-)
It is time to take on the duopoly in a serious and straight-forward way.
Check out the following non-partisan movement, It’s called Get Out of Our House! (GOOOH, pronounced, “go”). Visit the website (www.goooh.com) to learn more; the website does a much better job explaining the idea than I could.
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