Originally posted by Janos
I am anxiously awaiting the internal breakdown of current US Republican party into at least
1) Fiscally conservative, socially more liberal state-rights driven republicans
2) Christian neocons
3) dunno
Same with the Democrats:
1) More leftist federalist liberal wing
2) Centrists (mix between R1 and D1)
Seriously, I find it repulsive that US is stuck with inane two-party system, where one party either has all power or none (save those situations where they can just stall the government/senate/congress with stupid filibustery^2). Also, even as I hate the current administration, the Democrats seem to be pretty worthless and unable to do anything at all.
The thing is that most centrists are conservative. Don't any European-types go crazy now because USA conservatism is different than what is seen in other countries (definitely different than what is percieved). Regardless, as someone said, conservative isn't synonymous with Republican (but more often than not it is). Which is why Democrats get elected regardless of the fact that most Americans are conservative (from time to time, and they are usually very conservative Democrats: Clinton, not Kerry). If Kerry had the brains to be at least slightly economically conservative, or decide to agree with the President on a few issues, and got a plan, he would have won easy. But he's a looney at heart
.
While it's true that we don't have a two-party system explicitly, the rules lend to that. Because our election is first past the post, one group will always gather enough issues and support to have a majority. It's common sense, it's how you get your issues heard and dealt with, it's how our republican system is democratic. If a party get's large or threatening (like the Green party), then its issues are absorbed by another party. The problem right now is that the Democrats don't seem to have a unifying issue (except to try to get Bush or beat republicans, which are both purely reactionary and weak, and bad politics because they don't know what they'd do if they won). The Republican Party now stands for change, they have become the progessives while the progressives have become reactionary. It's sad, I hope some great leader can get into the Democratic party and trim some of the fat that's holding them down.
The only way for multipe parties to arise in America would be for the election system to change, so that on a national level, each party that gets a certain % of the votes gets a certain % of the seats in congress. This is the primary mechanism that allows form multiple party systems in Europe. (there are other contributing factors as well)
