The Future Of U.S.A. Politix

[Dïscfärm]

OK, I just put down my nearly-empty pint of ale. I'm now staring into a crystal ball. I see a significant third party finally shaping up in the USA over the next 10 to 15 years...


Democratic Party: The same as what you have now, except what little “conservative” constituency is left these days (maybe 5-to-8 %) in the Democratic Party will migrate over in the “new” Republican Party to form its left wing. This will be the party of Ed Kennedy, John Kerry, and Howard Dean. Pro-union forces, traditional old-school liberals, borderline socialists, et cetera will rule the party as before. Civil rights, separation between religion and state, gun control, environmental issues, and social programs will be the hot items here -- just as before.


Republican Party: Think of the Republican Party as really being the New Republican Party. This will be the Republican Party of Arnald Schwarzennegger, Rudi Giuliani, John McCain, and other existing Republicans who tend to be liberal in one or two areas and conservative in most others. This will be the largest party of the three major parties and will try to cater mainly to the traditional American family, though there will be a relentless push to attract unmarried youth and small business owners to the party philosophy as well. Education, taxes, family values, environmental issues, and education will be some of the hot items. The Democrats will see of the "new" Republican Party as the "Safe As Milk" or "Boring" party, and the Conservative Party will see the "new" Republican Party as the "Party Of The Misguided."


Conservative Party: The staunchly social and fiscal conservatives will defect from the Republican Party -- once its new leaders take the party over -- and form the Conservative Party. The Conservative Party will be made up of the likes of Pat Buchanan, Robert Bork, Charleton Hesitation, and others who wouldn’t get caught dead talkin’ to a libur’l. Right to arms, religious issues, taxes, national deficit, GNP, big business, and the military budget will be some of the hot items.


All in all, the "new" Republican Party will end up being a bit larger than the Democratic Party or Conservative Party. The Democratic Party and the Conservative Party will be almost exactly the same size.

 

[ddrueding]

Move "family values" to the Conservative party (if you mean the republican definition of the word) and sign me up as a New Republican. But that is just dreaming.

The current electoral process can't support more than 2 major parties unless something really crazy swayed a bunch of voters at once...what force do you propose?

 

[sechs]

The major issue is the way that the electoral college is implemented, not the college itself. Things would be a lot more interesting if winner-takes-all was eliminated, we voted directly for electors, and electors were always free to vote what they thought was best.

I'd also say that going back to separate president and vice president ballots wouldn't hurt.

 

[RWIndiana]

Sech, couldn't that cause a problem for those who believe we (the "common" people) should have more, rather than less, voice in the selection of a president? I don't like the idea of the government ruling over us, or electing it's own president while we simply choose the electors. That erodes the power of the people in my own simple-minded opinion. The way we have it now is bad enough!

 

[ddrueding]

I'd also say that going back to separate president and vice president ballots wouldn't hurt.

Seconded. I also had an interesting debate about the value of only having presidential elections, and having second place end up as VP. Of course, we'd need to get the VP position more responsability. One of the interesting propositions of this system was requiring both to agree to a war, deficit, or supreme court appointment.

 

[ddrueding]

But I will take issue with the electoral process in general. We have the technology to make direct elections possible, so why don't we?

[flamebait]Also, we could weight people's vote based on their financial staus![/flamebait]