I have always been in favor of a true multi-party system of governance for the USA. By “true” I mean a system where members of 3rd, 4th and 5th parties can potentially get elected to a meaningful number of seats of Congress. That is not now the case, nor has it ever been.
I’m not sure how minor parties could have any members elected to Congress unless there was a fundamental change to the way we elect Congress people in the U.S. Personally, I would like to see proportional representation here but that is not the point I wish to discuss in this thread.
The traditionally conservative party in the U.S., the Republicans, has been so corrupted by the infiltration of ultra-right-wing elements that they are no longer considered by anyone—including the rational members of the GOP—to represent the true version, and vision, of American Conservatism.
I believe that it is the mainstream GOP’s own fault that their radical-right faction has been allowed to gain so much influence that they now control the entire party, for all intents and purposes. IMO, that is because 40 or 50 years ago the GOP decided to court the far right-wing in order gain more party members; more votes. The prime example of this is when they embraced the opportunity during the Civil Rights movement of the 60’s to persuade large numbers of Southern Democrats to switch parties.
Thus, the GOP sabotaged their long-range hopes and goals–they sacrificed their very raison d’etre—merely to win elections in the short-to-medium term. It was selfish and short-sighted, but then, politics is dangerous game that often demands winning at any cost. In fairness to the GOP, I truly believe they never realized just how out of control this would get. I don’t think they ever could’ve dreamed how far away from traditional Conservatism this misbegotten strategy would take their party. But now they, and the rest of the country, are paying a very heavy price.
Yes, the traditional GOP is to blame for their own undoing but I only mention this only context. Besides, it is only my opinion, and like the proportional representation concept mentioned above, it is also not important in terms of the point I want to make in this thread.
*So get to the point, already! *
OK, the point is this: Many intelligent, thoughtful Americans of all political stripes have recently become more and more alarmed by the hijacking of a grand, old, party by knuckle-dragging bigots. You hear talk that the GOP “needs to get its house in order”; they must “purge their party of nutsy religious ideologues” and so forth. You hear this in the quality “salons” of political discourse from all sides of the political fracas—it is also thus right here on the old SDMB.
The problem is, I don’t think the GOP can rid themselves of this menace, even if they had the stomach to engage in the bloodletting that would be necessary to accomplish it. The GOP simply CAN’T cast these loonies adrift because in our current two-party system, they have no where else to go.
These morally-meddling, backward and uneducated albatrosses need, and deserve (for better or worse) their own party–a party that will stand up and defend lunacy and backwardness full-throat. A party that is not afraid to advocate mandatory Christian prayer in public schools, creationism, and other planks of a platform that is very scary to most of us, but is considered righteous and necessary by a minority of Americans,
Please note that I am quite serious about this. I want them to be fairly represented in government because I feel that all segments of our population should have a voice in policy. Of course, I have ulterior motives too: I want to see the lunatic fringe—whether right or left—marginalized. I want to see them stop wasting the time and effort of serious politicians who are trying to create realistic policy for this country.
I know that the sooner the dull-witted noise makers are exiled from the GOP, the sooner we can have meaningful arguments about the direction this country will go in the future. It’s a bit like: “Go back to the kiddie table; the grown-ups are trying to talk.”
The only way for this to happen is by allowing 4 or more parties to represent the American citizens in Congress. Two parties can’t do it. There is just too large a spectrum of different ideologies in America. If you try to represent all those different beliefs with only two monolithic parties you end up with both of those parties paying lip-service to the crazies at election-time and during floor speeches, but then inevitably rushing back to the center when it comes time to pass a bill.
We can do so much better.