thoughts on the future of political parties

[Noggin]

I think we need to stop thinking in terms of the old fashioned terms of Left & Right. There are more complexities to modern politics than that.

For example within the overall umbrella of the GOP you have as I see it basically 3 broad groupings.

1. What I would call the "Patrician Conservatives" today many would call these the RINOs. They like Globalism (it suits their business needs) along with weak border control. They probably would throw the 1st and 2nd amendments under the bus if it suited their own interests. Also though they may speak platitiudes about supporting small business they will work to rig the system against small business such as supporting heavy regulation that large companies can easily manage but which cripples the small guy. So this group is no fan of socialism but they are quite happy with big government.

2. "Traditional Conservatives" Strong believers in individualism and an originalist interpretation of the constitution. I guess most people in the Forum would fall into this group. Naturally big supporters of both 1st and 2nd amendments, believers in family values and fiscal responsibility. "clinging to their God and their Guns".

3. "Secular Libertarians" This group will of course despise Number 1 but will probably agree with and support Number 2 on many things. Where they will part company is on issues like Abortion, Gay Marriage and Recreational Drugs. While they have no religious faith of their own, they will defend the right of those who do to practice their faith. They also believe in minimalist government, hence they do not believe goverment has any right to tell you what dangerous drugs you may choose or not choose to put in your body. Naturally this group will be strong supporters of both the 1st and 2nd amendments even if they choose to live a lifestyle that group 2 might disapprove of.

Now among the Democrats I think their seem to be 3 groups

A. The Establishment - need I say more we all know the Clintons embody this. A purely self seeking hypocritical group whose entire existence has been one decades long Con trick played on the less well off and less well educated. Though Group A and Group 1 have different sets of financial backers their absolute disregard for any principles of morality means that they might as well be in the same political party.

B. The Old Union Guys. These were the traditional economic leftists they worked to get the best package for their little bit of the economy. They probably have little or no interest in racism or feminism (their fathers were probably racist and sexist). They do care about having a job and being well paid and have a deep distrust of the globalist "öpen borders" that groups A and 1 are such fans of.

C. The Left Cost Snowflakes. We all know who these are and of course they are not only found in California but in almost every large urban area. They are ruled by emotion and will always play the victim card to demand that the rest of us admit our guilt for everything that they claim is wrong with the world. They demand socialism and they demand it for yesterday they are an all consuming cancer of grievances. It does not matter how often laws are changed to accommodate this or that grievance, they will never be satisfied because without a grievance to protest about they have no purpose, so there must always be some new injustice to be trampled. Eventually of course they start to consume their own kind.

The problem for the Dems today is that while Group A has historically maintained control by offering crumbs to Groups B & C the patience of those two groups has broken. So we now see Group A under siege by Group C. Meanwhile group B has been largely left on the sidelines, not helped by the fact that some of them supported Trump.

So if you want a future party model. then perhaps:

A party made up by Groups 1 & A (it will have a lot of money but may not get so many voters)

A party made up by Groups 2 & 3 with a variable proportion of B (the more B's that can be brought in the better)

A party made up by Group C and the remaining elements of B who cannot bring themselves to vote for anything else (this too will get a fair bit of money, It will certainly be the loudest and will always claim to be bigger than it is) It will have a strong regional presence but lack national clout. The more it is encouraged to demand more & more the quiker it is likely to self distruct.

[BSHII]

There have always been two political parties in the United States, because important elections have always been winner-take-all and decided by plurality vote. There can only ever be two relevant parties at a given time under that system. A third party will either grow large enough to challenge and supplant one of the major parties or rapidly dwindle away. Thus, we've always had two parties, and those two parties are always loose coalitions of factions.

Historically, the maximum lifespan of anything other than a two-party system in this country is about 10 years. The last time we had a change of major political parties was in the 1850s. In 1850, there were two major parties, the Democrats and the Whigs. By 1855, the Whigs and Democrats had lost many seats to the Know Nothings and a new party called the Republicans. By 1860, the Whigs were gone, the Know Nothings were all but gone, and we had two major parties again: the Republicans and Democrats, and what was left of other parties like the Know Nothings and Unionists would be gone by the end of the Civil War.

Before that, the last change was during the "Era of Good Feelings." The Federalists were broken by the election of 1800 and basically disappeared after the War of 1812, and we effectively had a one-party system under the Democratic-Republicans until the election of 1824. Then, the four Presidential candidates, all from the same party, split the vote sufficiently that no one won a majority of electoral votes and the election went to the House. Andrew Jackson had the most electoral votes, but the House elected John Quincy Adams when Henry Clay, one of the other candidates, threw his support to Adams, and then was appointed Secretary of State in what Jackson decried as a "corrupt bargain." The Jacksonian faction of the Democratic-Republican Party became "Democrats," while the Adams-Clay faction became "National Republicans" and then "Whigs." And so we had a two-party system again, Democrats and Whigs, within 10 years.

[Texas_Blaze]

I'm sure I'll go back to my normal self, but right now I'm implementing the "Head in a hole" strategy..... I've stopped all political and most news feeds from my apps that I use on a daily basis.... I've given up most online sources such as Yahoo, etc..... Yesterday I even removed Fox from my News 360 page.... We are so inundated with politics, disasters, murders, etc ,etc... It's just overwhelming sometimes.... Every news source is Chicken Little everyday.... I'm just simply tired of it... I have enough stress in my daily life without outside sources adding to it...

I’ve done the same thing. Started at beginning of year. Wasn’t even a resolution. Just got sick of it. Completely unplugged; political, twitter, (never had Facebook). My only news interaction is here txchlforum.

[SewTexas]

I think we need to stop thinking in terms of the old fashioned terms of Left & Right. There are more complexities to modern politics than that.

For example within the overall umbrella of the GOP you have as I see it basically 3 broad groupings.

1. What I would call the "Patrician Conservatives" today many would call these the RINOs. They like Globalism (it suits their business needs) along with weak border control. They probably would throw the 1st and 2nd amendments under the bus if it suited their own interests. Also though they may speak platitiudes about supporting small business they will work to rig the system against small business such as supporting heavy regulation that large companies can easily manage but which cripples the small guy. So this group is no fan of socialism but they are quite happy with big government.

2. "Traditional Conservatives" Strong believers in individualism and an originalist interpretation of the constitution. I guess most people in the Forum would fall into this group. Naturally big supporters of both 1st and 2nd amendments, believers in family values and fiscal responsibility. "clinging to their God and their Guns".

3. "Secular Libertarians" This group will of course despise Number 1 but will probably agree with and support Number 2 on many things. Where they will part company is on issues like Abortion, Gay Marriage and Recreational Drugs. While they have no religious faith of their own, they will defend the right of those who do to practice their faith. They also believe in minimalist government, hence they do not believe goverment has any right to tell you what dangerous drugs you may choose or not choose to put in your body. Naturally this group will be strong supporters of both the 1st and 2nd amendments even if they choose to live a lifestyle that group 2 might disapprove of.

Now among the Democrats I think their seem to be 3 groups

A. The Establishment - need I say more we all know the Clintons embody this. A purely self seeking hypocritical group whose entire existence has been one decades long Con trick played on the less well off and less well educated. Though Group A and Group 1 have different sets of financial backers their absolute disregard for any principles of morality means that they might as well be in the same political party.

B. The Old Union Guys. These were the traditional economic leftists they worked to get the best package for their little bit of the economy. They probably have little or no interest in racism or feminism (their fathers were probably racist and sexist). They do care about having a job and being well paid and have a deep distrust of the globalist "öpen borders" that groups A and 1 are such fans of.

C. The Left Cost Snowflakes. We all know who these are and of course they are not only found in California but in almost every large urban area. They are ruled by emotion and will always play the victim card to demand that the rest of us admit our guilt for everything that they claim is wrong with the world. They demand socialism and they demand it for yesterday they are an all consuming cancer of grievances. It does not matter how often laws are changed to accommodate this or that grievance, they will never be satisfied because without a grievance to protest about they have no purpose, so there must always be some new injustice to be trampled. Eventually of course they start to consume their own kind.

The problem for the Dems today is that while Group A has historically maintained control by offering crumbs to Groups B & C the patience of those two groups has broken. So we now see Group A under siege by Group C. Meanwhile group B has been largely left on the sidelines, not helped by the fact that some of them supported Trump.

So if you want a future party model. then perhaps:

A party made up by Groups 1 & A (it will have a lot of money but may not get so many voters)

A party made up by Groups 2 & 3 with a variable proportion of B (the more B's that can be brought in the better)

A party made up by Group C and the remaining elements of B who cannot bring themselves to vote for anything else (this too will get a fair bit of money, It will certainly be the loudest and will always claim to be bigger than it is) It will have a strong regional presence but lack national clout. The more it is encouraged to demand more & more the quiker it is likely to self distruct.

this is a really, really good break down!
better than I did!
I can see it.

[TreyHouston]

There’s not going to be any political parties. There is basically only one party which is the government. There will be two groups. The first will be the government and whoever is in the government’s favor and allows to live. The other group will be the ones the government must eliminate.

Socialism and communism is that way. Always has been and always will be.

Truth is, we are already there but being kept hopeful it is not true.For now the Democrats in congress are acting out but the truth is that the Republicans in congress are no better than they are. They just are not showing it right now. Our government has taken most of the power from the people. The politicians in congress are all looking out for their own power and will do ANYTHING to keep it. We The People are looked down upon with fear and loathing from both sides of the isle. The game is to keep us all under control and to gradually take away our ability to resist their tyranny. It has gotten to where they spoon feed us all like we are children and only push so far as to stop just short of everyone finally catching on that the line of freedom is being encroached upon inch by inch. Don't be fooled, Republicans want to take our guns and means to resist just as bad as the rest of the elites in Washington. They are simply pandering to us so we continue to vote them into office. They will take away our rights as soon as the opening presents itself. Just like the Democrats. It is all about maintaining their power over us all.

WELL SAID!!!!!!!THIS IS THE TRUTH

[Noggin]

So if you want a future party model. then perhaps:

A party made up by Groups 1 & A (it will have a lot of money but may not get so many voters)

A party made up by Groups 2 & 3 with a variable proportion of B (the more B's that can be brought in the better)

A party made up by Group C and the remaining elements of B who cannot bring themselves to vote for anything else (this too will get a fair bit of money, It will certainly be the loudest and will always claim to be bigger than it is) It will have a strong regional presence but lack national clout. The more it is encouraged to demand more & more the quiker it is likely to self distruct.

this is a really, really good break down!
better than I did!
I can see it.

Thanks

[easy10]

Watching for rule changes to the Super Delegates. The un-pledged that control 20% of the vote.

[Paladin]

Typically with the kind of economic situation America faced under Obama (wage stagnation, inflation) you get political polarization. That polarization is being encouraged today by the corporate owned legacy propaganda media in their failed quest to remove Trump from office.

In 2016 you saw the collapse of the establishment wing of both the Republican and Democrat parties. Hillary stole the primary from Bernie and the legacy media didn't do a good job reporting how half the Democrat delegates walked out of the DNC when Hillary was officially nominated. The establishment is largely floated with massive amounts of cash. Like JEB Bush who raised $200M+ but nobody wanted to vote for him. The establishment is backed up by the legacy media who support establishment candidates and attack non-establishment candidates.

The most effectual means of preventing the perversion of power into tyranny are to illuminate, as far as practicable, the minds of the people at large, and more especially to give them knowledge of those facts which history exhibits, that possessed thereby of the experience of other ages and countries, they may be enabled to know ambition under all its shapes, and prompt to exert their natural powers to defeat its purposes.

-Thomas Jefferson

I really think it will be necessary to root out all the corruption (i.e. Jeffrey Epstein's blackmail machine) to really make a lot of progress

Decentralization of power is also crucial. Decentralization will add to the stability of our society as well.