Pspanker
Posts: 5
Joined: 9/15/2012 Status: offline
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quote:
So the [GOP] will have to move to the center to expand its base or be rendered irrelevant and a new right of center party will be created by the monied interests. Wishful thinking, but maybe not wrong thinking. The extreme polarization of the states has made a third party focused on the swing states much more disruptive. The monied interests need not be more monied than any one of the billionaires who intervened in this year's Republican primary. A large chunk of the electorate does not want to vote for Democrats. Just don't! Not in 2012, not in 2016, not ever. Anyway, we need at least two parties. But, especially in the swing states, sane center-right voters might support a reality-based, small-c "conservative" alternative (e.g. John Anderson) that eschews further suicide missions for the rich, and is not offering the same five-point plan that the GOP has offered in 2000, 2004, 2008, and 2012. In 2016, the most viable strategy for such folks-- especially if Republicans control the House-- would be a third-party challenger with a fresh agenda on enough swing state ballots-- just seven would do it-- to make Republican victory mathematically impossible without concessions to the third candidate. If such a candidate persevered to November and won outright in a few states, s/he could then bargain with both parties for the electoral college majority. If s/he persevered for four more years to elect some actual members of the House, then by 2020 a new party may have taken hold that could both throw presidential elections to the House and decide the outcomes there. History suggests that when either party faces this sort of mortal threat, it does the math, sees the danger, and quietly makes peace with the opposition on its flank. If it can...
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