Summations Only

An interesting post...But: Most democracies that don't run some form of proportional representation seem to end up with effectively a two party system. One party vaguely more wealth redistrubutive and one less wealth redistrubutive than the other. With exactly what constitutes the "middle ground" of wealth distribution policies shifting from nation to nation and era to era.But the US seems to be in a particular right wing frenzy at the moment. The "middle ground" seems more to the right than anywhere else in the developed world. And the two party system seems to be moving ever "rightwards".And I'm not convinced that your multi-party prediction has a historical precedent.

It is actually fairly simple - and hilarious.Obama is a centrist politician - to the right of many Democrats.For some strange reason, the Republicans don't like Obama. I'm not sure why. It cannot possibly be racism, because they are vehemently denying that Because they don't like Obama, they are trying to paint him as at the leftist extreme. And that means that they themselves have to appear to be well to the right of Obama.Since Obama is already a bit toward the right, the only way they can appear well to the right of Obama is for them to jump of the cliff and into total insanity. And that is what they have done.

All of this adds to my point. How the hell did America end up in a position where many of it's leading politicians are fucking insane by any international measure?Without any sarcasm I can say that in many ways I am a USophile. So many achievements. In many ways that I would support the US is the "leader of the free world" and all that.So how in Christ's name did you end up in a situation where the intellectual equivalent of creationists and conspirarcy theorists are genuinely vying for the presidency?Where did it all go so badly badly wrong.....?

That was Dr A reporting live from the studios of Fox News.Now sports.

Actually there is a history of that with parties splitting and splintering, but the secondary parties simply cannot gather enough support to be more than a foot note. Most notable might be the Progressive (AKA Bull Moose) Party.What the splintering does often do though is cause sufficient confusion that the winner is elected without a majority or even close to a majority of the votes.

But there seem to be so many cliff dwelling lemmings as to make a soft landing for those that follow the dead bodies already cushioning the landing below acceptable.The world cannot afford for the US to jump off a fucking cliff!!!!STOP. I beseech you............

The reason for this is that the Republicans very effectively turned the word "liberal" into a dirty word. When you ask people in a poll if they're liberal or conservative, most will answer conservative. However, if you ask them for their views on specific topics, the mix of "liberal" answers and "conservative" answers is much more evenly distributed.Republicans crow that America is a conservative country, and they're wrong. They also paint anyone who is even slightly to the left of themselves as a "liberal."In the election before this last one (Kerry v Bush), the Republicans managed to label Kerry as the "most liberal senator" despite the fact that he was centrist at best. They then, 4 years later, turned around and effectively labeled Obama as "the most liberal senator" despite him being, again, centrist at best.There is avery skewed vision, in America, when it comes to right and left policies. To the effect that, the definition of what's liberal and what's centrist has moved ever rightward, despite people's actual views remaining unchanged. The Republicans then have to "out crazy" each other on the rightmost fringes in order to appear firmly in the middle of what it means to be conservative. There have always been two dominant parties in American politics, back to the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists. And I suspect that will be the case into the foreseeable future. However, parties do and have fractured in the past. Usually, one faction, or even an entirely new party will take the place of the dominant one. But there have been moderately successful third parties. The "Know Nothings" the "Bull-Moose Party" and even the Republican Party, as it currently exists, was a third party at one time, combining former Whigs and some liberal, anti-slavery Democrats.

Hey. You are talking to a citizen of a nation with it's first coalition government in living history.And many of those who are members of the "third party" are members of the breakaway from the Labour party in the 80s.But even with all that in mind Britain is still currently, sort of, a two party system.I suspect that the "third party" will effectively split into those that will support the conservatives and those that will not.

The tale you tell is not America's alone.The relentless lurch rightwards has taken place here in the UK and (to a lesser extent) elsewhere in Europe too.But to the degree we see it in the US.... Really and seriously - Your republican candidates would be considered absolute nutjobs in most Western democracies.

We have three reasons it appears so.1) People often have a very strong party identity. "I'm a Republican." So that they will vote for "their" party's nominee, even if they actually disagre with the majority of that person's positions...which leads to...2) People often have no real idea what the person they are voting for has said s/he will do if/when elected. They don't watch debates because they're boring. They don't watch or read unbiased news because it is tough to find and again, is often boring. The only info they do get is from political attack ads and the slanted news of their choice (Fox News or MSNBC) meaning they know less than nothing about their options, what they think they know is often not correct.3) As I said, we're in a primary season, and the way to win a primary is to get the wing-nuts out to vote for you. The crazy, out-spoken minority that actually takes the time to vote in a primary or caucus.The majority of people in the country are pretty centrist. Yes, that often means they're a bit further right than most Europeans, but there are enough of us lefties to help balance it out a bit. We're just not the ones screaming on street corners very often. We're more likely to be watching the news, reading news, or posting in blogs and fora. The perception is not the reality. Take a deep breath.

But the lurch is not as profound as it appears to be. Most people's views haven't shifted too far to the right, and even seem to be sliding slightly left again as the Great Recession has opened our eyes to the helpfulness of some sort of regulation and government safety net.The demonification of anyhting "liberal" or "socialist" has led many liberals and socialists to fear a stigma, and so claim to be more conservative (and many even believe it, because if liberalism is evil, they can't be liberal...)than they really are when asked about specific issues.There is a very vocal minority of crazy right-wing nutjobs, and they get the news, and because they get the news, they seem to be more prevalent than they are, leading the nominees to target these "masses" of people. And at least half of Americans think they are, too. The sad thing is, even some who think this will vote for them anyway.

Cheers Perdie!! I will.But the thought of Gingrich in the White House causes me to have an asthma attack. And I am not even remotely asthmatic!!!I have faith that the people of the US are more collectively sensible than they seem at the moment.............But any regular EvC reader will know how much credence I give to faith....

No, that was my guest appearance on the Colbert Report.

And it rightly should, but, and I am often loath to offer absolutes in politics, there is no chance he will be president. He probably won't win the Republican nomination, and even if he did, Obama would crush him. Currently, Obama beats Romney, though doesn't get above 50% in most polls. Against Gingrich, however, he polls somewhere near 60%.

Straggler exclaims: Alas.....if I may steal & paraphrase from Douglas:They already have.Thanks though for the support, Straggs.:-(