A few pundits are opining, in recent days, that this might be the end of the Republican party and I certainly hope it is so, but I doubt it. As much as I will vote for Obama and anybody with a D next to their name as a firewall against the totalitarianism which I fear lies at the heart of the Republican party, there are plenty of people who will vote for somebody with an R next to their name, no matter how many unnecessary wars they start, no matter how much money they waste, no matter how abusive they are to women, just as a firewall against liberalism, which they are totally panicked about as if it were the worst thing in the world.
It’s a Mexican standoff, like the scene near the end of True Romance where the cops, the gangsters, and a whole bunch of people are all pointing guns at each other in the hotel room. It’s a democratic form of mutually assured destruction.
Many more people, in the middle, not as partisan as I am, just moan, as they do every election, that the two party system is flawed, it doesn’t offer us enough choices.
Others, the Noam Chomsky devotees, point out that the two parties are actually one party; the rich and powerful people’s party, with the Democrats and the Republicans being just their two front groups. That’s true to an extent, but there are definitely differences between the two. Real differences, which affect people’s lives.
But it’s that people in the middle group which I want to address tonight.
We can end the two party system, or at least give it a good kick in the stomach, this November. If the Republicans lose the Senate and the House along with the Presidency (which I’m starting to think of as a given), they might just collapse entirely.
What happens then? Here are a few possibilities:
The Democrats, no longer united by a common enemy, split into progressive and old guard factions, and we’re left with lots of little parties. Lots of runoff elections is the downside, maybe some interesting fringe people in congress is the upside.
The Republicans will be split into 3, maybe 4 groups. The evangelicals may just decide to have a Christian party, and they will have some regional strength. The teabaggers will continue as a party, but not for much longer. People are sick of them. There will certainly be a Plutocratic party, although they will no doubt call it something else. And there might be a Ron Paul party.
I’m just whistling in the dark, nobody knows what would happen if the Republican party totally collapsed, I expect within a couple of election cycles, we’d be back to a two party system again, but under different names.
Along the way, there might be a window of a couple years where the parties are in a great enough state of disarray that something positive might actually be done.
So, if you want to end the two party system as it now stands or at least stir the pot a little, vote out all Republicans in November.
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