The End of America’s Two-Party System May Be upon Us
(UR) Washington, D.C. — There’s a reason most parliamentary and presidential democracies
have more than two political parties, and both Trump and Sanders are
examples of why. Both nominee-hopefuls have increasingly come to
represent polar opposites of the singular problem that the American two-party political system is suffering from: Stagnation.
With only two parties, what this presidential race is showing is that
there has been a tendency for those parties to become static and
unbending in their policy, stance, and platform. Historically, one or
both of the parties must then break, either because the progressive
edges within the party force it apart, or voters start to see the party
as inflexible and obsolete. It has happened before in the U.S., and it looks like it is happening again. The recent increase of voters registering as independent, as well as the parallel growth in independent candidates, is a good example of the level of dissatisfaction
people and politicians now have with the GOP and Democratic Party. It
is also an indication that American democracy is changing. Again.
The inclusion of Sanders in the Democratic Party,
Trump in the Republican, and the cataclysmic portrayal of them both in
the media, has only confused the issue. This is particularly noticeable
as Trump is often blamed for the imminent demise of the GOP as a relevant institution.
With both candidates running for the nomination of their respective
parties, the GOP and the Democratic Party appear internally fractured,
split on major issues and confused as to their directions. This can only
be the case in a two-party system.
As a country with a long history of a two-party system, these
internal party divisions can feel like a breakdown of sorts. In a
multi-party system, however, the issue would not be so destabilizing.
Although a multi-party democracy does have the down side of sometimes
appearing to have too many parties
and politicians to choose from, space exists within the system to have
the centre-left (Democratic Party) and centre-right (GOP) represented,
while far-left and -right candidates don’t tear the centrist parties apart from within.
