The two major political parties are not really in sync with and do not represent the majority of Americans today. But a third party is not the answer; rather, we need a recalibration of the two parties that currently exist.
Through Trump and MAGA, the Republican Party has come to
represent a far Right that I and many other Americans do not want to be a part
of. Meanwhile, while it may not be clear
what Biden stands for, his Democrat Party seems to represent a Leftist progressive
socialism of identity politics, again something which I and many Americans do
not want to be a part of.
Faced with the likelihood that these two parties will choose
Trump and Biden as their candidates for 2024, we hear much talk of a third-party
candidate. But, even with two such poor
major candidates, we all know that a third party will likely do nothing more
than prove to be a spoiler for one of those candidates.
So where does that leave the Americans who do not find
themselves on either the Right or Left extremes, who are basically moderates
leaning towards one party on some issues and the other party on others? The growing number of people labeling
themselves as Independents is not a bad thing – these are the people who will
vote not simply because someone wears a Red or Blue label but because of the
ability and qualifications of the candidates along with the policy agenda that
they put forth.
These Independents and others who feel in one way or another
abandoned by both Democrats and Republicans, need a party. Not a third party, not a one issue party, not
a spoiler party, but a real party that has the size and resources to truly
contend for the high offices of this land, including President.
If such a party could rise and replace one of the current
two major parties, I believe that the remaining party, be it Democrat or
Republican, would, in order to survive and be competitive, move more toward its
moderate aspects, which, in both parties once was characterized by
bipartisanship and negotiation rather than the current divisiveness and
hate.
I believe that two such parties would provide us with two
far better candidates from which to choose.
With two such parties we could perhaps find our way as Americans to come
together again as one country and to work not against each other as enemies but
together as allies who hold different views but want to solve the same
problems.
Our system is not set up for three parties, but it demands
that the two parties we have be representative of more than just the extremes
of our society and campaign on more substance than simply that they are not
their allegedly evil opponent. This
could, perhaps, be the election where we could begin to build that strong
replacement party. We already have some
strong possible candidates who might represent it: Bobby Kennedy, currently running as an Independent;
Joe Manchin, not yet a candidate but a strong contender for the No Labels
party; Nikki Haley, currently running for the Republican nomination but whose
supporters, in reality, are the moderates of both parties as well as
Independents. I am sure there are others
out there who, if it did not seem futile, might be interested.
But no third party or third candidate has a chance if the
people do not give them one. We should not assume that we have no choice but
Trump or Biden: neither is yet the official nominee of his party. With concerted effort to deny one or both the
necessary delegates to become that nominee, by voting for a different candidate
in the primaries, then we the people can perhaps supplant one or both
candidates with someone more representative of the moderate rather than the
extremes of their respective party, and in so doing take a major step in
replacing at least one of the two parties with one that is more representative
of more Americans.
I think this could be managed against either Trump or Biden,
either the Republican or the Democrat party, though I think it is more likely at
this time to work in the Republican Party.
There is anti-Trump and/or anti-MAGA sentiment from both moderate
Democrats and Republicans as well as Independents, and there is a viable
candidate currently running along with Trump for the party’s nomination. Imagine if many primary voters, rather than
assuming the nomination has already been wrapped up, were to vote against Trump
in the primaries: they actually might
effectuate a different nominee.
If this replacement effort were in regard to Trump,
realistically Haley would likely rise as the nominee. I believe she could and would move the Party
more towards the center. But it could
just as easily be some other more moderate write-in candidate who would
dethrone Trump or Biden.
Assuming it were the Republicans who replaced the presumptive
nominee with a more center-focused candidate, the Party would begin moving away
from the quite frightening far Right of MAGA towards a more moderate center. I believe this would push a similar move of
the Democrat Party away from its Socialist Left toward its more traditional
liberal base. We actually might end up
with a two-party system that would give us the kinds of candidates we were once
used to in this country: strong and wise
statesmen not out to destroy their opposition but to work with them to find
ways to lead America forward.
Unlikely as this may seem, it is possible. But the people have to stand up and do this. If they continue to cower behind the demands
of the party leaders on both sides, we get exactly what we do not want but what
we will deserve: a country full of hate
that continues to destroy itself from within.
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