I think you could make an argument that the two-party system has made the country more stable than other countries. For decades both of the parties actively suppressed the more extreme, fanatical viewpoints of some people as a means of being relatable to a majority of Americans. The advent of the internet, cable news, and talk radio gave…
I think you could make an argument that the two-party system has made the country more stable than other countries. For decades both of the parties actively suppressed the more extreme, fanatical viewpoints of some people as a means of being relatable to a majority of Americans. The advent of the internet, cable news, and talk radio gave voices to those extreme viewpoints and they could no longer be suppressed (at least by the Republican party). Of course, we used to have laws that prohibited talk radio and television from being too one-sided. Republicans and the Republican-dominated Supreme Court gutted those laws (Republicans have had a majority on the Supreme Court since the 1970's!). I'm not saying a two-party system is the best, but it's not like the multi-party systems in Europe have produced the most stable of political environments. Sometimes you sacrifice the best possible policy outcome you want for political stability.
" For decades both of the parties actively suppressed the more extreme, fanatical viewpoints of some people as a means of being relatable to a majority of Americans."
I'm not sure that's true of the GOP. I agree that they have suppressed the public expression of that fanaticism, but I would argue that extremism has been moving the country rightward since Reagan, at least.
By contrast, the Dems have done such a good job suppressing their left flank that they've been moving right for at least as long. Biden has represented the first real break from that drift in my lifetime, what with his embrace of unions and rejection of supply-side economics and tax cuts.
I feel like there was some suppression of the John Birch Society in the 60's through 90's. It sounds like that movement broke through in the 2000's and became what maga is today. I agree that the far right as been much more successful at implementing its agenda. That may be because older people, who tend to be more conservative, are much more likely to consistently vote. I don't know, though. I mean Biden has been doing all the things young people said they wanted and young people hate him.
They do. Some of it is the fickle...fickleness? (not sure if that's a word) of youth, I suppose. But some of it is kinda deserved - Biden should go further on student debt relief and maybe should have been better on climate policy earlier on (I think he's done better on that lately.) But the big thing to me is that, at least lately, it kinda seems biden is more than happy to shit on young people who dare question his wisdom re: Israel/Gaza. Regardless of how one feels about the conflict, young people clearly have a dominant viewpoint, and he keeps telling them he's wrong and he won't change anything despite their protests. That's a great way to lose votes, and I think that's what we're seeing.
It's hard though...as Mehdi Hasan has said, Biden is probably the best president in a lot of respects (including foreign policy at least until lately) in probably the last 40ish years. But also that's an incredibly low bar to clear, since that list includes trump and w bush.
I think you could make an argument that the two-party system has made the country more stable than other countries. For decades both of the parties actively suppressed the more extreme, fanatical viewpoints of some people as a means of being relatable to a majority of Americans. The advent of the internet, cable news, and talk radio gave voices to those extreme viewpoints and they could no longer be suppressed (at least by the Republican party). Of course, we used to have laws that prohibited talk radio and television from being too one-sided. Republicans and the Republican-dominated Supreme Court gutted those laws (Republicans have had a majority on the Supreme Court since the 1970's!). I'm not saying a two-party system is the best, but it's not like the multi-party systems in Europe have produced the most stable of political environments. Sometimes you sacrifice the best possible policy outcome you want for political stability.
" For decades both of the parties actively suppressed the more extreme, fanatical viewpoints of some people as a means of being relatable to a majority of Americans."
I'm not sure that's true of the GOP. I agree that they have suppressed the public expression of that fanaticism, but I would argue that extremism has been moving the country rightward since Reagan, at least.
By contrast, the Dems have done such a good job suppressing their left flank that they've been moving right for at least as long. Biden has represented the first real break from that drift in my lifetime, what with his embrace of unions and rejection of supply-side economics and tax cuts.
Biden has done a commendable job, but it was Bernie who got my attention and gave me a brief glimmer of hope.
Agreed on both counts.
I feel like there was some suppression of the John Birch Society in the 60's through 90's. It sounds like that movement broke through in the 2000's and became what maga is today. I agree that the far right as been much more successful at implementing its agenda. That may be because older people, who tend to be more conservative, are much more likely to consistently vote. I don't know, though. I mean Biden has been doing all the things young people said they wanted and young people hate him.
They do. Some of it is the fickle...fickleness? (not sure if that's a word) of youth, I suppose. But some of it is kinda deserved - Biden should go further on student debt relief and maybe should have been better on climate policy earlier on (I think he's done better on that lately.) But the big thing to me is that, at least lately, it kinda seems biden is more than happy to shit on young people who dare question his wisdom re: Israel/Gaza. Regardless of how one feels about the conflict, young people clearly have a dominant viewpoint, and he keeps telling them he's wrong and he won't change anything despite their protests. That's a great way to lose votes, and I think that's what we're seeing.
It's hard though...as Mehdi Hasan has said, Biden is probably the best president in a lot of respects (including foreign policy at least until lately) in probably the last 40ish years. But also that's an incredibly low bar to clear, since that list includes trump and w bush.