robkelk Wrote:I get the feeling you folks are going to continue to get moderate Presidents as long as you have only the two parties you've got right now. And I have no idea how a third party would form right now, except possibly (slim, outside chance) by calving the Tea Party off of the Republicans. If either of your current parties disintegrated, there would be incentive to get any number of new parties going past the "wouldn't it be nice if somebody voted for us" stage... but I don't see that happening any time soon.And what you've just described is exactly why we have a two-party system. People eventually aggregate to one side that comes closest to supporting their preferences, in the interest of keeping the opposition they hate the most from winning.
(In Canada, we have the opposite problem - too many parties on one side of the spectrum, which splits the vote on that side and allows the single party on the other side to take the plurality. It used to be balanced when both sides had multiple parties, but not any more.)
The way the electoral rules are written in the US it is flat-out impossible for a third party to gain any ground. They are designed from the ground up to prevent it and the party leadership on both sides will move heaven and earth to stop any attempt at changing that.
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