lpetrich
Contributor
What if America had 6 political parties? by Damon Linker on 2019 May 28.
He identifies three main factions in both the Republican and Democratic Parties, and I have woven his words into my descriptions here.
In the Republican Party:
The Populist-Nationalist Party. It is anti-immigrant, skeptical of free trade and big business, suspicious of the deployment of American military force abroad, and strongly nationalist. It is strongest in the Rust Belt and low-density areas, and Donald Trump is its best-known recent politician. It is much like such European parties as Marine Le Pen's National Rally in France, Matteo Salvini's Lega Nord in Italy, and Viktor Orban's Fidesz in Hungary.
The Internationalist Conservative Party. It is pro-immigration, pro-free trade, antitax, and willing to use US military might to remake the rest of the world in the US's economic and political image. It is strongest among upper-middle-class to upper-class suburbanites, big business, the party's major donors, and the bulk of the party's establishment. It is much like European center-right parties, but with much more skepticism about government provision of social services.
The Religious Right Party: It is strongly anti-abortion, anxious about threats to the religious freedom of traditionalist Christians and Jews, and it strongly supports the appointment of staunchly conservative jurists to the nation's courts. Its core is white evangelical Protestants, and it includes the more conservative sorts of Catholics and Jews. It is much like Israel's far-right ultra-orthodox and settler parties.
In the Democratic Party:
The Social Democratic Party: It has a long list of policy proposals, including sharply higher income taxes, a wealth tax, single-payer health care, free college tuition, and decarbonization of the economy, and some of its members call themselves socialists. It downplays identity politics and the culture war, while being skeptical of some free-trade policies and foreign-policy hawkishness. Its biggest supporters are young, white, and highly educated voters, and its most prominent politicians are Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Elizabeth Warren.
The Internationalist Progressive Party: Though sharing many goals with the social democrats, it has a more cautious, incremental, and technocratic approach on economic policy, it is big on identity politics and fighting the culture war on the left, it supports immigration, free-trade agreements, expansion of international law, and enforcing it with US military might. Its biggest supporters are people in urban areas, high-density suburbs, and minority communities, and it has such prominent politicians as Kamala Harris and Pete Buttigieg.
The Centrist Working-Class Party: It strongly supports mid-20th-cy. social programs like Social Security and Medicare, but does not want to go much further. "Its members also tend to be more conservative on culture war issues, express some nationalist sympathies, and fear that high rates of unskilled immigration will depress wages and increase competition for lower-skilled jobs." Its members are "older, whiter, less educated, and more likely to be found in the unionized, post-industrial Midwest than the members of the other left-leaning parties." Its has prominent politician Joe Biden, someone whose main platform seems to be criticizing the other factions, the social democrats for being too ambitious, and the internationalists' culture warring too polarizing.
I recall from somewhere that Brand New Congress wanted to operate as a European-style political party, but one that works inside the two existing parties. Most of its candidates have run as Democrats, but a few have done so as Republicans.
Proportional representation easily allows multiple parties, something that first-past-the-post with single-member districts doesn't.
He identifies three main factions in both the Republican and Democratic Parties, and I have woven his words into my descriptions here.
In the Republican Party:
The Populist-Nationalist Party. It is anti-immigrant, skeptical of free trade and big business, suspicious of the deployment of American military force abroad, and strongly nationalist. It is strongest in the Rust Belt and low-density areas, and Donald Trump is its best-known recent politician. It is much like such European parties as Marine Le Pen's National Rally in France, Matteo Salvini's Lega Nord in Italy, and Viktor Orban's Fidesz in Hungary.
The Internationalist Conservative Party. It is pro-immigration, pro-free trade, antitax, and willing to use US military might to remake the rest of the world in the US's economic and political image. It is strongest among upper-middle-class to upper-class suburbanites, big business, the party's major donors, and the bulk of the party's establishment. It is much like European center-right parties, but with much more skepticism about government provision of social services.
The Religious Right Party: It is strongly anti-abortion, anxious about threats to the religious freedom of traditionalist Christians and Jews, and it strongly supports the appointment of staunchly conservative jurists to the nation's courts. Its core is white evangelical Protestants, and it includes the more conservative sorts of Catholics and Jews. It is much like Israel's far-right ultra-orthodox and settler parties.
In the Democratic Party:
The Social Democratic Party: It has a long list of policy proposals, including sharply higher income taxes, a wealth tax, single-payer health care, free college tuition, and decarbonization of the economy, and some of its members call themselves socialists. It downplays identity politics and the culture war, while being skeptical of some free-trade policies and foreign-policy hawkishness. Its biggest supporters are young, white, and highly educated voters, and its most prominent politicians are Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Elizabeth Warren.
The Internationalist Progressive Party: Though sharing many goals with the social democrats, it has a more cautious, incremental, and technocratic approach on economic policy, it is big on identity politics and fighting the culture war on the left, it supports immigration, free-trade agreements, expansion of international law, and enforcing it with US military might. Its biggest supporters are people in urban areas, high-density suburbs, and minority communities, and it has such prominent politicians as Kamala Harris and Pete Buttigieg.
The Centrist Working-Class Party: It strongly supports mid-20th-cy. social programs like Social Security and Medicare, but does not want to go much further. "Its members also tend to be more conservative on culture war issues, express some nationalist sympathies, and fear that high rates of unskilled immigration will depress wages and increase competition for lower-skilled jobs." Its members are "older, whiter, less educated, and more likely to be found in the unionized, post-industrial Midwest than the members of the other left-leaning parties." Its has prominent politician Joe Biden, someone whose main platform seems to be criticizing the other factions, the social democrats for being too ambitious, and the internationalists' culture warring too polarizing.
I recall from somewhere that Brand New Congress wanted to operate as a European-style political party, but one that works inside the two existing parties. Most of its candidates have run as Democrats, but a few have done so as Republicans.
