What-If the Republican Party meets the Same Fate as the Whig Party of the 1800s
Daniel
to
allow the expansion of slavery to the territories. With deep fissures
in the party on this question, the anti-slavery faction successfully
prevented the nomination of its own incumbent President Fillmore in
the 1852 presidential election; instead, the party nominated General
Winfield Scott, who was soundly defeated. Its leaders quit politics
(as Lincoln did temporarily) or changed parties. The voter base
defected to the Republican Party, various coalition parties in some
states, and to the Democratic Party. By the 1856 presidential
election, the party had lost its ability to maintain a national
coalition of effective state parties and endorsed Millard Fillmore,
now of the American Party, at its last national convention."
What-if the Republican or the Democratic Party met the same fate?
If our political system had to have a "two-party system" (and I do
not
understand why we do), one of the two present parties could crumble
and a new political party would have to replace it.
The Republicans OLT are wrestling whether to be Conservative or
Moderate.
What if these factions split the Party in two?
alt.history.future
Let us get down to the main question: Could the United States
survive
with more than two parties- or are we stuck with the two-party mess?
Or-
Could political parties be disbanded? Have all candidates (including
those
for high office, like the Presidency) run as individuals? Would
individual
candidates not be able to raise campaign funds?
Or- like the Whig Party- a new party would have to replace it?
Let us have a good discussion, please- no insults. We should
intelligently
be able to discuss these issues.
-Daniel
Greg Goss
>The voter base
>defected to the Republican Party, various coalition parties in some
>states, and to the Democratic Party.
Until twenty years earlier, the opposing party was called the
Democratic Republican Party. It did its own fragmenting about the
sime time as the Whigs fell completely apart.
>What-if the Republican or the Democratic Party met the same fate?
>If our political system had to have a "two-party system" (and I do not
>understand why we do), one of the two present parties could crumble
>and a new political party would have to replace it.
This is what Heinlein expected the normal process of a republican
style of government to be. One party chooses the wrong path to the
future and disappears, and the other party divides into two competing
branches henceforth.
Now that the Republicans have marginalized themselves everywhere but
the south, I can see this happening. In many Congressional districts
and even some Senate races, the main competition is in the primary,
not for the final seat. If the Pubs disappear, then might the "Blue
Dog Dems" split off to the center, leaving the leftie Dems off on one
wing?
In Canadian politics, the right wing fell apart over corruption in the
eighties, and fell further apart in the nineties.
* Conservatives split into Conservatives and Reform over corruption.
* Conservatives were beat up in an election, down to two seats.
* Conservatives recovered, and ran as a centrist party, with Reform
catering to both social and economic rightists.
* The Reform party renamed itself "The Alliance" under the mistaken
impression that a unification with the Conservatives was imminent.
* Unification failed.
* Then the Alliance Party split into religious conservatives and
economic conservatives. The economic conservative wing chose a name
for itself that everyone ignored, and everyone referred to them as
"The Rebel Alliance".
* Union between the Alliance (religious rightists and win-at-any-cost
opportunists) and the rebels.
* Union between the Alliance and the Conservatives
* Collapse of the Liberal party over corruption led to a Liberal
minority government followed by two minority Conservative governments.
Cultural issues led to the Conservatives not taking a single seat in
Canada's three largest cities in one of those elections, despite
winning the minority government.
For some reason it was the LOSING side that fragmented all over the
place. At one point there were three different right wing parties in
the Canadian parliament (plus a regional party, a lefty coalition of
labour and ivory-tower types and a slightly left of Canadian center
mainstream party)
>
>The Republicans OLT are wrestling whether to be Conservative or
>Moderate. What if these factions split the Party in two?
>
>
>alt.history.future
>
>
>Let us get down to the main question: Could the United States
>survive with more than two parties- or are we stuck with the two-party mess?
>Or-
>Could political parties be disbanded? Have all candidates (including
>those for high office, like the Presidency) run as individuals? Would
>individual candidates not be able to raise campaign funds?
The whole idea of the electoral college is that the factions favouring
the various individual presidential candidates could argue their way
to a consensus in conference. But I think that the party system is
inescapable now.
>Or- like the Whig Party- a new party would have to replace it?
I could see the Pubs as a stable regional party in the South. Canada
has a solid party that dominates the seats from one region without a
chance of getting an executive onto the PM's chair or cabinet.
I could see the Dems splitting, with the blue-dogs replacing the Pubs
under some new name.
--
apart from one noisy guy up in Canada, no-one wants
a three-cylinder tissue box on bicycle tires.
jerry warner
Daniel wrote:
>
> What-if the Republican or the Democratic Party met the same fate?
Not unless money sources find other outlets!
There are no political parties - only money lobbiests.
Where have you been since the 1700s ort the foundation
of the world?
> -Daniel
Richard Gadsden
15:30:49 -0700, go...@gossg.org (Greg Goss) wrote:
> The whole idea of the electoral college is that the factions
> favouring the various individual presidential candidates could argue
> their way to a consensus in conference. But I think that the party
> system is inescapable now.
If the electoral college actually met as a body - ie all five hundred and
thirty-eight in one place - then that would actually have a chance of
being possible. As it is, they meet in the separate states, so that kind
of consensus never developed.
--
Richard Gadsden
"I disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death
your right to say it" - Attributed to Voltaire
Dan Goodman
In the meantime: 1) A rather larger number of minor-party and
independent candidates would get elected. Some would be right of the
Democratic Party, some left.
2) Many Republican politicians and activists would become Democrats.
--
Dan Goodman
Journal at:
dsgood.livejournal.com
dsgood.dreamwidth.org
dsgood.insanejournal.com