“The Republican Party, as many of us know it, no longer exists,” said one source, who asked not to be named. “We do not recognize ourselves anymore in Trump’s administration. There is a strong movement out there in the party to reclaim the values we were raised on and reclaim the middle ground.”
Translation: “Omg can you believe this leopard is eating my face? Now that I’m personally affected by my own stupidity I want to be friends with Democrats!”
This is a good thing. Don’t mock people for realizing their party has abandoned them and acting accordingly.
Better late than never, but we need to support this ideal.
I mean, hell, if the right wing Dems separate from the progressives and join the less-crazy-than-maga centerish Republicans and they go play in corporate-funded Neverland that hopefully no sane voter would touch with a ten foot pole, a real progressive party might actually become a possibility. It’ll isolate the magats and push them back into a hole, we may get a more moderate conservative party that could be open to compromising again, and hopefully a coalition of real progressives can begin putting forward some much needed ideas.
The key will be ensuring that that progressive party is funded well enough to compete with the corporate money that is pumped by the truckload into that new coalition (which will be a feat in itself).
I dunno, just anything to get these fucking fleas out of our politics.
The key is Campaign Finance Reform, which is the issue from which ALL other issues arise.
We need to get money out of politics.
A democracy needs many things to work properly, and they’re all broken. Now that cryptocurrency exists, every politician needs to be regularly audited. With First Past the Post, we’re pressured into voting for people known to accept bribes. With gerrymandering, Republicans draw lines around the 26% support they actually need. Even the elections themselves need to be end-to-end auditabile.
Bullseye. While I agree campaign finance reform is a huge step, there are a number of things that need to change to get ourselves on the right footing. The big one in my mind is anti corruption laws that actually have teeth.
And ALL those problems continue because there are wealthy entities willing to donate ANY amount of money to influence as many campaigns as possible. Right now, they see their re-elections as dependent on getting as much money as possible, so all their efforts are directed at the most wealthy.
But take money out of politics, and suddenly the ONLY election currency is every citizen’s single vote. Instead of appeasing a few very wealthy donors with important legislation that benefits only them at the expense of everyone else, they will be forced to support wide-reaching legislation that helps millions of citizens, in hopes of attracting their votes. Take money out of campaigns, and a wealthy person has equal political power as any other citizen - one vote. This is what the Founding Fathers were really talking about when they declared that all men were created equal.
third parties just can’t win under the current system. we’d need ranked choice voting.
the way forward is through the primaries. that’s how we got Zohran.
theres also the fact that MSM will be issuing propaganda against 3rd parties or dont even report on them at all, giving them less airtime.
Seriously, more party options is a good thing even if some of them suuuck.
This one definitely suuuuucks. Just a little bit less than where we’re at now.
They still deserve mockery for taking 9 years to realize it!
And for many other reasons, honestly
Workers need to, not the politicians that made this happen.
I’d have an easier time agreeing with you if any one of them had shown even a bit of spine against this fascism.
Their “ideals” allowed for this fascist regime to start
So you want them to keep those ideals?
You don’t understand what they are saying. You don’t understand what I’m saying.
You are the problem. Not some Republican politician whose lie you don’t understand.
This is a very republican method of argument.
Edit: now tell them to go “do your own research”
It’s not an argument. That is why you are confused, don’t understand, and insult.
I agree that it’s not much of an argument.
No you didn’t. :)
And somehow, just somehow, his bills get passed.
They said the same thing after Nixon… and after Reagan… and now after Trump. Moderates will eat it up and we will end up worse on the next cycle of debauchery.
A real simple fix would be ranked choice voting.
fix
Which is why it won’t happen.
After Mamdani, they’re scared as fuck of ranked choice elections.
They already were. The right has been sneaking bans on ranked choice voting into many red state legislations for many years now.
You may be thinking “how could they convince people to vote against ranked choice voting?!” By piggybacking on xenophobia of course!
Even though that wouldn’t have mattered in his case. He would have won the primary without the need for ranked choice.
arguably ranked choice gave voters the confidence to pick the candidate that won an outright majority.
That’s a fair point.
I live in uber-blue Oregon and the Dem politicians here rallied against it and got it defeated on the 2024 ballot.
Same here in Massachusetts back in 2020.
It’s not necessarily a GOP vs Dem issue, it’s dominant parties worried that giving voters more choice will weaken their control.
We have it for Portland though! And it’s working
If it’s working, they’ll get rid of it sooner or later.
What’s bullshit? 4 out of 18 Democratic state senators claimed to support it and 14 out of 36 Democratic state reps claimed to support it.
Only 3 Republican state legislators opposed it so Republicans must have been in favor of it too, right?
it’s already been explicitly outlawed in several places.
Then we’ll have to support it on a federal level too.
These cats don’t actually want to fix anything.
Not entirely, but we should definitely have it
“Vote blue no matter who, but also we’ll leave the party completely at the slightest hint you want to reduce income inequality and fix the broken social safety net.”
Edit: Actually, good, fuck em. Why should the left need to start its own party. We’re the Democrats now. Any Democratic official who leaves the party for this should be abandoned forever.
Fuck that. Dem leadership has abandoned the people. The Democratic and Republicans are finished
Probably true, but it’s easier to move into an empty house than build a new one.
Not if the foundation is cracked and crumbling.
I know I started the house analogy, but in this case the foundation is people. It’s the failed leadership and weak platform that can more easily be discarded.
The foundation of both parties is cracked. I’m sorry it is what it is
I mean, I get the frustration and it’s edgy to keep saying there’s no hope, but you’re just not going to get people leaving either party en masse. Most people don’t want to give up the option of voting in primaries and at least having some influence there. It’s just far more plausible to take over existing parties and remake them with a new vision.
The old school dems will team up with the majority of Rs and nothing will change. Anything to keep progressives from taking power.
The old school dems will team up with the majority of Rs
Already been happening for a long time.
nothing will change.
Already living under increasing fascism.
Ah, the Obstructionist Party.
That’s not what GOP stands for?
It’s the O in the abbreviation sandwiched between Gaslight and Project.
At this point, any bumps in the road to unfettered misogynist, bigoted, surveillance christofacist power would be helpful while the left gets a real party together.
Stop thinking that’s going to happen.
It’s never going to happen.
This seems like a trap that will enable the MAGAs to win more elections without a majority of votes…
Yeah, nah, we’re good dawgs. The democrat-republican third party would just be what the Dems are now - a right-of-center status quo capitulation party. Fuck every single one of you and your mothers. Have a good day.
Realistically, the end goal is to replace the democratic party with the new one and abandon the growing progressive wing to obscurity.
This might be one of those Democrat big brain moves like supporting Trump’s 2016 primary. Progressive ideas are more popular than they realize.
“We need to get back to our centrist roots. This authoritarianism is hurting profits” said the capitalists en masse
Even if some unholy combo of the right and the slightly less right us what we wanted, this is literally just plotting for the spoiler effect
It looks like they’re trying to capture “the center” - which side will be spoiled more?
The article doesn’t name names and only mentions “centerists.” Those can all fuck off and make their own party. It will split the republican votes the most.
Republicans is more cultish then democrats. Democrats politician would be more open to a third party
The USA is a one party state, except with typical American extravagance, they have
twothree of themuniparty its more or less a coalition of the oldguard and the old dnc, and maybe maga on some issues.
Wish they were in discussion to overhaul our fptp voting system. Any third party is doomed to fail, by design, until first past the post is in the rear view mirror.
Good luck to find enough politicians deciding to vote yes for a change to presidential elections electoral system
Totally agree
Should’ve pushed for ranked choice voting when they had the chance.
But mom says we already have conservative party at home
Oh, great. That’s what we want. A third party that’s also right-of-center. Yay.
