I’m fully on board with everything proposed in this piece. I think there’s also an opportunity for non-partisan process reforms that could help break the two-party cartel.
Open primaries are an easy one. I’m a big fan of ranked choice voting too, but that’s a tougher sell because voters are conditioned to think in binary terms. Many people don’t understand anything outside that paradigm, so encouraging people to think outside the Red/Blue box in general is a great project.
Here are some suggestions that might help Democrats move toward the purple.
The historic Democratic icons FDR, and JFK would laugh at what passes for policy in their beloved party. Although they were upper class they understood that victory for their party depended on appealing to working class voters. Current party leaders distain the “deplorable” and “racist” members of the working class.
A laundry list of things for Democrats to keep and to dump if they ever want to actually win again nationwide.
Keep a woman’s right to choose for the first trimester.
Dump abortion until birth unless the mother’s health is at risk or the fetus is not viable.
Keep a concern for climate change and the environment and grow nuclear power.
Dump intermittent, unreliable renewable energy that requires backup continuous generating capacity which is then used intermittently. A ridiculously expensive approach. Even more important, realize that the stifling maze of environmental procedures that now must be followed to build anything has raised the price of necessities like mass transit and housing that the working class needs to survive. Figure out how to build stuff quickly.
Keep and develop new effective vaccines.
Dump vaccine mandates.
Keep equality of opportunity for all.
Dump equity of results based on discriminating against men, whites and Asians in a futile attempt to compensate for past discrimination against women and blacks. Recognize that D.E.I. Is unconstitutional.
Keep the protection of gay and lesbian rights.
Dump men in women’s sports, private spaces and prisons. Oh, and mutilating children who might grow up to be gay.
Keep an opportunity for selective high value immigration.
Dump sanctuary cities and open borders.
Keep helping the homeless find jobs and a place to live.
Dump camping in cities, shitting in the streets and allowing open drug use.
Keep a concern for due process in criminal justice.
Dump letting shoplifters and other petty thieves off the hook and releasing predators back on the streets without bail to kill and maim again.
Keep support for unions and fair wages
Dump “free trade” policies that have devastated our manufacturing sector.
Do all of the above and start governing like you know what the fuck you’re doing and you might just find your way back to power.
Yes the two party system is really starting to look like it might be at risk of becoming more and more in danger of being changed. We need people like the blue dog democrats and people like Dan Osborne to run as independents in conservative states like Nebraska. But just running as an independent is not easy, Osborne lost and so did independent Kirsten Sinema . I think candidate quality matters, a generic democrat could probably not pull off your proposed strategy against a far right representative. They would have to be able to attract a lot more conservative voters than the average Democrat . Angus king seems to be a politician that can get conservative votes but is able to vote with the democratic enough to be considered a democrat. When voters in a district object to some policy of the national Democrats then they should run as independents. And if candidates like that are able to pull off winning using that approach, maybe it could be a way to actually have a third party. Also I agree that primaries are leading to polarization but I think that the extreme activists can also put candidates in place with obvious lack of ability to win in the general election. Look at the effect of MAGA activists in getting an unpopular republican candidate to lose in the general election to a more moderate democrat.
Most of this is spot on, but consider a twist: rather than running candidates, which makes it a fairly stock Third Party idea, how about if you take advantage of open primaries and have the purple cooperative throw its weight behind the most moderate candidates from the existing slate in whichever party looks like nominating the most radical candidate.
Since both Georgia and Minnesota are open states, for example, you could target both MTG and Omar. (Obviously, would have to do some analytics and see how many purples in those districts, what it takes to organize them, what their previous voting patterns have been, etc … )
And then of course also make clear in the general election the bloc will go against the radicals if the party does nominate them.
“There is a way to run moderate candidates and the key is getting the system to work in favor of it.”
My point was don’t run candidates. Only back the more moderate ones already in the race. And move the voter bloc between the two primaries based on which side has the more radical candidate who looks like winning both the primary and the general.
With that one proviso … don’t run any candidates, just endorse and swing votes between primaries … 100%
I’m fully on board with everything proposed in this piece. I think there’s also an opportunity for non-partisan process reforms that could help break the two-party cartel.
Open primaries are an easy one. I’m a big fan of ranked choice voting too, but that’s a tougher sell because voters are conditioned to think in binary terms. Many people don’t understand anything outside that paradigm, so encouraging people to think outside the Red/Blue box in general is a great project.
Here are some suggestions that might help Democrats move toward the purple.
The historic Democratic icons FDR, and JFK would laugh at what passes for policy in their beloved party. Although they were upper class they understood that victory for their party depended on appealing to working class voters. Current party leaders distain the “deplorable” and “racist” members of the working class.
A laundry list of things for Democrats to keep and to dump if they ever want to actually win again nationwide.
Keep a woman’s right to choose for the first trimester.
Dump abortion until birth unless the mother’s health is at risk or the fetus is not viable.
Keep a concern for climate change and the environment and grow nuclear power.
Dump intermittent, unreliable renewable energy that requires backup continuous generating capacity which is then used intermittently. A ridiculously expensive approach. Even more important, realize that the stifling maze of environmental procedures that now must be followed to build anything has raised the price of necessities like mass transit and housing that the working class needs to survive. Figure out how to build stuff quickly.
Keep and develop new effective vaccines.
Dump vaccine mandates.
Keep equality of opportunity for all.
Dump equity of results based on discriminating against men, whites and Asians in a futile attempt to compensate for past discrimination against women and blacks. Recognize that D.E.I. Is unconstitutional.
Keep the protection of gay and lesbian rights.
Dump men in women’s sports, private spaces and prisons. Oh, and mutilating children who might grow up to be gay.
Keep an opportunity for selective high value immigration.
Dump sanctuary cities and open borders.
Keep helping the homeless find jobs and a place to live.
Dump camping in cities, shitting in the streets and allowing open drug use.
Keep a concern for due process in criminal justice.
Dump letting shoplifters and other petty thieves off the hook and releasing predators back on the streets without bail to kill and maim again.
Keep support for unions and fair wages
Dump “free trade” policies that have devastated our manufacturing sector.
Do all of the above and start governing like you know what the fuck you’re doing and you might just find your way back to power.
Yes the two party system is really starting to look like it might be at risk of becoming more and more in danger of being changed. We need people like the blue dog democrats and people like Dan Osborne to run as independents in conservative states like Nebraska. But just running as an independent is not easy, Osborne lost and so did independent Kirsten Sinema . I think candidate quality matters, a generic democrat could probably not pull off your proposed strategy against a far right representative. They would have to be able to attract a lot more conservative voters than the average Democrat . Angus king seems to be a politician that can get conservative votes but is able to vote with the democratic enough to be considered a democrat. When voters in a district object to some policy of the national Democrats then they should run as independents. And if candidates like that are able to pull off winning using that approach, maybe it could be a way to actually have a third party. Also I agree that primaries are leading to polarization but I think that the extreme activists can also put candidates in place with obvious lack of ability to win in the general election. Look at the effect of MAGA activists in getting an unpopular republican candidate to lose in the general election to a more moderate democrat.
Most of this is spot on, but consider a twist: rather than running candidates, which makes it a fairly stock Third Party idea, how about if you take advantage of open primaries and have the purple cooperative throw its weight behind the most moderate candidates from the existing slate in whichever party looks like nominating the most radical candidate.
Since both Georgia and Minnesota are open states, for example, you could target both MTG and Omar. (Obviously, would have to do some analytics and see how many purples in those districts, what it takes to organize them, what their previous voting patterns have been, etc … )
And then of course also make clear in the general election the bloc will go against the radicals if the party does nominate them.
Just a thought.
That's actually what I said.
Not quite:
“There is a way to run moderate candidates and the key is getting the system to work in favor of it.”
My point was don’t run candidates. Only back the more moderate ones already in the race. And move the voter bloc between the two primaries based on which side has the more radical candidate who looks like winning both the primary and the general.
With that one proviso … don’t run any candidates, just endorse and swing votes between primaries … 100%
I'm saying run moderate candidates against extreme candidates. You're choosing to be pedantic about it.
I’m not being pedantic at all. I’m saying if you run candidates, you become yet another third party/faction.
I think there’s more potential being a sanity check on all the parties, rather than getting into the ring.
Like the LWV, but actually endorse candidates, and back it with voters.