A relatively simple starting point for the Republican Party would to be change it's presidential primary system from "winner-take-all" to awarding delegates based on relative performance. I'm not sure why this would be a controversial move within the current RP. The voices of the extreme right would still be heard. But the more moderate voices would stay in the game longer and could coalesce behind a less unreasonable alternative. Hearty congratulations on your op-ed publication Eli, and please send me the link!
Thanks for this, Rob. You provoked me to do research and freshen up on the mechanics of the RP primaries. By my lights, you are 100% correct in your analysis. The eight states that have pure winner take all rules could abolish those, creating proportionally-represented delegates to conventions, and the “winner-take-all trigger" states (12 of them) could do the same. It's more democratic, and as you say, it gives delegates more representational power at conventions. Then, if at the conventions no candidate has 50% or more delegates, all delegates could be freed to vote for whomever they think is best for the nation (before party). This creates a filter, a systems of checks and balances against demagogues. Every little bit helps . . . Stay well,
Third parties tend to take voters away from Democrats since they have the broader coalition. It is the rare case, like Ross Perot in 1992, where the opposite happens. Right now, Forward, a new political party led by Yang and Whitman is trying to claim the center - almost certainly at the expense of the Democratic Party. I don’t see how a Conservative third party is going to form absent the complete electoral collapse of the GOP. Also, the electorate on the left and right has now been educated about the perils of third party voting and unlikely to take the bait. The recent exception was 2016 when a greatly disliked Democrat, Clinton, went up against a supposedly never-going-to-win Trump. Many of the voters who cast for the Greens never thought they would swing the election to Trump. Truth be told he did lose in an absolute sense, but the ridiculous and anti-democratic electoral college crowned him the “winner”.
I have agreed for decades about the perils of third parties, but that was before Trump and the paranoid mind became so pervasive and lawless. The three pathways forward are reform of the Republican Party, a conservative split from the RP, and destruction of the republic by their combined forces. Or, does anyone think that the Democratic Party is going to heal the nation of the RP either with sweetness, legislative brilliance, or arms? We need at least two rule of law parties in the country. No one thought the Republican Party formed in 1854 would succeed, and it did. People need to start doing the right thing, regardless of the politics of it. The RP is now corrupt. Everyone should do everything in his or her power to strip it of power, and a new Conservative Party would certainly do that, notwithstanding the entirely unknown consequences of the formation of such a party. As a Democrat, I can't criticize the RP into changing itself, but I can flatter conservatives and say, "Hey, you are better than that." True conservatives are. They make democracy a better place. They help make sure liberals do not go over the edge themselves. They are part of the critically important democratic dialectical process. Nice debating with you, Angus. Very enjoyable.
I agree with the sentiment and also don't think any "love bombs" from the Democrats are going to improve the GOP as they just see it as a weakness to be exploited. How many times did Obama, Biden and Pelosi try to appeal to the better angels of the GOP only to waste precious legislative time and have their agenda stymied? One cannot force change on the GOP, they, or a subset of true conservatives, have to make it themselves. But we do need a functioning second party that wants to govern responsibly when in power and work constructively when in opposition. At the moment the GOP is simply a bunch of bomb throwers who make appearances on Fox News while subverting the judiciary into its political arm and working to overturn elections at the county and state level. Frankly I don't see how this resolves peacefully. Even the J6 revelations haven't chastened the GOP or its rapid followers.
Yes, I love this––especially combining it with the launch of a third party. Regarding violence, here's my hope:
Rational conservatives form a rule-of-law Conservative Party that seems like a pitiful waste of time, gaining little traction until . . . Republicans try to launch the nation into bloodshed, at which time those who oppose abortion, transgender bathrooms, big government, and bloodshed have a peaceful place to go: the Conservative Party. They certainly will not want to come aboard the Democrat train.
If there are two conservatives parties, one standing for peace and the Constitution, and the other for paranoia, bigotry, lawlessness, and violence, most of "the people," with a hope and a prayer, will migrate to the sane, peaceful one when the worst crisis happens.
First, congrats on your op-ed and I would love to be emailed the full text of it. I agree that the current GOP has devolved to such a degree that the few remaining rational voices cannot salvage it. Intelligent, civil discourse about the best path forward is no longer possible; GOP officials must endorse Trump's lies to get elected or remain in power. Irreparable harm to individuals and our democracy has occured as a result of that. I just published an op-ed documenting three particularly egregious examples in TX. I sold exclusive worldwide rights so cannot share the text, but here is the link if you're interested: https://www.texasobserver.org/texas-republicans-lie/
Nice piece, Wendi. Glad to hear you agree that the GOP is too far gone to recover both here and in the piece. We need a fair fight with someone like Cheney, not the insanity of Trump & Co. All the best, Eli
Thanks for sending me the full text of your op-ed. I appreciated your reflections and hope that more rational conservatives will find the moral courage to publicly challenge Trump’s lies and the dangerous tactics the GOP has embraced in a desperate effort to remain in power even though the majority of voters do not support their extremism.
A relatively simple starting point for the Republican Party would to be change it's presidential primary system from "winner-take-all" to awarding delegates based on relative performance. I'm not sure why this would be a controversial move within the current RP. The voices of the extreme right would still be heard. But the more moderate voices would stay in the game longer and could coalesce behind a less unreasonable alternative. Hearty congratulations on your op-ed publication Eli, and please send me the link!
Thanks for this, Rob. You provoked me to do research and freshen up on the mechanics of the RP primaries. By my lights, you are 100% correct in your analysis. The eight states that have pure winner take all rules could abolish those, creating proportionally-represented delegates to conventions, and the “winner-take-all trigger" states (12 of them) could do the same. It's more democratic, and as you say, it gives delegates more representational power at conventions. Then, if at the conventions no candidate has 50% or more delegates, all delegates could be freed to vote for whomever they think is best for the nation (before party). This creates a filter, a systems of checks and balances against demagogues. Every little bit helps . . . Stay well,
Third parties tend to take voters away from Democrats since they have the broader coalition. It is the rare case, like Ross Perot in 1992, where the opposite happens. Right now, Forward, a new political party led by Yang and Whitman is trying to claim the center - almost certainly at the expense of the Democratic Party. I don’t see how a Conservative third party is going to form absent the complete electoral collapse of the GOP. Also, the electorate on the left and right has now been educated about the perils of third party voting and unlikely to take the bait. The recent exception was 2016 when a greatly disliked Democrat, Clinton, went up against a supposedly never-going-to-win Trump. Many of the voters who cast for the Greens never thought they would swing the election to Trump. Truth be told he did lose in an absolute sense, but the ridiculous and anti-democratic electoral college crowned him the “winner”.
I have agreed for decades about the perils of third parties, but that was before Trump and the paranoid mind became so pervasive and lawless. The three pathways forward are reform of the Republican Party, a conservative split from the RP, and destruction of the republic by their combined forces. Or, does anyone think that the Democratic Party is going to heal the nation of the RP either with sweetness, legislative brilliance, or arms? We need at least two rule of law parties in the country. No one thought the Republican Party formed in 1854 would succeed, and it did. People need to start doing the right thing, regardless of the politics of it. The RP is now corrupt. Everyone should do everything in his or her power to strip it of power, and a new Conservative Party would certainly do that, notwithstanding the entirely unknown consequences of the formation of such a party. As a Democrat, I can't criticize the RP into changing itself, but I can flatter conservatives and say, "Hey, you are better than that." True conservatives are. They make democracy a better place. They help make sure liberals do not go over the edge themselves. They are part of the critically important democratic dialectical process. Nice debating with you, Angus. Very enjoyable.
I agree with the sentiment and also don't think any "love bombs" from the Democrats are going to improve the GOP as they just see it as a weakness to be exploited. How many times did Obama, Biden and Pelosi try to appeal to the better angels of the GOP only to waste precious legislative time and have their agenda stymied? One cannot force change on the GOP, they, or a subset of true conservatives, have to make it themselves. But we do need a functioning second party that wants to govern responsibly when in power and work constructively when in opposition. At the moment the GOP is simply a bunch of bomb throwers who make appearances on Fox News while subverting the judiciary into its political arm and working to overturn elections at the county and state level. Frankly I don't see how this resolves peacefully. Even the J6 revelations haven't chastened the GOP or its rapid followers.
Yes, I love this––especially combining it with the launch of a third party. Regarding violence, here's my hope:
Rational conservatives form a rule-of-law Conservative Party that seems like a pitiful waste of time, gaining little traction until . . . Republicans try to launch the nation into bloodshed, at which time those who oppose abortion, transgender bathrooms, big government, and bloodshed have a peaceful place to go: the Conservative Party. They certainly will not want to come aboard the Democrat train.
If there are two conservatives parties, one standing for peace and the Constitution, and the other for paranoia, bigotry, lawlessness, and violence, most of "the people," with a hope and a prayer, will migrate to the sane, peaceful one when the worst crisis happens.
First, congrats on your op-ed and I would love to be emailed the full text of it. I agree that the current GOP has devolved to such a degree that the few remaining rational voices cannot salvage it. Intelligent, civil discourse about the best path forward is no longer possible; GOP officials must endorse Trump's lies to get elected or remain in power. Irreparable harm to individuals and our democracy has occured as a result of that. I just published an op-ed documenting three particularly egregious examples in TX. I sold exclusive worldwide rights so cannot share the text, but here is the link if you're interested: https://www.texasobserver.org/texas-republicans-lie/
Nice piece, Wendi. Glad to hear you agree that the GOP is too far gone to recover both here and in the piece. We need a fair fight with someone like Cheney, not the insanity of Trump & Co. All the best, Eli
Thanks for sending me the full text of your op-ed. I appreciated your reflections and hope that more rational conservatives will find the moral courage to publicly challenge Trump’s lies and the dangerous tactics the GOP has embraced in a desperate effort to remain in power even though the majority of voters do not support their extremism.