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!
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”.
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/
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!
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”.
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/