The Four Party Solution

Yesterday, I offered my own take on what an honest post mortem on the 2024 election would look like for the Democrats. I concluded that the best solution going forward would be to split the party into two sub parties — progressives and moderates — with each agreeing to come together behind one candidate after the primaries.

The same idea could work just as well for the Republicans, with MAGA Republicans and traditional conservatives forming their own parties within a party and following the same rule to support whoever wins the nomination for each office.

I think that something like this is the only way out because the rifts within the parties are just too deep. True believers, whether MAGA or the hard-left, just aren’t going to change their minds. For them their politics is like religion. And third parties face too many hurdles.

On the other hand, each party also has its sensible moderates who are put off by hard-edged rhetoric and extreme ideas. We need our political homes as well.

More Americans than ever are opting out of identifying with either political party About 45% of us — a record high — now identify as independents. And the parties themselves are deeply unpopular, with both Republicans and Democrats each receiving a nearly identical 60% negative rating.

I’m still nominally a Democrat myself, though I’m seriously pondering becoming an independent. If I had an organized Moderate Democratic Party to choose I’d probably remain in the party. If I’m stuck with a party identified by its hard-left, well, I’ll probably take a walk.

As if pursuing a death wish, each party is now engaged in driving even more average Americans away. Both parties are going through primary seasons in which the most radical wing is on the ascendency.

For the Democrats the most obvious example is Maine’s Graham Platner, who is now the presumptive nominee to take on long-term GOP Sen. Susan Collins. Platner is the darling of the hard-left, gaining early endorsements from Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio Cortez. To say Platner is damaged goods is an understatement. The guy’s got a Nazi tattoo on his chest and a trail of ugly and crazy social media posts a mile long. I’d be surprised if Collins doesn’t retain her seat in November.

Then there’s the Democrats’ U.S. Senate nominee, James Talarico, in Texas. Democrats are excited about him because they think his mix of religiosity and liberal politics will play well there. I fear they’re wrong. Talarico once went in for the idea that there are six sexes. He’s since disavowed that, but it won’t matter. You really think Texas Republicans aren’t going to exploit that to the hilt?

But then there’s the other side of the crazy coin in the Lone Star State because Republicans are likely to match Talarico with their own brand of nuts. Now with Trump’s endorsement, they’ll probably nominate Ken Paxton over the far more electable incumbent Sen. John Cornyn. Paxton is a survivor, of sorts. He’s survived an indictment for securities fraud, an impeachment and corruption investigations. And his wife recently filed for divorce, alleging adultery. But still, line all that up against a guy who once thought there were six sexes and you’ve got yourself a toss up, if not an edge for Paxton.

Trump is actually rolling up primary victories for hard-right candidates all over the place, as he moves along on his retribution tour. In many cases these are deep red districts where a Republican was going to win anyway, like Thomas Massie’s district in Kentucky or the half dozen state senators who Trump dispatched in Indiana pramaries. But in the big picture it contributes to the notion among sane people that the party is run by extremists.

Meanwhile, Sanders, Ocasio Cortez and other celebs of the hard-left are racking up their own primary victories, starting with Platner. But in these cases, they might be doing actual general election harm. For example, right here in Wisconsin the presumptive nominee in the Third Congressional District, Rebecca Cooke, has accepted their endorsement. That simply makes no sense. Everyone in that southwest Wisconsin district who loves Bernie and AOC was going to vote for Cooke — and against the MAGA Republican Derek Van Gordon — anyway. But now swing voters will be put off by the extremism of Sanders, et. al. What Cooke is thinking sure isn’t clear to me. In a close race, these endorsements could well cost her the seat.

So now voters all over the country, most of whom are centrists, are faced with hard-left and hard-right choices — and nobody who reflects their point of view. The problem is that the enthusiasm among activists and most of the infrastructure is behind the extremes. There’s little in the way of moderate organization, yet the middle is where most Americans live.

That’s why a four party system makes sense. It would provide a home for those of us who are center-left and center-right. And, maybe, it would result in a politics that delivers the policies that most Americans actually want instead of the endless black and white, zero sum over wrought arguments that the current system is giving us.