Have you ever wondered whether we need a new, moderate, third-party in USA politics? There are two stories I have been following that make me wish for a viable third option.
One is the incredible meltdown of the Democratic party leadership in Virginia. One begins to wonder how far down the leadership chain the sex and race scandal will go. I do feel a bit for the ones that have to do with actions 30 years ago. University students may be legal adults, but their levels of common sense are almost undetectable. One does wonder whether Saint Paul would have been allowed to be a Christian leader in today’s USA. On the other hand, Saint Paul confessed what he had done early, and in writing. The Virginia Democrats should probably have done the same years ago. They might have had a rough time at first, but no one would be trying to remove them today.
The other is the Texas Republican party’s claim that around 95,000 voters were illegally on the voter rolls. In less than one week, tens of thousands of names have been restored to the list because, oops, self-admitted mistakes. I went to several Texas newspapers online, and each one is running stories of different fully legal voters who were stripped of their right to vote without even being notified of their removal. My favorite story was of the lawyer who was born in the USA and had over 30 years on the voter rolls (and voted regularly), only to find that her name had been one of the ones purged. The poor woman had a Latino name. I suspect that the number of Latino Republican voters in Texas may have just taken a major hit.
The Republican Party radicalized early. The Democratic Party appears to be headed that way. We may soon have another shutdown. No one is interested in governing, including the President. The Supreme Court does not reflect principles anymore as much as the same partisan divide which is reflected in the Congress, the Executive, and the public.
Of course, the question is how much of the public actually holds that same divide? While there have been many polls on basic beliefs, I cannot remember any national publicized polls that have seriously crafted questions that try to bring to light what compromises the majority of Americans might be willing to accept in order to make this country functional again. I am convinced that we need polls to try to ascertain the answer to that question.
Of course, without a viable third-party proposing moderate solutions to extreme rhetoric, we are not likely to get those polls. We are caught in a vicious circle: the chances of a moderate party starting without the polls are negligible; the chances of the polls being taken without the existence of a moderate party are also negligible. Sigh.
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