The unspoken danger of the GOP self destruction is in giving single party power to the Democrats.

[Amused]

See South Africa and the ANC. Absolute power corrupts. No matter what side you're on politically, we need a multi-party system. Opposition is healthy.

 

[fskimospy]

Tribalism and the extra representation given to rural areas is likely too strong for that to ever happen. Is is actually a bad thing though because it gives the GOP little reason to return to sanity. Despite the fact that their policies are overwhelmingly unpopular they are able to leverage these advantages to say, achieve unified control of government like right now.

 

[Amused]

Tribalism and the extra representation given to rural areas is likely too strong for that to ever happen. Is is actually a bad thing though because it gives the GOP little reason to return to sanity. Despite the fact that their policies are overwhelmingly unpopular they are able to leverage these advantages to say, achieve unified control of government like right now.

Ya know, as I said in 2012, the religious right is the cancer the GOP must excise. I believe it is the root cause of all of this.

 

[IronWing]

LOL! The GOP controls the House, Senate, Presidency, and most state houses. IMHO, it is premature to worry about one party rule under any other party. The big boys who control the GOP wouldn't walk away in shame.

Spoiler

Maybe the OP was being ironic?

 

[obidamnkenobi]

Ya know, as I said in 2012, the religious right is the cancer the GOP must excise. I believe it is the root cause of all of this.

Perhaps some, but how much is the truly fundamentalist religious part of the GOP base these days? Trump, and the Tea party, won on right-wing identity politics; nationalism and fear of "the others" (immigrants, gays, minorities, china, elites, liberals etc). That strain of exclusionary "whos a real american" I believe is what fuels the worst parts of republicans these days. Same thing the tories struggle with in England. And it's on the rise elsewhere in Eurpoe too, with Macron being a welcome exception. This form of illiberal, selfish, nationalism must be marginalized for the developed world to have a functioning, effective and sane economic right/classically liberal voice.

 

[Zorba]

Perhaps some, but how much is the truly fundamentalist religious part of the GOP base these days? Trump, and the Tea party, won on right-wing identity politics; nationalism and fear of "the others" (immigrants, gays, minorities, china, elites, liberals etc). That strain of exclusionary "whos a real american" I believe is what fuels the worst parts of republicans these days. Same thing the tories struggle with in England. And it's on the rise elsewhere in Eurpoe too, with Macron being a welcome exception. This form of illiberal, selfish, nationalism must be marginalized for the developed world to have a functioning, effective and sane economic right/classically liberal voice.

Every true fundamentalist I know it's die hard pro-trump and some of the most hateful people I know.

 

[obidamnkenobi]

Every true fundamentalist I know it's die hard pro-trump and some of the most hateful people I know.

Yes, definitely. But the hateful tribalism is the main problem, the fundies just happens to be in that group. It's the rest of the people there that drive the conservatives in a short-term, selfish direction.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

I think I mentioned this...

This feels like Monty Python "Come see the corruption inherent in the system". I think that system is approaching a point of non-viability. Not today of course but we're going to have to make a choice and pretend this is a republic which represents the interest of the people over the Senate and Caesar or take actions that bring those powers down and I don't mean picking from the same old same. Americans will likely continue to do the former.

 

[Greenman]

LOL! The GOP controls the House, Senate, Presidency, and most state houses. IMHO, it is premature to worry about one party rule under any other party. The big boys who control the GOP wouldn't walk away in shame.

Spoiler

Maybe the OP was being ironic?

You forgot the Supreme Court.

 

[fskimospy]

I think I mentioned this...

This feels like Monty Python "Come see the corruption inherent in the system". I think that system is approaching a point of non-viability. Not today of course but we're going to have to make a choice and pretend this is a republic which represents the interest of the people over the Senate and Caesar or take actions that bring those powers down and I don't mean picking from the same old same. Americans will likely continue to do the former.

I do tend to agree with you that the system is approaching a breaking point. I would not be surprised if Trump leads to some sort of crisis in confidence in the system and soon. As I've said before it's pretty likely that Mueller will return a report that details significant criminal activity by the president and his associates. Either way that goes you have a crisis as if you remove Trump it's a deep state conspiracy and if you don't the rule of law no longer matters.

 

[Greenman]

See South Africa and the ANC. Absolute power corrupts. No matter what side you're on politically, we need a multi-party system. Opposition is healthy.

I'm a little curious as to what brought about this particular proclamation. Seems a bit premature.

 

[Amused]

I'm a little curious as to what brought about this particular proclamation. Seems a bit premature.

Premature? Maybe. But it's been on my mind after my experience in a country with a one party system only a couple decades old and now witnessing the GOP hit critical batshit and guessing about the outcome of that.

 

[HomerJS]

Early step get rid of gerrymandered districts so we can dilute the power of the crazies during primaries.

 

[Blackjack200]

Premature? Maybe. But it's been on my mind after my experience in a country with a one party system only a couple decades old and now witnessing the GOP hit critical batshit and guessing about the outcome of that.

One thing that might help is that the Democratic Party is such an astoundingly incompetent and ineffective organization. Losing a national election to Donald Trump is just the most visible example of how bad they are.

 

[Amused]

One thing that might help is that the Democratic Party is such an astoundingly incompetent and ineffective organization. Losing a national election to Donald Trump is just the most visible example of how bad they are.

And yet, probably the best thing that ever could have happened for them.

 

[realibrad]

And yet, probably the best thing that ever could have happened for them.

Dems seem to have a big flaw when they get into power. After a shitty Republican, they come in very popular and waste their time in power. After Bush you got Obama and then the Dems came in. They had everything and started to do some things with that power, and then got complacent. I remember seeing Nancy P. on the Daily Show and the disconnect was bad. Obama was fine, but, in Congress it was falling apart.

Dems have this bad habit of reacting to R's which ultimately means R's lead. For there to be balance we need to have both sides trying to push their ideas, and not one side pushing and the other side reacting.

 

[Blackjack200]

And yet, probably the best thing that ever could have happened for them.

Short term, yes. The midterms will probably be a bloodbath, and there's a modest chance that Trump could be the first single term president since 1988.

But I saw this movie in 2008. The Democrats governed poorly, failed to ruthlessly implement the policies that a majority of Americans wanted, and ultimately had their shit handed to them.

 

[Amused]

Short term, yes. The midterms will probably be a bloodbath, and there's a modest chance that Trump could be the first single term president since 1988.

But I saw this movie in 2008. The Democrats governed poorly, failed to ruthlessly implement the policies that a majority of Americans wanted, and ultimately had their shit handed to them.

Modest chance? Delusional. I think there's no chance and a high chance (90%+) he won't finish this term.

 

[dank69]

Dems seem to have a big flaw when they get into power. After a shitty Republican, they come in very popular and waste their time in power. After Bush you got Obama and then the Dems came in. They had everything and started to do some things with that power, and then got complacent. I remember seeing Nancy P. on the Daily Show and the disconnect was bad. Obama was fine, but, in Congress it was falling apart.

Dems have this bad habit of reacting to R's which ultimately means R's lead. For there to be balance we need to have both sides trying to push their ideas, and not one side pushing and the other side reacting.

They didn't get complacent. Americans immediately gave control of the House back to the GOP in 2010 and gave the GOP the ability to filibuster even before that.

 

[realibrad]

They didn't get complacent. Americans immediately gave control of the House back to the GOP in 2010 and gave the GOP the ability to filibuster even before that.

Any why do you think they lost the power they took?

 

[Amused]

Any why do you think they lost the power they took?

Because they had the audacity to elect a black man to lead over white men.

That really is what it boils down to. There was no major scandal or failure in 2009 and 10. Just a ni... black guy in office commanding white men. And that led to the creation of a shit ton of batshit conspiracies and paranoia including Glenn Beck's whiteboard insanity tying Obama directly to satan himself.

 

[Noah Abrams]

I do tend to agree with you that the system is approaching a breaking point. I would not be surprised if Trump leads to some sort of crisis in confidence in the system and soon. As I've said before it's pretty likely that Mueller will return a report that details significant criminal activity by the president and his associates. Either way that goes you have a crisis as if you remove Trump it's a deep state conspiracy and if you don't the rule of law no longer matters.

Did anything happen to the "system" when Bill The Philanderer was almost removed from office? The "system" is a self perpetuating, utterly corrupt system. These "crisis" have almost nothing to do with the lives of average Americans. We are all political junkies and live in a bubble. In reality, what happens in politics has no effect on Americans. That ironically is a big reason why the vile creature got elected in the first place

"I would not be surprised if Trump leads to some sort of crisis in confidence in the system and soon"

If there was any confidence in the "system" left, he would not be in the WH in the first place.

In a way I agree with Haybusa when he said something along the lines that he wishes the vile one ends up just burning the whole damn system down. But like I said, the system is so much more powerful than that.

 

[SMOGZINN]

See South Africa and the ANC. Absolute power corrupts. No matter what side you're on politically, we need a multi-party system. Opposition is healthy.

This will not be the first time a major party has collapsed in the United States. The Republican's won't simply disappear, they will break up into several smaller parties, and then those parties will compete for a few cycles until one of them becomes the new default major party. In the mean time those smaller parties combined will win about the same number of seats as the Republicans did, and they will oppose the Democrats the same as the Republicans did. All that will happen is the Democrats will be able to get a small amount more accomplished than they would if the Republicans were still around because they will be better organized. Our electoral system fairly guarantees it.

 

[fskimospy]

Did anything happen to the "system" when Bill The Philanderer was almost removed from office? The "system" is a self perpetuating, utterly corrupt system. These "crisis" have almost nothing to do with the lives of average Americans. We are all political junkies and live in a bubble.

Don't be ridiculous, the issues with Clinton and the issues with Trump are not only not in the same ballpark, they aren't even in the same state. These governance crises have a great deal to do with the lives of average Americans, it's just that people don't notice because it's long term and usually a second order effect.

In reality, what happens in politics has no effect on Americans. That ironically is a big reason why the vile creature got elected in the first place

That's unlikely. The better answer is racial anxiety.

 

[realibrad]

Because they had the audacity to elect a black man to lead over white men.

That really is what it boils down to. There was no major scandal or failure in 2009 and 10. Just a ni... black guy in office commanding white men. And that led to the creation of a shit ton of batshit conspiracies and paranoia including Glenn Beck's whiteboard insanity tying Obama directly to satan himself.

So, the guy that won by a massive amount and was hugely popular was also not hugely popular and it caused a backlash? So, the trend that started before Obama is actually Obama's fault. Got it.