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It’s a positively dismal time to be an American voter – and an even worse time to be an American taxpayer. Two-and-a-half centuries into our representative democratic experiment, the wheels certainly appear to be coming off of our Republic. America is badly broken – mired in debt and divisiveness due to the profligacy and “progressiveness” of a dysfunctional two-party system and the corporate/ cultural forces propping it up (and profiting from its dysfunction).
It’s certainly true Republicans and Democrats have evolved considerably since they became the only games in town way back in the 1850s (the beginning of the so-called “third party system”). They’ve flipped geographically and ideologically – but the underlying false dichotomy has remained unchanged.
An echo, not a choice …
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Meanwhile, the federal behemoth – an increasingly unwieldy and weaponized labyrinth of bureaucracies – grows like a cancer on the body politic. And leaders of both parties (whose cognitive functions can charitably be described as “slipping”) continue to recklessly engage in costly military misadventures around the globe in the name of American imperialism – self-serving provocation using other people’s blood and treasure.
There’s also a new orthodoxy of indoctrination – one in which everything (especially truth) is fluid.
But it’s not just “teleprompted” Joe Biden and “freeze-framed” Mitch McConnell who continue endangering/ selling out America at every turn. Nor was it just Barack Obama‘s and George W. Bush‘s presidencies which accelerated the collapse we are witnessing today. Even former U.S. president Donald Trump – perceived by many on the right to be a great populist – bowed to the money-printers during his term in office from 2017-2021.
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That’s right; Trump sold out, too.
As the 2024 election comes into focus, the probability of a Biden-Trump rematch is high – almost a foregone conclusion, in fact. This has led many who care about the future of the American Republic to openly weep for it. On the GOP side, Trump at one time seemed as though he would face a credible challenge from Florida governor Ron DeSantis. But then the woke left began its “Indictment-palooza” against him – and its multi-pronged assault against DeSantis.
Now the GOP base has rallied behind the former president, making him the presumptive Republican nominee.
Take a look at this aggregate polling data from RealClearPolitics …
(Click to View)
On the Democratic side, Biden is also cruising to his party’s nomination – especially after California governor Gavin Newsom made it clear last week he would not be challenging the incumbent in 2024.
Still, Biden is struggling generate enthusiasm within his own party – especially amongst millennial voters. According to a CNN poll released last week, a whopping 67 percent of Democratic (and Democratic-leaning) voters believe the party should nominate someone other than Biden in 2024. And while many are rightfully concerned about his age and acuity, there is also an undercurrent of opposition to Biden owing to the fact he is perceived by many Democrats to be insufficiently liberal.
Wait … what?
What presidency are these people watching?
The makeup of the Democratic base is shifting. Earlier this year, Gallup’s pollsters found a record 54 percent of Democrats identified as liberals – up from 25 percent just prior to the turn of the century. Biden was never the first choice of these voters, but the party elites have rigged the primary system in his favor the same way they rigged it for Hillary Clinton in 2016.
(Click to View)
With both major parties poised to submit unappetizing general election options for voters’ consideration next November, what are independent-minded voters to do?
According to Gallup, last month 47 percent of the American electorate described itself as independent – compared to 26 percent which identified as Democrat and 25 percent which identified as Republican. That independent number has climbed as high as 49 percent within the last year – and dipped as low as 35 percent.
Imagine how high that number would be if credible ballot options were to emerge outside of the current two-party stranglehold?
This media outlet has editorialized frequently on the need for a third party – and I have written extensively as to the potential viability such a party might enjoy (assuming it was geared toward fiscal conservatism and social liberalism). Unfortunately, as of this writing the only third party options on the horizon appear to be GOP and Democratic retreads – candidates who embrace the very worst of the mushy middle of the American political spectrum. No Labels? No thank you …
Nearly four years ago I wrote of there being “a viable pathway to the presidency that falls between the interminable lies and betrayals of both the left and the right,” a pathway which needed only “a fiscal conservative, pro-free market, social libertarian, non-interventionist candidate who is willing to tread it.”
As 2024 comes into clearer focus, the need for such a candidate has never been greater … and yet the stranglehold grows ever tighter. The inevitable outcome? The asphyxiation of the American dream.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and seven (soon to be eight) children.
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11 comments
Why do chicken little republicans always think the country is about to collapse?
Oh yeah, because every Republican POTUS since Bush Sr has left the economy way worse off than when they first took office.
I can see why republicans are always depressed and paranoid.
. . . as we watch the United States IMPLODE under the puppet-on-stick overly-medicated O’Biden. Who is ACTUALLY directing the impending funeral of America? Obama leftovers. Your point, Bob, escapes me in your cloud of smelly fart comments.
Trump will be lucky to last a year in a Georgia state penitentiary with his age and obesity. Moping around eating prison food is probably the only thing worse than a cold AYCE McDonald’s buffet.
At least Biden doesn’t suffer mid-day reboots like your head Senate guy.
The only interest you and the right have in a Third Party, is its ability to sideline the Independents who cannot stomach Trump. You know Trump cult members will always vote for Trump. Consequently, a third party is not a threat to him, because a third party will not win the Presidency and will only take votes by independents who would have voted Biden.
Trump meets all of your criteria for what you want. A man who will do whatever it takes for him to make money and have power. That makes him totally bribable and an authoritarian whose penchant to go after anyone who does not pledge loyalty to him will help offset the fact that Republicans are not even close to a majority in this country and their numbers are shrinking, far more rapidly than Democrats.
Biden is an old-fashioned center-left Democrat. He has done nothing particularly liberal, and whether you like it or not the economy is booming under Biden.
Most Americans are center-left and center-right. What the right wants is a person who will gut Social Security and Medicare and abandon our world alliances all to give more tax cuts to rich Americans. A bad time for taxpayers? Really? Taxes are at historic lows, especially for the rich. That is why we are running up massive deficits.
“But then the woke left began its “Indictment-palooza” against him – and its multi-pronged assault against DeSantis.”
The “woke left” “multi-pronged assault against DeSantis” killed his campaign? Anyone with 2 neurons to rub together can see that DeSantis was/is his own worst enemy. Most of us saw it from the start when week after week he kept getting RISING on the fEaRNews political index boner meter.
A third party has in fact taken over. It still calls itself “Republican” but it is really the Trump party.
Hope you didn’t spend too much time coming up with this “think piece.”
The “third way” is Trump running third party to twist the knife in the GOP one last time.
Who you got n mind Will?
What makes people think we have a two party system any longer? Going on about saying it is broken while pitching snot balls at each other doesn’t seem to be resolving much and seems to have the echoes of road rage.
The “system” such as it is now is working exactly as it is intended by the parties in control. Often times it looks like a “divide and conquer” military strategy while liberties are sold by whatever figurehead is on the front page. If the power brokers that own US didn’t want these seemingly out of control agendas to happen, they wouldn’t.
Historically when societies get to somewhere close to where we are, the results tend to be some sort of major reset. I don’t claim to have the answer but rest assured, none of the commenters here have the answers. Sorry, you too Will. Love ya anyway.
Agree with almost all of your analysis. But a new way would be a 2nd party, since Dem and Repubs have been a uniparty for years, all the way down to the local level. The woke commandos are very serious about destroying all opposition. Don’t believe that? Ask anybody thrown into Pelosi’s gulag in DC, or anyone now being prosecuted for being associated in any way with Trump.
Will, you are right on target. Where is that good candidate that you suggest? He/she better get started soon organising the grassroots.
As a PROUD Independent of long standing….(and as an IRAQUISTAN Vet…) the only hope is to draft Senator Tammy Duckworth for Prez.
Seriously wounded in Iraq Senator Duckworth knows a thing or two about sacrifice and commit