A two party system is difficult enough for democracy, but it becomes inoperable when it loses a center majority.
America has crossed that threshold.
There’s an inverse relationship between political extremism and a government’s ability to function. As each political party in America becomes more and more controlled by their respective fringe members, less and less is being accomplished. And if on the off-change that something does get done, then that act is quickly cancelled by the successive congress. There are no stable laws or policies anymore. America has no compass or moral center. Nothing is reliable. Everything is fluid; no laws or national polices should be considered set in stone. That’s what happens when a country looses its center, both morally and politically. When the political center that makes government actually work dies, so too does democracy.
Democracy requires compromise. Democracy relies on the minority accepting the will of the majority. That no longer explains how American democracy operates. American democracy is has lost that vital characteristic: since 2010 the political minorities refuse to accept the will of the majority. As such, as each party’s extreme wing has become politically more powerful; not because they accomplish anything, but because they can block everything. Political extremes don’t produce, they stalemate, which has made Congress a completely impotent branch of the U.S. government.
American political parties being controlled by their extreme wings has also rendered the presidency effectively useless. A president might be able to get one thing done during a 4-year term, but even that will likely somehow be reversed by the next blowhard in line for the Whitehouse. Americans might feel for a moment government works, but pull back the lens and nothing actually gets done: tennis ball gets hit back and forth, it travels thousands of yards during a match, but it never actually gets anywhere. In American politics the game is the purpose, not policy, progress, or working to improve lives of citizens. Just keep hitting the ball while the crowds chant and cheer.
Unfortunately, human beings aren’t very good at reversing course. We suck at it, actually. Political resets have always required horrifying occurrences actually happening, not just being warned. We’ve never been good at foresight, let alone insight. And now we’re literally throwing sh*t at walls and statues in the halls of Congress like the apes we are.
Political centers aren’t made. They tend to evolve as a result of disruption, corruption, or shock. Shocking, though, it is that January 6th, 2021 wasn’t enough of a kick in the collective head for a center to be reincarnated. Since then it’s become decidedly worse. And that’s how it will continue, progressively worse and worse events, until finally one is so awful that common sense is knocked back into us dumb Americans once again… and resets the 50-year clock promising the next generation will get do to it all over again!
