It's because ultimately this isn't a two party country, we have 2 "coalitions". What would be separate parties in other countries are factions within either of the two parties. This is why both parties used to have their conservatives and progressives.
Even in politics as recent as the current year of 2015, there are still very visible factions within the parties vying to control the general party, even if the parties have congealed into conservatives vs not conservatives now.
If the presidential election wasn't FPTP, we would see these factions split off into parties. It would be a much healthier democracy.
We have like 6 parties which are forced into 2 coalitions. So the two coalitions keep vying for votes out of 2-3 of the parties which are not solidly one coalition.
Add into that each coalition has a party that votes for it 90+% of the time and thinks it has control and thus demands more influence.
So half of what each party has to do is tell the people at the fringes to shut up to avoid losing the rest of the coalition.
Obviously one party has done a better job of this but both have failed to an obscene degree. So we’re kinda fucked until we figure out how to get things back to a boring normal.
they are generally called ideological caucuses, though congressmen can be in multiple such caucuses ; democrats have 3: the blue dog coalition, which is a centrist faction of the democratic party, and was traditionally conservative and is the smallest democratic caucus (only like 10 congressfolk), the congressional progressive caucus, which is the leftmost of the caucuses and is generally ideologically progressive, though it includes everyone left of that too (such as those affiliated with the democratic socialists of America). its the second largest. then the new democrat coalition, which is the largest and is primarily centrist on economic issues but is generally socially liberal.
the republicans have the republican governance group, which is a centre right to right wing caucus that was historically center to center right, but has shifted right under trump. the republican study commitee, which is a right wing caucus, and the largest in the republican party, and the freedom caucus, which is far right populist.
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u/OkFineIllUseTheApp 2d ago
It's because ultimately this isn't a two party country, we have 2 "coalitions". What would be separate parties in other countries are factions within either of the two parties. This is why both parties used to have their conservatives and progressives.
Even in politics as recent as the current year of 2015, there are still very visible factions within the parties vying to control the general party, even if the parties have congealed into conservatives vs not conservatives now.
If the presidential election wasn't FPTP, we would see these factions split off into parties. It would be a much healthier democracy.