Relax—Both Parties Are Going Extinct

[kpete]

Our parties are shrinking because each in its own way can’t come to terms with decentralization. But it’s real, and it’s going to bury them.

Nick Gillespie: “It’s safe to say that by the end of today, a large chunk of Americans will be bitterly disappointed. If Republicans win big, Democrats will hang their heads and cuss the Koch brothers. If the GOP fails to snag the Senate and a fistful of statehouses, its partisans will mope around and blame Ebola-infected illegal immigrants for the loss.”

“But whichever side emerges victorious, both Republicans and Democrats should face up to a much bigger truth: Neither party as currently constituted has a real future. Fewer and fewer Americans identify as either Republican or Democratic according to Gallup, and both parties are at recent or all-time lows when it comes to approval ratings. Just 39 percent give Democrats a favorable rating and just 33 percent do the same for Republicans. Not coincidentally, each party has also recently had a clear shot at implementing its vision of the good society. If you want to drive down your adversary’s approval rating, just give him the reins of power for a few years.”


via:
http://politicalwire.com/2014/11/04/maybe-both-parties-are-going-extinct/
rest of story here:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/11/04/relax-these-midterms-mean-less-than-you-think.html

[tridim]

1. Thanks for posting another "both parties are the same" pile of crap.

You win, something.

[emulatorloo]

2. "The future belongs to [Rand] Paul" Super Cool article, kpete!

"And that’s why the future of politics and policy doesn’t belong to doctrinaire Democrats or Republicans who want to control large swaths of everyday life. It belongs ultimately to the libertarian decentralists such as Paul who not only understand what is happening to America but are growing comfortable with it. Americans are increasingly wary of government’s power, and they don’t want it to teach a single set of morals either. Everything is proliferating and people just want a government that will keep people from starving on the streets and get out of the way as they go to the corner pot shop to buy edibles to take to their friends’ gay wedding celebrated by ministers who are not forced to do so."

I have no idea why you are posting pro-libertarian editorials on DU.

On Edit: author's bio from wikipedia

Nicholas John Gillespie (/ɡɪˈlɛspi/; born August 7, 1963)[1] is an American libertarian journalist. He is the editor of Reason.com and Reason.tv and was the editor-in-chief of Reason magazine from 2000 to 2008.[3] He has written articles or been a commentator for a variety of media outlets.[4] Gillespie has edited one anthology, Choice: The Best of Reason.[5]

More at link:

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Gillespie

[greatauntoftriplets]

3. Fuck Rand Paul.

[Marr]

4. That last sentence there really sums up the explanation.

The increasing regularity of insanely close elections is proof that the whole thing has become way too staid and phony.

Our political establishment is very much invested in maintaining the status quo. Neither party's leadership wants to improve things for the working class, so they just line up for slap fights on social issues. They don't really even wants to win on those issues, because winning would take away one of their wedges.

So we just see cycle after cycle of noisy ineffectiveness and very quite, unremarked bipartisanship/collusion on any issue that will hand more money to billionaires. People lose interest.

[WillyT]

5. Hey kpete... Don't Listen To The Haters...

Some of us have a curious habit (as George Carlin once said)...

"We like to THINK !!!"

And although some might wish this site... to be a rah, rah site...

I appreciate your input and articles.

That's what we DU here... post articles for the group to consider, and comment on.

YOU... are an invaluable resource.

Please keep on, keepin on.

[defacto7]

6. Problem is....

It's not what the public associates themselves with or disassociates with that counts, it's who's in control. If the people were in control of government as it is meant to be then the logic of this OP or the articles may be correct. But we aren't in control anymore. It's the power of money, organization and national/international business interests that are in control. Remember the cliché, "possession is 90% of the law". We the people possess nothing.

To hell with both major parties as organized entities that represent certain factions of the people as well as the non-parties, the new parties, whatever... we the people have to take back our country, and if we have to make a contract with the devil to do it, then that's what we do. The America we once knew or thought we knew doesn't exist anymore. Smoke and mirrors.

Associate with whatever entity has the possibility to grow strong enough, soon enough, to take back what we have lost to those who have bought us, brainwashed us and groomed us. Otherwise we'll just choke on that smoke and watch our reflection disappear in dreams of revolution that will never be.