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The problem here is the American idea of what a political party is.
To function as a party, the D or the R needs to be a party. A party needs a structure, ti needs leaders. Those leaders need ot be chosen by some mechanism. Usually that means D or R politicians who get elected also get to run the D or R party.
The reason for this is historical. Our Constitution assumed no parties. Jefferson had a very bitter fight with Washington when the Man berated Thomas for creating the first party. Jefferson created a party because he saw the Federalists heading toward either a plutocracy or an outright dictatorship.
Jefferson’s election divided the US into just two parties, one to the right and one to the left. The US Congress never developed a mechanism for dealing with multiple parties.
So, the way it works here, we elect Ds and Rs. Then the leadership of each tribe is set and the bigger tribe controls Congress. Only once in history has that pattern actually broken down .. the Civil War.
If you do not vote D or R you are effectively disenfranchised. In most of the democratic world, parties are organizations of like minded citizens. Those folks have lots of choices and can vote for the leaders of whatever party they choose. We do not have that choice.
So, in two party system, who decides what each party stands for? Are the parties just transitory reflections of the media? That would mean … it does mean .. that Donald Trump becomes the candidate.