A Pew Research poll conducted just before the 2022 midterm elections shows both political parties are unpopular.
The GOP is viewed unfavorably by 61% of U.S. adults, the Democrats by 57%, with 25% rejecting both parties, up from 6% in 1994. And over half want to see a new party formed. These results aren’t surprising, given rising partisan acrimony and increased polarization. (Read story here.)
Lee Drutman (profile here), a leading proponent of multiparty politics and ranked-choice voting, says, “If we are in a situation in which one party believes that the other party winning the election would be so disastrous to the country that maybe we should intervene to prevent the other party from winning, then you don’t really have a democracy anymore.”
But past efforts to create a “third way” in America politics have all failed — from Teddy Roosevelt’s “Bull Moose Party” in 1912 to the independent candidacies of John Anderson in 1980, Ross Perot in 1996, and Evan McMullin in 2016, leading to a strong impression that the GOP and Democrats have an unshakable duopoly.
This is a complicated subject. Funding campaigns is hugely expensive — I read somewhere more than $11 billion will be spent on the 2022 midterm elections, and a presidential campaign now routinely costs more than $1 billion — but money aside, where countries have multiparty democracies, you see politicians getting a majority by negotiating coalitions in closed-door backroom dealing and frankly less stable governments (think Italy).
And there’s no guarantee that a multiparty system will produce less extreme leaders. The contrary appears to be true. In a two-party system, the parties must cast a wide net to attract enough voters to win. And history suggests multiparty systems are more vulnerable to being taken over by authoritarian leaders rising through a minority party.
So how did we get such a crazy Republican Party? That, my friends, is a topic for another day. But at the end of any day, you either have responsible voters or you don’t, and you get what they vote for.
Related article: In Australia, voting is compulsory; does democracy work better there? Go here to find out.