Ask any group of Americans, and the majority of them will express deep hatred for the two-party system. Support for a third party (though not any specific third party) is at an all-time high according to Gallup, who has been polling about it since 2003. The sentiment is more popular among conservatives, but nearly half of liberals also endorse wanting a new political party.
It’s perfectly understandable to be frustrated. The quirks of America’s two-party system have some terrible downsides. For instance, Congress is often at a complete standstill.
The fact that an extremely weak gun control bill passed through Congress in 2022 after the Robb Elementary massacre is something of a miracle even though a majority of Americans support stronger measures. The only reason that the Affordable Care Act ever became law was because Democrats had a brief supermajority that neutered the filibuster. Much needed reforms to immigration and other matters languish on the battlefield of partisan fighting.
Coalitions between Republicans and Democrats are rarer than hen’s teeth. This is not a system designed to get things done.
What it’s great for, though, is shutting down extremist coups. I would argue that the two-party system is the main thing that prevented former President Donald Trump’s assault on democracy from succeeding.
In countries where there are more than two viable political parties, the norm is a parliamentary system. While still representational democracies like the United States, parliamentary systems are not defined by the winner-takes-all rules laid out in the U.S. Constitution. In theory, this leads to greater cooperation, as party rule is not set in stone and governments can collapse if the coalition falls apart. In practice, more legislation definitely gets passed under this paradigm.
Where the parliamentary system fails, though, is controlling the tyranny of a radical minority. Since leadership does not necessarily require a majority, a party with minority support can easily take and maintain power with a mere plurality or by winning a small extremist wing of another party to their side. This is how the Nazis won electoral power in Germany, how Hamas has ruled without winning an election in a generation, and how an unpopular politician like Benjamin Netanyahu stays prime minister.
There’s this myth that American Democrats and Republicans are bereft of ideas and diversity of thought, unlike the myriad of niche parties seen in other countries. This is simply not true. It’s just that in America, the diversity happens under two big tents rather than a lot of little ones.
In the last Democratic presidential primary, voters got a range of options, including ur-Democrat Joe Biden, two of the most leftist senators in the country, a techbro who wanted universal basic income, and a lady that talks to crystals. This field represented pretty much any point of view a voter from the center to the left could want. Being unsatisfied with the results of an election is not the same as being denied a choice. One only has to look at the Tea Party wing of the Republican caucus to see how internal factions can and do operate effectively under the current system.
When it became clear that Trump was going to use any means at his disposal to stay in office, it was the two-party system that prevented him from being able to do so. United opposition from Democrats led to two impeachments, a consensus opposition candidate, and a wall of political figures across the nation holding the line on anti-democratic attempts.
No matter where you go in America, the other party is still powerful, even if they are not in control. In Texas, more people voted for Biden than voted period in 38 other states, and in California more people voted for Trump than voted period in 20. There is always a battle happening between these two forces that keeps the majority afraid of going too far. It certainly fails sometimes, but at the highest level, this system held even through the storming of the U.S. Capitol.
Historically, nations fall into right-wing dictatorships thanks to a common pattern. The left fights amongst itself in a battle of purity, and the center wing ends up making a deal with the right to try and get something, anything done. The furthest left parties skulk into a righteous but meaningless minority, and the whole thing goes on until it ends in a river of blood.
The two-party system denies this pattern. By keeping third parties effectively marginalized, the left never has an opportunity to fractionalize too far. This means that the Democratic Party is inherently more conservative than many of us desire, but in that it reflects the country.
The fact that Donald Trump left somewhat peacefully at all is amazing. He didn’t want to, and actively tried not to. In a country with a parliamentary system, he could much more easily have wooed the more conservative members of the left-wing with promises of fiefdoms.
Under the two-party system, he had virtually no chance. A lawfully elected Democrat was taking power, and there were very few moves Trump could make to change that. There is a reason his coup was a limp riot instead of a effective military seizure.
We are all right to be angry with how little the system has bettered our lives, but it has also preserved democracy better than in many places around the globe.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2023.
