Viewed in this way, the GOP looks less coherent under Trump than it was from Reagan through the administration of George W. If an independent party, the religious right would play a role analogous to the one played by the far-right ultra-orthodox and settler parties in Israeli politics - providing essential support to more secular-nationalist parties of the right in return for constant forward movement on the issues that matter most to it. Its core is white evangelical Protestants, but it also includes conservative churchgoing Catholics, and orthodox and ultra-orthodox Jews. The Religious Right Party: Strongly anti-abortion, anxious about threats to the religious freedom of traditionalist Christians and Jews, prioritizing the appointment of staunchly conservative jurists to the nation's courts, this faction has been a strong member of the Republican electoral coalition since Ronald Reagan's 1980 presidential campaign. If an independent party, the internationalist conservatives would overlap with many of Europe's center-right parties, albeit with a far greater skepticism about government provision of social services. The Internationalist Conservative Party: Pro-immigration, pro-free trade, favoring low income and corporate taxes, willing and even eager to use American military might to transform the world in our economic and political image, this faction is favored by big business, major GOP donors, upper-middle-class and wealthy white suburbanites, and (at least until Trump's election somewhat complicated matters) the bulk of the Republican Party establishment, including its leading think tanks and media messengers. Let's start with those that might exist on the right: That makes for a total of six imaginary American parties. It makes sense to think of the Republicans and Democrats as each containing three factions that, in a multi-party system, could thrive as independent parties. In such systems, strong differences in opinion get subsumed into the parties, with each of them containing multiple jostling groups and agendas, and the tensions and clashes among them usually taking place largely out of sight, behind the scenes.īut what if such differences were forced into the open in the way they are in multi-party systems? How would American politics look if the major factions that make up the Republican and Democratic parties became independent parties? And what do we learn about character of the tensions within the existing parties by envisioning them as conglomerations of restive factions? In countries like the United States, where the electoral system strongly favors the creation and perpetuation of just two competitive parties at the national level, things look very different. These and many other conclusions became clear as soon as the votes were counted because the parliamentary systems that prevail in Europe encourage the proliferation of parties, with public opinion reflected in the relative strength and weakness of each.
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