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- Willis Sparks writes in GZero [3]“Two-party reckoning looms in America”
US politics faces a unique moment. Both of the major political parties have leaders, but in each case, more than six in 10 Americans don’t want either to run for president in 2024. In the coming months, Democrats and Republicans will each face a reckoning, and the world will be watching closely.
To wit…
- Andrew Yang is offering up his new Forward Party.
Andrew Yang
@AndrewYangThe #ForwardParty is joining forces with @samforus and @RenewAmerica to form the biggest 3rd party by resources in the United States!! That’s right – the @Fwd_Party is now the biggest 3rd party org in the country – and we are just getting started! [4]andrewyang.com/blog/huge-news… [5]
July 27th, 2022
308 Retweets1,442 Likes
This effort is already being dismissed (of course) in the Twittersphere. If they can gain access to the ballot in all 50 states and find a couple of galvanizing issues, they will provide an escape hatch for many looking to flee the current duopoly which is poised to offer the nation in 2024 the choice between Joe Biden and Donald Trump. Again.
And still a third party is dismissed. Again.
3. I have offered many times that the conditions for a significant third party challenge to the duopoly are very similar to 1992. That year, Ross Perot set and won the debate, just not the election. Both parties spent the next decade wooing his voters back and we balanced the federal budget. Oh, by the way. Choice came with change as we began to transition out of the Cold War. New generation. Recession. Sound familiar? Gallup what say you…
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4. RTD columnist Jeff Schapiro suggests that the Virginia GOP used to try to be a Big Tent [8] when Boomer Republicans had in its ranks folks like conservative Delegate Jack Reid and moderate Senator Jane Woods. When they served, the battle within the GOP (and between the parties) was ideological. Reid and Woods recently passed and while they had differences in their politics, they shared something far more important – Jane and Jack were good, decent people who just tried to leave it better than they found it. Rest in peace.
5. Now, according to a new book coming out soon – The Myth of Left and Right, the debate is social and largely driven by educational/economic outcomes.
From the WSJ column by its authors Verlan and Hyrum Lewis entitled “The Myth of Ideological Polarization” [9]
The answer is socialization. When the Democratic and Republican parties change (as they have many times), the content and meaning of their ideologies change, too, meaning that ideologues (“liberals” and “conservatives”) will change their views to stay in line with their political tribe. Social conformity, not philosophy, explains their beliefs. Those who refuse to conform and maintain their political views independent of tribe will appear to have “switched” groups—even though they stayed consistent while the ideologies changed around them.
Can’t wait for that book to arrive.
6. Dr. Frank Morgan wrote in the RTD of his concerns for the lab schools [10]. Here is a sentence which underscores the tension growing in our grossly over regulated K-12 system.
Parent satisfaction should not be a significant accountability metric for lab schools, unless regular public schools can have the same arrangement.
In a freer, less monopolistic system, education providers would have (and want) to respond to the customer. Currently, it appears we don’t even measure “parent satisfaction” as a working metric. #ShockedFace
Market forces work, folks. Plain and simple. The only real force in K-12 is for kids who are forced to attend schools based largely on geography – unless their parents can afford alternatives.
7. Speaking of force and choice dynamics – look at the price of coal lately:
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8. Has the recent SCOTUS decision on Roe and Dobbs changed the midterms? Well, there is a growing chasm between Likely and Registered Voters on the Generic Ballot. This chart shows, clearly, there is an opportunity for Democrats to lessen their upcoming losses.
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9. And then there’s POTUS who is almost at 38.
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10. The 1/6 Committee continued its work with a prime time hearing in which we learned that the whole event was likely planned. Audio from Mother Jones shows Trump adviser Steve Bannon openly bragging, before Election Day 2020, about the events to come after the election.
Aaaannnd finally….
Yes, this is a recession. Any other description will morph into Orwellian doublespeak.
Tell the truth and deal with it.
Hey Joe …. fire someone.
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