Breaking the Two-Party Doom Loop: The Case for Multiparty Democracy in America

by Lee Drutman

Today, Republicans have become the party primarily for white, evangelical Christians, predominantly men, who see national salvation in rediscovering the virtues of a simpler past. In their telling, that past was a time when clear moral guidelines and predictable social hierarchies gave order and stability to life, when America gained strength from cultural unity and up-from-your bootstraps hard work and there was no interventionist federal government working on behalf of the freeloaders. True national greatness lies in recovering the virtues of this past—in Making America Great Again. Democrats, meanwhile, have become the party for everyone else. In the alternate telling, the past was not so simple. It was a time when old social hierarchies limited the humanity and liberty of too many Americans, a time when the government failed to right the wrongs of widespread discrimination and prejudice, a time when the government callously ignored the material needs of too many. The past belongs in the past. But the work is not yet complete. The true spirit of the Declaration of Independence—that all people are created equal and therefore deserve equal justice—remains unfulfilled. True national greatness lies in realizing this vision of tolerance and equality. Perhaps America was never so great.