The two-party political system, we are informed, developed early in the Nation’s history. It would appear that the nuanced fact that the “winner takes all” dynamic, extant in United States elections, traditionally enabled a two-party system, in which, whoever gets the most votes, wins, even if less than a majority. This political feature was an arithmetically, practical incentive for like-minded voters to amalgamate into two (major) competing political parties. Voters accordingly, would consider each candidate’s stated position and vote for the one they thought was best for the Nation and themselves. It appears, from our cursory research that the historically, salient issue concerned the disputed extent of power of the Federal Government,
As time went on, it, unfortunately, appeared that there arose an increasing number of insecure politicians who were motivated, not by principle or perceived rectitude, but by competition to retain their jobs, by sentiment, often unrelated to their pre-election representations to voters. With the surprise and unfortunate elevation of Donald Trump, this unhealthy and undemocratic tendency, notably, in the Republican Party, descended to such a degree, that, essentially, the entire party, acquiesced in such behavior; with the (undemocratic) result that it morphed, in practical effect, to a cult of obeisance to his perverse will. The viral infection spread rapidly and metastasized to such a toxic degree, that the entire Republican Party, with some few courageous exceptions, fearful of the large cohort of Trump populist voters, became subject to Trump’s autocratic control, abandoning individual principle and submitting to a uniform” group think” in his support.
It appeared that a large conglomerate of discontented citizens, principally composed of inadequately educated and poorly informed populist citizens, perceived Trump’s bizarre and unconventional persona and actions, as their identified representative in his perceived, brash opposition to the status quo and as a long-awaited panacea for their respective personal discontent. With such a sizeable accumulation of a populist base of voters, politicians fearfully perceived that their political jobs were contingent upon the public and irresponsible support of the incapable, egoistic President; despite his gross negligence resulting in no less than an officially, tabulated, 234,000 preventable deaths during the Covid pandemic, and his demonstrated felonious actions and consequent criminal indictments, Federal and State.
Principles of consistency with publically expressed policies, individual reason, and professional ethics were self-interestedly and unconstitutionally, abandoned. There evolved a virtual, “Pied Piper” submission to the pathologically deranged, head of State, whose unconventional, egoistically bizarre, autocratic actions were tactically supported. It was the proverbial “rotten apple,” spoiling the entire political barrel i.e., the constitutionally legitimate Republican Party. The new fearful, “groupthink” destroyed the utilitarian legitimacy of the Republican political representative, his reason d’etre, and the functional existence of his party; and by necessary extension, America’s two-party political system.
Such populist Americans perceived in Trump, a derivative and satisfying derogation of the establishment, including the media, the aspiration for advancement in science and knowledge, and sanctioned the creation of a veritable, modern-age Frankenstein monster, viz., the anti-societal concept of “alternate truth.” The decline of reason and sanity gave rise to widely disseminated conspiracy (paranoid) ideation and a contemporary reprise of a “Dark Ages” mentality; the latter pathological atavism, courtesy of the bizarre genius of the Trump cult and proximately responsible for the demise of the modern Republican Party.
Sadly and alarmingly, in our Nation, there persists a large and worrisome population of American “lemmings” who, despite consideration of objective reality, persist in ardent and, ultimately, suicidal, support for Donald Trump, the “wanna-be” autocrat, and the now, functionally extinct GOP.
-p.
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