It's up for grabs.
The problems with both parties are rather obvious - and dramatically different.
The Republican party is imploding. It can't win a Presidential election, even when their competitor is Hillary Clinton - someone they have been gunning for more than 20 years. Hillary is likely to win this election with the highest unfavorables ever. That's how bad the GOP is doing - they can't beat a woman that nobody likes.
Why? Because they over-promised to a small, motivated group and totally failed to deliver. There is a fatal flaw in GOP strategy - cultivating a fanatical base that is far more radical than the US in general. While that will help them win congressional districts and state representatives, allowing them to gerrymander at will, it pisses off the majority of the population, so they have no chance to win the Presidential race which means no Supreme Court Judges. Most likely, sometime in the next 8 years, gerrymandering will be outlawed, by a 5:4 supreme court vote. After that, the GOP in it's current form is dead. Even without that issue, it will fall apart.
Currently, they have created a constant revolution in the lower ranks against the party leaders. T Party candidates like Cruz get overthrown by Trump radicals objecting to the T party 'insiders'. And two years from now, some new group will continue the process, throwing out the Trumpers and replacing them with some other new, radical group.
This dooms the dying Republican party to become an 'also ran' party. When I say "dying" I mean it literally. Every year their base will die off, while the Democrats increases. More young, more black, more Hispanic, more Muslim, and more gay voters while the old, white, straight, male, Christian voters that used to dominate politics become an endangered species. They have already lost the majority of the population, they maintain their congressional majority via gerrymandering, which has limits and will be outlawed.
Which leaves the REAL dispute about the future of our country in the hands of the Democrats. Hence the fight between the Conservative Democrats - aka Hillary Clinton - and the Liberal Democrats, aka Bernie Sanders.
That split isn't going away, it's going to get worse. While the GOP descends into a death spiral, the Democratic party is likely to bifurcate into two parties - the Conservative Dems and the Liberal Dems.
This won't happen as long as the GOP is around to unite us. We despise the elitist strategy of the GOP, catering to the politically motivated rather than giving the majority what they want. As such, the Democratic party has attracted everyone that can't stand their "obey us way or be a traitor" philosophy. But we are a disparate group with big differences. We can only stay together as long as the big GOP unite us against them.
Is it possible for the GOP to save themselves? Unlikely. The quite truth is that Hillary Clinton was the candidate THEY should have put forward. She occupies the real 'center-right' that they claim to represent, while being female and connecting to minorities. The GOP's attempt to demonize the conservative branch of the Democrat party has made it impossible for them to regain their rightful place as the center-right party.
As they try to be a far right party (while claiming to be a center-right one), they slowly bleed voters to the Democrats. The real question is what will happen after it's gone too far. I see 10 years as the max. If Hillary Clinton wins two consecutive terms and we get a third Democrat President after Hillary, that's
it. By then either the GOP will implode or the SCOTUS will have outlaw gerrymandering, killing the GOP. Once that happens, the GOP's bubble will pop faster than any stock market bubble.
For maybe six month the Democrats will relish their power - then the infighting will go from shouting "Hillary" over the Bernie Brothers chanting whatever they chant to outright revolt. The Democratic party will split, Bernie and his successors will split off to form the first truly Liberal party we have had since Jimmie Carter, while Hillary and her successors will split of to form a real center-right party. Only the far right nut-bags will remain with the GOP, making them a 3rd party, akin to the Libertarians.
Is there any way to stop the Democrat party from splitting after the GOP dies? I doubt it. Honestly, it may be for the best - the Bernie people do not like the Hillary people, and they deserve a political party of their own. Then maybe we can have real political change in America.
But please note, the Democratic party will only split AFTER the GOP is dead. But that shouldn't be long now, they are about to get their asses handed to them on a platter. 2020 is the real question - will Hillary (or Kaine, Hillary is getting old) be able to get re-elected.
With the right economy (a short recession in 2017, followed by three years of improvement), we will get a solid 16 years of Democrat ruling the white house and own the Supreme Court for the foreseeable future.
The only question will be how liberal the ruling party ends up. Most likely it will be the conservative Democrats still in charge, but perhaps we can get enough liberal ideas to rejuvenate our government.
The problems with both parties are rather obvious - and dramatically different.
The Republican party is imploding. It can't win a Presidential election, even when their competitor is Hillary Clinton - someone they have been gunning for more than 20 years. Hillary is likely to win this election with the highest unfavorables ever. That's how bad the GOP is doing - they can't beat a woman that nobody likes.
Why? Because they over-promised to a small, motivated group and totally failed to deliver. There is a fatal flaw in GOP strategy - cultivating a fanatical base that is far more radical than the US in general. While that will help them win congressional districts and state representatives, allowing them to gerrymander at will, it pisses off the majority of the population, so they have no chance to win the Presidential race which means no Supreme Court Judges. Most likely, sometime in the next 8 years, gerrymandering will be outlawed, by a 5:4 supreme court vote. After that, the GOP in it's current form is dead. Even without that issue, it will fall apart.
Currently, they have created a constant revolution in the lower ranks against the party leaders. T Party candidates like Cruz get overthrown by Trump radicals objecting to the T party 'insiders'. And two years from now, some new group will continue the process, throwing out the Trumpers and replacing them with some other new, radical group.
This dooms the dying Republican party to become an 'also ran' party. When I say "dying" I mean it literally. Every year their base will die off, while the Democrats increases. More young, more black, more Hispanic, more Muslim, and more gay voters while the old, white, straight, male, Christian voters that used to dominate politics become an endangered species. They have already lost the majority of the population, they maintain their congressional majority via gerrymandering, which has limits and will be outlawed.
Which leaves the REAL dispute about the future of our country in the hands of the Democrats. Hence the fight between the Conservative Democrats - aka Hillary Clinton - and the Liberal Democrats, aka Bernie Sanders.
That split isn't going away, it's going to get worse. While the GOP descends into a death spiral, the Democratic party is likely to bifurcate into two parties - the Conservative Dems and the Liberal Dems.
This won't happen as long as the GOP is around to unite us. We despise the elitist strategy of the GOP, catering to the politically motivated rather than giving the majority what they want. As such, the Democratic party has attracted everyone that can't stand their "obey us way or be a traitor" philosophy. But we are a disparate group with big differences. We can only stay together as long as the big GOP unite us against them.
Is it possible for the GOP to save themselves? Unlikely. The quite truth is that Hillary Clinton was the candidate THEY should have put forward. She occupies the real 'center-right' that they claim to represent, while being female and connecting to minorities. The GOP's attempt to demonize the conservative branch of the Democrat party has made it impossible for them to regain their rightful place as the center-right party.
As they try to be a far right party (while claiming to be a center-right one), they slowly bleed voters to the Democrats. The real question is what will happen after it's gone too far. I see 10 years as the max. If Hillary Clinton wins two consecutive terms and we get a third Democrat President after Hillary, that's
it. By then either the GOP will implode or the SCOTUS will have outlaw gerrymandering, killing the GOP. Once that happens, the GOP's bubble will pop faster than any stock market bubble.
For maybe six month the Democrats will relish their power - then the infighting will go from shouting "Hillary" over the Bernie Brothers chanting whatever they chant to outright revolt. The Democratic party will split, Bernie and his successors will split off to form the first truly Liberal party we have had since Jimmie Carter, while Hillary and her successors will split of to form a real center-right party. Only the far right nut-bags will remain with the GOP, making them a 3rd party, akin to the Libertarians.
Is there any way to stop the Democrat party from splitting after the GOP dies? I doubt it. Honestly, it may be for the best - the Bernie people do not like the Hillary people, and they deserve a political party of their own. Then maybe we can have real political change in America.
But please note, the Democratic party will only split AFTER the GOP is dead. But that shouldn't be long now, they are about to get their asses handed to them on a platter. 2020 is the real question - will Hillary (or Kaine, Hillary is getting old) be able to get re-elected.
With the right economy (a short recession in 2017, followed by three years of improvement), we will get a solid 16 years of Democrat ruling the white house and own the Supreme Court for the foreseeable future.
The only question will be how liberal the ruling party ends up. Most likely it will be the conservative Democrats still in charge, but perhaps we can get enough liberal ideas to rejuvenate our government.
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