As mentioned in an earlier post, the ranks of evangelicals are growing in the Republican party. To accommodate this, the GOP’s platform has swung dramatically toward being more socially conservative at the cost of alienating its moderate members. A party so polarized cannot stay that way forever. It risks breaking at the seams.
Literally.
The ideal solution to this political situation would be for evangelicals to leave and create their own party. There clearly seems to be enough people who wish to advocate their political views based on their Christian values. They could claim ownership of the Tea Party and make it officially theirs. This leaves the original Republicans who are more libertarian in their views a more cohesive, homogenous group.
Unlike the Green party’s efforts, given that evangelicals do have substantial numbers, this could be the start of a multiparty system in the United States. While I’m against what the rise of evangelicals has done to our political system, if, as a result of their rise, we break the two-party system there might have been a silver lining after all.
A three-party or multiparty system creates more moderate and level-headed decisions. Coalitions would be necessary to pass legislation and the typical filibuster or congressional stalling would be more difficult to carry out. Rather than having a swinging pendulum of legislative decisions, we’d be at a stable, reasonable average.
As terrible as it sounds, maybe we have to hope for things to get worse so that they’ll get better faster.
