Nancy Pelosi, a while back, claimed that “America needs a strong Republican Party.” What would compel her to say that, when the Republican Party thinks she should be jailed or executed for thoughtcrime?
It turns out that, mathematically, our first-past-the-post system is essentially guaranteed to devolve to two major parties fighting for control. So what she’s worried about is the possibility of an actual left gaining any power if the Republicans wind up kicked out of power wholesale.
I think over the next year we’re going to see a heroic effort on the part of the centrist liberals to avoid letting “good Republicans” or the Republican Party itself get caught up in the legal fallout from Trump’s attempted coup. This even though by all rights an awful lot of them should be going to prison right along side him, and the party should probably be dismantled as a criminal organization.
After all, that might cause the status quo to actually change, and the Democrats’ big donors certainly don’t want that… But they love having the threat of Republicans winning elections to hold over the heads of the vast majority of people who want abortion rights, universal healthcare, gun control, housing and transit reform… Since these are things the people want but the donors don’t, it’s quite convenient to never quite have enough of a supermajority to enact any of it.
This is, incidentally, exactly why we don’t have universal healthcare in California yet: Even in relatively safely democratic districts, the Republicans are just strong enough that the only chance for leftists to get into office is to primary Democrats from the left. And there’s always, always handwringing about electability and oh no, if you vote for them the Republicans might win the general election. -‘d we can’t have that!
