US with Danish parties

[politicus]

What would the US look like with Danish parties?

Unity List: Hardcore socialists. Mix between young activists and old 70s Marxist relics. War is bad, big government is good, Israel and the multinationals are evil.

Socialist Peoples Party: Soft socialist and greenies. Lots of academics, teachers and bearded Lutheran ministers in sweaters. Voice of the public employees - both blue collar and white collar.

Social Democrats: Main left wing party. Populists. Big government, welfare state, pro-unions. Used to be the working mans party, but he has left them for DPP and The Left, now its stuffed with pensioners , unemployed workers and public employees who think SPP is too hippie (we have a lot of public employees in DK, so enough for two parties).

Radical Left (Social Liberals actually). Social liberalism combined with moderately right wing economic policies. Lots of latte Liberals and hipsters. Pro multiculturalism. Soft on crime. Low taxes.

The Left - Denmarks Liberal Party (which actually is Conservative...) Main right wing party. Farmers, business people. Low taxes. No welfare for the rich, but still basic welfare for the poor. Tough on crime.
Farmers, small town people, businessmen and white collar private sector employees.

Conservative Peoples Party: Almost the same as The Left (alltough they used to be The Right back in the days when the labels made sense). But a little more emphasis on lower taxes, God, queen and Fatherland, pro defence and traditional values. Lots of suits and old ladies with blue hair.

Liberal Alliance: Softcore Libertarians. Hates taxes and the nanny state. But still wanna keep public health care and stuff (it is Denmark after all). Young financial analysts and economy students (who falsely claim they have read Atlas Shrugged and loved it).

Danish Peoples Party: No immigration, "We are the worlds best country, but it was better in the 50s", the EU is a threat to freedom, roast criminals in boiling oil, welfare for old people and average Joes, but no child support for darkies with lots of kids. Tolerant of gays though.
Olds, workers and small town people.

[Californian Tony]

OK, let's give it a try. I'm keeping America's ideologies as they are, therefore resulting in electoral results significantly different than Danish ones. Here's what I'd come with :



American People's Party : 23%. It is not a perfect match, but definitely it's the best party to fit America's redneck core, in particular in the Deep South (for oooobvious reasons) and in general in all these rural, low-income and uber-conservative places (as well as on the mexican border, for other obvious reasons). Newt Gingrich, Jan Brewer and their likes would be its prominent figures.

American Social Liberal Party : 21%. It's basically the party of the mainstream democrat elite : educated, young, urban, trendy and relatively well-off people. In short, latte liberals. People who think a minimum Welfare State is necessary (as long as they don't have to pay for it too much) and who are quite liberal on social issues. It's strong in traditional dem core states, in particular the east and west coasts. Obama would be there, so would Jerry Brown or John Kerry.

Liberal Alliance : 20%. Basically, this is the party of republican elites. Wealthy people who think the guv'ment is a thorn in their side and "aren't concerned about the very poor", people who hate taxes for the sake of hating taxes. It's of course heavily funded by corporations. And obviously, all the kind of people with economically libertarian tendencies like NHers would vote for it as well. All this makes it a far stronger party than it is in Denmark. Mitt Romney and most of the GOP's mainstream would obviously be there. Ron Paul and other libertarians as well, though they would consider the party "too moderate".

Conservative People's Party : 15%. This would be the party of social conservatives-traditionalists who aren't total nutjobs (ie, mostly the West). To the traditionalist stances on social issues they might add libertarian-oriented economics as well. Rick Santorum could be there (especially because the party could be somewhat strong in rural PA, enough to make it a political base), as well as people like Mike Huckabee or most western GOPers.

Social Democrats : 13%. Maybe I'm underestimating them a bit, but I have a hard time seeing the SDs with a solid socio-ideological base. Sure, a fair number of democrats could fit in there (the "progressive" brand, from Dean to Feingold to Sherrod Brown) but they wouldn't get any support apart from a small part of the working class (those who aren't brainwashed by nutjobbery) in the Rust Belt and in big cities, and some rural voters (in places of progressive rural tradition like MN, WI or VT).

America's Liberal Party : 6%. Too left-wing for mainstream pubbies, too right-wing for mainstream dems : hard to see which place it could take in America. It might be the party of moderate heroes (from Bayh to Snowe) but wouldn't play any major role.

Socialist People's Party and Unity List : 2%. No need for a distinction, since both would be utterly marginal movements and poll only slightly better than the combination of America's fringe left parties (the greens, the various socialist outfits). It would have no base apart from the base that makes up the far-left in every country. Nader, Kucinich & co would obviously be in there.

[crypto-fascist superhero]

The Euro "far-right" isn't very well suited for America at all, since there's far less anti-immigration sentiment in America than in Europe (I'd make an educated guess that a majority of people would probably support increasing legal immigration, with only single digits supporting a decrease, a large majority would have a positive view of immigrants, and a large majority would oppose deporting all illegal immigrants).  They'd receive fewer votes in America, not more (or if they did get more, it would be for different reasons than they receive support in Europe).

[Hashemite]

This is pretty tough and I think my guess is as correct as anyone's guess. Danish politics and American politics are really a world away, with some massive atomization in Denmark and the US' two-party system. The economic structure is also pretty different, especially in terms of rural areas. Still, I'm doing this based on the type of areas each Danish parties does will with some adjustment:

2011-ish scenario (strong B/Unity/I, decentish V/A, mediocre O, weak F, pathetic C)


1994-like (A dominant, V leads the right)


1984-like (C at its peak)


Red is A, blue is V, green is C, yellow is O and orange is either F or B.

[politicus]

Its interesting that the two major Danish parties - Liberals and SD - would be so insignificant in Antonio's scenario, but I think he is right. Liberal Alliace and Social Liberals would squeeze out the Liberals and SD would be as weak as populist Dems generally are in the states.

An additional  factor that makes it hard to compare US and Denmark is that (almost) all Danes are secular and the Santorum style social issues simply don't exist. Our Christian Democrats cant even pass the 2% threshold despite being very moderate on value issues.

[Californian Tony]

Its interesting that the two major Danish parties - Liberals and SD - would be so insignificant in Antonio's scenario, but I think he is right. Liberal Alliace and Social Liberals would squeeze out the Liberals and SD would be as weak as populist Dems generally are in the states.

An additional  factor that makes it hard to compare US and Denmark is that (almost) all Danes are secular and the Santorum style social issues simply don't exist. Our Christian Democrats cant even pass the 2% threshold despite being very moderate on value issues.

It's true, I even actually forgot about Christian Democrats... They might be chosen as the "lesser evil" for conservative westerners (as an alternative to KFP) but obviously they would be by far too moderate for America.