The Future of Political Parties

[Governor PiT]

How will the parties change? will new ones form? I predict a nationalist populist party and a Socialist, open-borders, LaRaza type party.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

I predict that both parties move significantly to the left in a few decades.

Once your job has been replaced by a robot, socialism looks a lot better.

[Frodo]

Republicans will move more libertarian.  Democrats look as if they might be moving in a more populist direction, and as long as they maintain this course, they can be assured that I would remain a lifelong Democrat. In the interim, the Green Party will become much stronger as disaffected leftists and single-issue social liberals look elsewhere for a political party that would represent them though eventually they might turn more Republican as that party's image changes.  I would wager they are more put off by the Religious Right than the corporations that control the Republican Party. 

[A18]

Haha, the old "curse of machinery" fallacy.

[afleitch]

I can see myself swinging Republican in the next decade or so if it does change to a more libertarian track.

[Nym90]

I think both parties will move slightly left, at least in the next couple decades. Both have been moving slightly right for a while now, and these things are always cyclical.

[Colin]

Personally my belief is that the Republicans are moving almost fully into a populist/Christian Democratic direction. This is due to the ever increasing power of southern populist and the "religious right" within the party. It also makes sense though you will piss off the economic conservative base but you'll be gaining populists and economic moderates.

The Democrats will move towards a Clinton-esque third way party that will retain its social liberalism. This may begin a leeching affect from both parties as social moderates and liberals from the Republicans, and disaffected economic conservatives, move into the Democratic fold and econmic leftists outraged at the Democrats increasing moderation and move to the right would bolt to the Greens or some other leftist organization. This would, as such, cause a more rightward drift economically for the Democrats. The outraged leftist, rather ironically, may, after a few decades, move into the Republican fold as economic conservatives and the "big corporations" economic leftist detest begin to endorse Democratic lawmakers.

This would be much like what happened in the 1890's where you had a Populist element which became disaffected from the Republican Party and, having broken away, formed their own party only to be brought into the fold of what was orginally the more economically conservative party.

[Colin]

How will the parties change? will new ones form? I predict a nationalist populist party and a Socialist, open-borders, LaRaza type party.

I have no idea what you're taking about with these though. I doubt a purely hispanic party would form for the same reason that there isn't an African American party in the United States, they will be brought into the fold of one of the major parties (most likely the Democrats much to my chagrin). Nationalist Populist? Are you talking George Wallace like? Possibly as a one election deal but I doubt it being more than a single issue anti-immigration party or lasting very long.

[George W. Hobbes]

GOP becomes more populist, Democrats more liberal. 

[Max]

GOP becomes more populist, Democrats more liberal. 

I expect the parties will move in the other direction:

GOP: more libertarian, less religios, still Big Business and WASP

Dems: more populist, religious and rural and still economically pro-labor and liberal

If Dems really go this direction, they likely win white working class as well as Hispanics and may become the leading party for one or two decades.

[12th Doctor]

Haha, the old "curse of machinery" fallacy.

Yeah... you know, about 80% of the jobs people had in 1860 were done by machine in 1960.  So why wasn't the unemployment rate 80%?  Could it be possible that technology invented new jobs?

[Governor PiT]

By populous do you mean more grass roots and relating to the common man, or the Nolan chart definition of big gov.?

[jokerman]

By populous do you mean more grass roots and relating to the common man, or the Nolan chart definition of big gov.?

Usually the two go hand and hand in U.S. political ideologies.

[George W. Hobbes]

Hmm Max, if you're right, I may become a Democrat in the next 10 years or so.  Interesting.

[Max]

Hmm Max, if you're right, I may become a Democrat in the next 10 years or so.  Interesting.

Just the statement of a political outsider from a continent far, far away...

In my opinion, Dems were most of the time the party of the "Common Man", articulating his views.

But since the 1970's, Dems have become very socially liberal and there positions (abortion, gay marriage, guns...) are no longer simular to the Common Man's views.

If they want to win back their former standing voters whom I allready mentioned in my earlier post, they'd change in the way I predicted.

@Robert Stark: I'm talking about populism in tradition of Bryan, what is the "Nolan chart definition"?

[Governor PiT]

Nolan Chart: http://www.ontheissues.org/Issue_Grid.htm

[Reignman]

I think Republicans will be more liberal on social issues, but stay the same on economic issues.  I'm less sure about Democrats, but possibly populist.

[TomC]

I believe the Democrats will become more libertarian and technocratic and the Republicans will continue their populist shift.