Why isn't communitarianism or Christian Democracy more popular ideologies in the U.S.? I'm not talking about a CD Party appearing on the scene and displacing the big two. I mean anything as much as a fringe presence as a third party, anything from the size of the Green/Libertarians to any of the Socialist parties or even something as small as the Peace and Freedom Party. I mean, communitarianism is supposed to be the corner opposite of libertarianism on the political compass- why isn't a moderate form of it in the U.S.?
And don't tell me that it's the same thing as authoritarianism. Christian Democracy, a form of communitarianism, is hardly authoritarian.
My theories-
1. It's too different. American politics never had the social democracy vs. Christian democracy division that appeared in post-World War II Europe. Americans are used to a tradition of small government and individualism, or at least the romanticized dream of it, and the Euros are too socialist commie pinko blah blah blah. Ahem. In any case, I guess the parties just never aligned so that liberal economics was big with the strongly religious portion of the electorate. Too many self-made televangelists and prosperity gospel people in the Religious Right, I guess.
2. It's too similar. The Republicans and Democrats are both big government, and the Dems are already socially conservative enough so that a CD party would be moot. Personally, I think this theory is rather weak- certainly the Dems aren't exactly the champions of LGBT rights, but they're definitely the party for gay people, right? And the Dem party line is unabashedly pro-Roe. The Democratic Party isn't CD, in any case. Even if the European CDPs are actually more liberal than the Democratic Party.
3. Christian Democracy requires an European, or at least Roman Catholic (just look at Latin America and the Philippines) cultural basis to understand it. Communitarianism isn't really much of a movement as it is a bunch of hazy ideas made by theorists who don't really show up in the news much- as such, it's definitely more obscure than Green ideology or libertarianism or even American socialism.
What you call communitarian I call populist. And there are many many many of them. I'd even venture to say Mike Huckabee is one.
