Quint Forgey for Politico has a very short article: AOC: ‘In any other country, Joe Biden and I would not be in the same party’

This is true. The Democratic Party has a strange mix of centrists (such as former president Barack Obama) and proper leftists, like Bernie Sanders. Despite the media calling the Democrats the party of the left, it hasn’t been for a generation. It has been centrist. The leftists have been largely shut out of the federal government for quite some time.

Although this article covers Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez thoughts on how her position on things is vastly different from other members of her own party, this applies to the right as well. My wife was telling me of a conversation she was having with a friend who is socially conscious, which seems to be more of a Democratic position, but also anti-choice, which is understood to be the Republican position. So - does he ignore his most important issue, abortion, for the mix of smaller important issues, or hold his nose and vote for candidates who believe the same way he does on limiting reproductive rights and also limiting civil rights?

Norway’s legislature has nine political parties represented. Sweden has eight. The UK, which is nearly a two party, since two have more representation than the other ones, they have a total of ten parties represented in their House of Commons. The United States has, of course, only two, with a handful of independent Congressional members.

I’ve written before that ranked choice voting would be a terrific first step to end the two party system and give our democratic process some real ideological diversity, and work towards ending situations like the 2016 presidential elections in which both political parties field unpopular candidates. Freakonomics episode 356, America’s Hidden Duopoly does a nice job of covering this style of voting.

In that podcast, if I remember right, someone makes the analogy that when this country was founded, our democracy was the newest and the best with all the bells and whistles. A couple hundred years on, there are newer democracies with better thought out structures for voting participation. We haven’t updated. It’s time.