Moderation has always been the key to the success of the 2-party system... without the need for, and the benefit of, that moderation.. we enter dangerous territory. Right or wrong, once we look at the last 40 years, societal morality, like a pendulum, swings... and we are in a leftward swing, and it is not accidental. What we see playing out is the consequence.
Simple as that.
The Republican Party made a conscious decision to move to the left to gain acceptance and retain
what ever is left of their remaining power. Their co-opting of the tea party, and treatment of the Libertarian and independent factions of the party at the RNC was proof of this. Romney was the result. Now that they've lost, they're blaming the very same people they threw under the bus at the RNC.
3rd Parties
IMHO, 3rd parties lost all possibility for inclusion in the elections in 2000 when the CPD (Commission on Presidential Debates), created and controlled by the Democratic and Republican parties in 1988, established the following rule:
"for a party to be included in the national debates it must garner at least 15% support across five national polls."
The co-opting of the Presidential Debates, and the participation rule change guarantees no 3rd party will ever get to influence party ideology (just look at how much a failure the Tea Party was)... much less be able to discuss alternative viewpoints in the debates... hence... The elections are as Dem/Rep rigged as rigged can get.. and with no possibility of a 3rd party being part of the debates, they've removed any possibility for a 3rd party to win the White House..
This rule change not only nullifies any 3rd party (which tends to appear to be less moderate) ideology, it gives the Dems an advantage in presenting a more progressive platform, which by default appears more populist, and will always make the Republicans appear more disingenuous than the Democrats... I guess a good analogy would be "moving the playing field to the left while the audience is watching the players, who still appear to the audience as adversaries. Eventually the audience winds up rooting for the "same" without realizing it"....
No 3rd party will EVER displace the Dem/Rep monopoly.
Moral Hazard
We see the symptoms of this leftward swing via an in the increase in moral hazard (a situation where a party will have a tendency to take risks because the costs that could incur will not be felt by the party taking the risk)
And see it manifest in the following ways:
- bailouts,
- too big to fail,
- loan principle write downs,
- the suspension of the mark-to-market rule for banks,
- the outright purchase of debt by government entities (Fanny, Freddy),
- and the outright purchase of debt by the Federal Reserve (currently the largest purchaser of bonds (debt).
- the increase in social programs
The removal of "consequence" for risk, the socialization of the cost of those consequences, and growth in government and it's intrusion into our lives is a leftward swing from the equilibrium point the Founders and Framers envisioned of limited government and personal responsibility. We're in uncharted waters IMHO, the balance of right-left has been lost, or at least moved too far in one direction.. most likely the swing back will be just as extreme, as will the consequences.