United States 2016 Elections: A Takeaway

Image by DonkeyHotey under Creative Commons License

One of my takeaways from the 2016 election is that Bernie Sanders’s campaign proved that “socialism” is no longer necessarily a disqualifying word in American politics.

But does socialism really belong inside the Democratic Party? I am not sure it does.

At the same time, Donald Trump’s campaign showed that nationalist politics, including rhetoric appealing to racial and cultural resentment, could command a significant place in the Republican coalition. Does that political current naturally belong within the traditional GOP? I am not sure of that either.

What struck me most about the election was that both parties appeared to contain movements larger than the ideological boundaries that had traditionally defined them.

The Democratic Party was being pulled by a growing faction openly questioning capitalism, inequality, and the limits of the existing economic order. The Republican Party was being pulled by a nationalist movement far less interested in the party’s traditional language of free trade, internationalism, and limited government.

Perhaps the most interesting question after 2016 is therefore not simply which party won.

It is whether the two-party system can continue absorbing political movements that increasingly seem to have identities of their own.

My guess is that it cannot do so indefinitely.

I suspect we will eventually see new parties emerge, or at least political movements that function increasingly like separate parties while continuing, for a time, to operate under the Democratic and Republican names.