2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: Does anybody else feel something like a tectonic shift occurring in the political world right now? [View all]0rganism
(23,937 posts)instead of fielding jerks from the Republican party to lower their taxes and push for more international trade agreements, they'll join the Democrats as the only remaining viable party, leading to a decade of "centrist" Democratic dominance, in which many social gains are made but economic progress stalls out. instead of facing off against mainstream Democrats like HRC, the economic left will be fighting influence from the ex-GOP newcomers.
my crystal ball gets kind of cloudy from here on, a lot depends on the specifics of who pulls the strings and which puppets are suspended therefrom. i could see a scenario where the Democrats are weakened by lower participation from the economic left, but our winner take all system precludes long-term success of 3rd parties. i suspect after a few years the younger generation's bigots will become less dedicated and more accustomed to seeing women and minorities in positions of power, and moderate the new Republicans to re-establish themselves as a major party only slightly to the right of the new Democrats.