So there seems to be quite a lot of intra-party tension on both sides of the aisle just now.

Most notably, the Republicans/Conservatives are thrashing about trying to figure out precisely who they are. The NY congressional race saw the show-down between a moderate Republican and a Conservative Party candidate: the Conservative candidate seems to have won that fight and be on track for winning the election. Intriguingly, the Republican candidate then through her support to the Democrat!
But in general there seems to be some serious dissension between moderates and so-called 'real' conservatives. That division annihilated McCain's chances last year (not that they were terribly great to begin with) and doesn't seem to have let up.

Meanwhile, Democrats, now in power, can't quite seem to figure out how liberal they really are. The health care debate seems to have exacerbated that situation no end. Pelosi has assembled a powerful liberal majority in the House, but Reid seems to have been between a rock and a hard place in the Senate: liberal democrats threatened to defect if he went one way, conservative democrats and independents threatened to support a filibuster if he want the other.
If the new health care bill fails in the Senate because conservative democrats break from the party line, it would represent a series crisis of control for the majority party.

So, with both parties (to different degrees) suffering from identity crises, is there any chance that the much imagined 'viable third party' could emerge from all this, either as a more extreme break-away on the right or the left or (more mythical still) a merging of moderates from either side and independents?
And if, per impossible, such a political creature should emerge, would anyone vote for it?

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To educate a man in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society. -Theodore Roosevelt

I think in 2010 we will see candidates from the right using the word conservative a whole lot more than they will republican.

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Want government run healthcare? Join the military.

Conseratives are unhappy with the GOP to me sure. Ergo NY-23. But will they learn ?

The left is having trouble with too large a tent.

The mushy middle is always the prize in elections. each party bends to atract them. The trick is bending only just enough. Both parties overbent o 2008 and are paying the price now.

2rd party ? I doubt it. It woudl be good in many ways but I just dont see it happening.

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Socialism doesn't create a rising tide that lifts all boats. It drains the lake and teaches the boat riders not to help themselves by rowing.

Jesus loves you, allah wants you dead

"Every government interference in the economy consists of giving an unearned benefit, extorted by force, to some men at the expense of others."

Ayn Rand

About the same chances of a snowball on a hot day in hell. Every time a third party rises up, the two majors band together just long enough to crush it. There isn't enough grassroots support from the middle, and the major parties control who gets to be at the debates. Funding goes to the major parties because they are seen as having the greatest chance to win. Exposure will still be nill, and you'll make enemies of every established politician in the states.

So yeah, snowball in hell. Hot day. End of story.

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He's come to save the day!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVFdAJRVm94

I've always felt that the centrist Republicans and Democrats should join together and start a new Moderate Party.

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"I am sick and tired of people who say that if you debate and you disagree with this administration somehow you're not patriotic." - Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton April 28th, 2003

Carolina Politics Online

HOPE AND CHANGE

Actually, while I doubt that there will be a 3rd party of any flavor, I'd say its more likely that the far-Right will break off of the Republicans and form a new "Conservative Party" (or some such), leaving the existing Republican Party to shift toward center/left and pick up Indepedents and moderate democrats.

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To educate a man in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society. -Theodore Roosevelt

I think this is the most likely scenario.

It would be a disaster for the republicans for the next few elections, but they're already a disaster.

The best we could hope for, from the perspective of what's best for the country, is some permananet 3rd party voices in government. The one thing that tends to get bipartisan support though is D's and R's voting together to shut out 3rd party voices, so I'm not holding my breath.

The 2008 election showed that people were not so much voting for Obama and against McCain but people were voting against Republicans after they looked back at what 8 years of Bush did for this country. So some in the Republican party are responding by moving more towards the right. We started to see this rift in the Republican party last year with allot of conservatives dissatisfied with McCain as a candidate and how he was running his campaign.

This rift is going to make it harder for Republicans to win in the near future with splitting the vote. A third party does need to emerge if this country is to survive but the political system has the cards staked against a third party from rising such as the current electoral college system for example.

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"Democracy passes into despotism." - Plato

Is that how you see conservatives - as the 'far right' splinter group within the Republican party?

And then the Republican party would move to the center-left (apparently bypassing the center-right on the way)?

That certainly is an imaginative way of looking at the GOP. My experience is nothing like that.

Also, I don't think the 'center-left' is especially appealing to most people today (and I would like to know what, exactly, separates the center-left from the far-left that is currently in charge....?)

The GOP is indeed in poor shape. And so, by the way, are the Democrats.

Their record thus far has been a series of failures in an extraordinarily short period of time, without anything to boast except the fact that they are not Republicans.....

Yeah... I didn't understand what he was talking about with that either. As far as I am concerned, it is the far right that is part of their problem with their social conservative policies... it is also the ones that are trying to be Democrat/liberal lite that are the other problem.

The MAIN problem as I see it, there are only a handful of Republicans that actually uphold the platform of fiscal conservatism and small government.

Some day soon the Conservative movement will figure out that championing small government must be approached at all levels and must include a list of thing it include. They are pretty good at defense, but seem to like to pass everything else down to the states, who inevitably screw it up, demanding money from the Federal coffers. What they need to do, while fielding ideas from all states, make the infrastructure the focus of government, instead of the handouts. Everything the government needs to be doing can be expressed as infrastructure, be it the obvious roads, bridges, and water pipes, to the schools, universities, hospitals, clinics and labs, to power transmission, communications, and exploration.

What's going to happen is the new and growing Conservative caucus is going to grow out of the GOP, and eventually take over the "Blue Dog Experiment" building a permanent Nationalist super majority, leaving only Libertarians and Fundamentalist free traders and religious nutjobs taking about 10-15% on the right, and the current ruling crop of neo-marxist counterrevolutionaries, unionists, perverts, and environmentalists wackos taking 10-15% on the left. If the Nationalist stray from the straight and narrow, those fringes will grow until they correct themselves.

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January 21, 2013: The End of an ERROR.

"Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become more corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters."
"When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic."
"The Constitution only gives people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself."
---Benjamin Franklin

Yeah. A 'permanent' majority. Of course, that's exactly what Rove claimed was going to happen with Republicans only a few short years ago, and he fell on his fat face with that one.

This country has never had a permanent anything in politics, and there's no indication that it's ever going to.

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All things serve The Beam

Thats because the sense of stewardship held by the Founding Fathers has been lost. It's no longer about doing what the government it suppose to do well and thats it. Its about catering every whim.

Prior to 94, the democrats held Congress for 40 years. Thats probably as permanent as you can get. Every generation has a chance to choose.

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January 21, 2013: The End of an ERROR.

"Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become more corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters."
"When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic."
"The Constitution only gives people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself."
---Benjamin Franklin

i would rather vote for a conservative than a republican. conservatives in NY-23 didn't like the fact that a liberal won the republican primary and threw their support to the conservative in the race, as well they should.
the republican candidate throwinging her support to the democratic candidate after stepping out of the race shows that she was a rino and would have probably swapped parties asap.

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Liberals are like slinkies, not really good for anything but they make you smile when you push then down a flight of stairs.