© 2024 WNIJ and WNIU
Northern Public Radio
801 N 1st St.
DeKalb, IL 60115
815-753-9000
Northern Public Radio
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Whither Our Political Parties?

Among the fundamental questions left unanswered by the election is the nature and future of our political parties.

First, the Republicans. Fissures were widening, but Trump applied a jack hammer to these fault lines by attacking the corporate?, internationalist, free-trade wing of the party as an arrogant elite to be banished.

His personal behavior has alienated many social and religious conservatives. The effort has obviously been interrupted to expand the party's appeal to women and minorities.

Who has been added to the fold? Working-class, disaffected voters have been energized temporarily, but will they stay engaged? In the past they have been marginal voters.? The Republican Party is in a state of flux and transformation. Into what remains unclear.

But although fault lines were papered over temporarily to present a united front against Trump, Democrats face looming threats to unity.

The upscale, globalist, limited-regulation faction has followed Clinton. The idealistic, anti-business faction has followed Sanders and Warren.

Organized labor and minorities must be accommodated. Some of these factions will tug in opposite directions. Can they all be accommodated?

Periodically, political parties either transform themselves, or they are transformed forcibly. This appears to be one of those historical moments.

I'm Bob Evans, and that is my perspective.

Related Stories