It's a shame the US doesn't have a legitimate alternative to the two party system.
Johnson's Libertarian Party
are an absolute joke and the Greens seem rather kooky compared to their British or Australian counterparts.
It's a real shame.
I more or less disagree. Both parties have significant ideologically different blocks within the party. The 2016 GOP is a good example of this, as it is ideologically diverse and spans populist, center-right, religious right, isolationist, far right, and all points in between ideologies. The result is
usually a moderating factor when national candidates emerge.
Donald Trump is from a different ideological movement within the Republican party than Mitt Romney, and Mitt Romney was from a different political faction within the Republican party than George Bush. When you break it down to the state level, there are stark ideological contrasts between Republican candidates from, say, Massachusetts than there are from Republican candidates in South Dakota or New Mexico.
The same can be said of the Democratic party, though it is slightly less ideologically
divided and the party has had better coordination over the last decade than the GOP, though that wasn't always the case and there will come a time when the Democratic party could resemble the splintered GOP, and the roles can be reversed.
The two party system has faults, but it typically vets extremism. Donald Trump, for all of his racist, sexist, and populist bluster, is less ideologically extreme than other leading presidential candidates in the Republican party. He's a complete dolt and would be a terrible president, likely the worst in 100+ years, but he's generally less ideologically extreme than some far-right candidates who are generally vetted out in the primaries.
So, I don't really think it's a shame. The two party system is a moderating system in US politics, and there is still ideological divisions in each party, and by the nature of our Democratic Republic, there are significant ideological differences between members of the same party throughout the United States.
Oh I don't think he will be.
Again, he got 13 million votes. He'll still have plenty of support from a sizeable portion of the conservative electorate.
A problem for Trump to be influential in American politics after this election [assuming he loses by a landslide as polls suggest], is that he has no political gravitas outside of this election season. He's never held any political office. John McCain still commanded decent political clout after losing by a large margin in 2008 because he was a senior Republican in the senate, and when Republicans took back the senate in 2010, McCain ended up becoming a central politician. Even while Romney had not held an elected office since 2006, after losing in 2012, he still maintained a position of political clout in the party because he was a major down ticket fundraiser and maintained a large circle of donors that he brought to other Republicans.
Up until about 3 months ago, Trump had no relationship with the Republican party, had no fundraising base, had no ground movement, and on top of it all, he had (and still has) an antagonistic relationship with nearly all leading members of the Republican party. He has an antagonistic relationship with the current speaker of the house, an antagonistic relationship with most long serving senators, an antagonistic relationship with the Chairman of the RNC. When he loses this election (assuming he does), he won't have any future in the GOP and because he never had a history in American politics, he won't have any role in influencing politics in a meaningful way.
What he will have is television interviews. Even while he has an antagonistic relationship with the press, we can all get ready for Trump as a guest on every leading 24/7 political news program for half a decade. He's instant ratings and instant news making appearances, and that will be his only influence. Beyond that, it's probably pretty likely that Trump doesn't even want to be influential politically. He wants to sit back and throw stones from his glass house, while raking in check after check from media appearances.
