I know this site has at it's center, the clear intention of supporting and promoting the election of Democratic candidates. But I don't believe people here could really support the idea of a single-party state in the long run. The dangers there are easy to forsee for those with any awareness of history. The pendulum is swinging. America is moving to the left. If there is to be a second party (post-Republican), and that is a big assumption, then maybe the second party would emerge to the left of the Democrats.
I am emboldened by the events of 2008, the rise of Barack Obama, the proof that our democracy is in full effect. Emboldened by the fact that, after all, there may actually be world-class leaders out there, in our future. Emboldened by the fact that this system can and will produce talent on the level of our president, maybe in ever-greater numbers.
I am proud we have manifested, as a society, the presidency of Barack Obama. I intend to support him as long as he is active in public life.
Going forward, however. . .we just may encounter a post-Republican landscape. The country is moving leftward. The electorate watched the epic fail of "trickle down" economics. They accepted the fact that the only entity on earth powerful enough to mitigate their potential doom was, in fact, the entity they had been told for 28 years was the enemy: the Federal Government. The sum of our collective energies.
This experience leaves a taste in the collective mouth; a sense, a feeling that the power of the group is stronger than the power of self-interest. A compelling philosophical proof played out in public.
All this leaves us with the problem of a one-party state. Not an acceptable outcome.
Now we have to re-imagine the second party. One that takes the lessons of the recent 2 decades and goes forth into a world made up of the generations who are ignorant of the Cold War, accepting of mass migration, primally understanding justice, deeply suspicious of media, desirous of security and stability, looking for home, health, spirit, and familial bonds, and trying to stay out of the way of the other 6 billion souls on earth.
So what does the Progressive Party of 2016 look like to you?