Donald Trump Is Exploiting the Fatal Flaw of the Two-Party System
Republicans are stuck with Trump. If he goes down, they go down with him.
Article/Op-Ed in Vox
Evan El-Amin / Shutterstock, Inc.
June 5, 2017
Lee Drutman wrote for Vox's Polyarchy about how the two-party system will keep Donald Trump in power:
Last week, I wrote a piece that asked, “Will Republicans impeach Trump?” The short answer: unlikely.
In this piece, I want to explore how much this “unlikely” conclusion flows from the zero-sum logic of our two-party system. The short answer: a lot.
Because of the two-party system, Republicans are stuck with Donald Trump. If he goes down, they go down with him. There’s now no way for Republicans to advance conservative policy goals without also advancing Trump. And in this era of bipolar two-party tribal politics, no matter what Trump does, there’s always one thing worse for Republicans. Something even more unthinkable, something even more existentially frightening than Trump with his hand on the nuclear codes: Democrats having power.