because I don't think there will be a stable split of the GOP.

The economic conservatives will switch to the Democratic party. It's already got infrastructure, and the right end of the party is already where Republicans were in the 50s and 60s. So the economic conservatives will buy their way in.

That will result in a split in the Democratic party, but the "Tea party" will be withering away at the same time.

Final result: Still two major parties. The Democrats become the party on the right, about where the Republicans were in the 50s and 60s. The left-side of the Democratic party is in either a new party, or has taken over an existing minor party.

Much as I would like to see otherwise.

There really isn't a good way to handle a coalition in our particular system of government.

In a parliamentary system, you can make a coalition since the government is constructed from the parliament. Winning an election to parliament is just the first step on forming a government.

But our system is 'winner take all'. Winning an election is the only step on forming a government.

It's affected our national mentality, imo. It pits people against each other instead of working together. We need an overhaul. Maybe we're headed there? The current system isn't working for too many people & that number increases daily.

Vs. a "parliament of owls."

Reference: "Encyclopedia of Animal Behavior," edited by Marc Bekoff, foreword by Jane Goodall, Greenwood Press, 2004.

If the baggers break away, I don't think the repubs have enough votes to win. The sane ones will defect to the dems or indies. At that point, the left will essentially be silenced. We will either have to come to terms with that fact or do something about it. I think we will see some big changes in the political landscape soon.

What's interesting, is that it's not playing out at all like the repubs thought it would when they were courting these loons. Same with the media. They amplify the voice of the baggers, making their numbers appear bigger than they are. They are over represented in Congress due to gerrymandering, & now the repubs can't control them. If they weren't so fucking destructive, I'd be laughing.

as it absorbed what remains of the old Rockefeller Republicans and Business Class Republicans. There are already a lot of Conservative/Third Way/Centrist/Center Right Democrats, and with money form big business would likely cement them more solidly into positions of leadership.

This party would retain its links to socially liberal policy but would be even more staunchly fiscal conservative. (Yes, these are often mutually exclusive views but in a 2 party system this kind of coalition is the norm.) Socially liberal policies, even if they aren't carried out, would keep the religious right on the side of the fallen angels.

This would be likely to cause a lot of unrest among liberals. The problem with splitting off to create a new party is the way state law handles parties. Each state has its own law to determine which parties are allowed on the ballot. It would take a lot of money and time to forge a new party from the ground up. I think that any disaffected liberals would likely move to one of the other parties with an existing national organization.

Until the two chunks of Republicans fought it out to determine the winner (1 or two election cycles I suspect). The Democratic Party would be boss and would attract vast amounts of business money because that is what we do in this country. This would keep them form acting on any truly liberal policies.

because big money donors will now be free to back social-liberal economic conservatives. Our divisions with the Republican Party will cease to be over abortion and gay marriage and will shift towards economic priorities.

Without the Tea Party, the GOP's name would no longer be mud--and being a Republican and getting access to all that sweet, sweet campaign sponduli would be much more attractive for the Blue Doggiest of the Blue Dogs like Joe Manchin, Jim Matheson, and Mike McIntyre. The only good thing to come out of this would be a Democratic/Republican alliance to get gay marriage legalized nationwide.

the unavoidable political outcome of the internet and social media. The two-party system is dead, long live the two party system!

While you will probably never see a full split in either party because of how the system is gamed to maintain a two-party system, what you will see in time is that both parties will eventually again (and permanently) become confederated-coalitions. People's personal perspective of their political identity will be tied to the sub-party-faction, not the party ("I'm not a Democrat, I'm a Social Democrat (or Green or Left-Libertarian or Third-Way or Labor)", "I'm not a Republican, I'm a member of the Tea Party (or Right-Libertarian or Christian Conservative or Business-Progressive)&quot and where there are 3-7 factions on either side of the aisle (I expect more on the Democratic side than the GOP). Factional sub-parties in Congress will have to horse-trade to achieve their agendas ("We'll give you (Left Libertarians) medical pot legalization if you accept our (Third Way) pro-business economics&quot . While maintaining the core two parties albeit as confederated coalitions, what will begin to happen as party identity fades is that you will see ideological alliances on some issues where neither coalition-party really wants movement. ("Hey, LeftLibs, you know, if we (RightLibs) cast our votes together, we can achieve a vast raft of our agendas (lower taxes, greater protections of free speech, reformed drug policy, bulwarking the legality of abortion, gutting the Green-threat of over-reaching environmental protections, ending the Federal Reserve System) that neither the Democrats or Republicans want to effect.&quot Another net-result is that less will get done as the amount of bills coming out of Congress, out of both parties, that will be acceptable to any President will be smaller.

In thus, to paraphrase T.S. Eliot, that is how the two party system ends...not with a bang but with a whimper.

It doesn't end...it just ceases relevancy.

I don't think these factions are going to look like what anybody today will expect them to or even be predictable as to what they are...except the nativist right-anarchic Tea Party, I don't think they're changing much.

One interesting side-effect of this which may occur is what can be called the gutting of the center. There will be a likely centrist coalition that may cross party. It will be small. Moderates may all but cease to exist as they will spin-out to their own personal "33 flavors" extremisms freed of the either/or choice. Independent will become a synonym for too lazy to vote or pay attention.