AHC: Republican Party like UK's Liberal Party

Challenge: Have a third party overtake the Republican Party as one of the two dominant parties in the United States, like what the Labour Party did to the Liberal Party in the UK.
 
Challenge: Have a third party overtake the Republican Party as one of the two dominant parties in the United States, like what the Labour Party did to the Liberal Party in the UK.

Easy :D Have Richard Nixon win the election of 1960 and have him do something that pisses off the conservatives of the Republican Party. Like for instance, passing something similar to Lyndon Johnson's Great Society. Then have Barry Goldwater challenge him in Republican nomination of 1964. Nixon narrowly wins the nomination but Goldwater still believing that Nixon is destroying the Republican platform creates the Conservative Party and runs in the 1964 election. Since Nixon and Goldwater split the Republican vote, Democrat nominee Lyndon Johnson wins the election (1912 all over again). However unlike the Progressives who faded away after 1912, have the Conservatives stick around. In 1968, the Republicans nominate Nelson Rockefeller and the Conservatives nominate Goldwater again. Johnson wins a second term. In 1972 after Johnson serves two full terms, the Democrats nominate his Vice-President Hubert Humphrey. The Republicans nominate Gerald Ford and the Conservatives go for Ronald Reagan. However, Johnson screwed up the nation so much in his second term (probably something with Vietnam), no one wants a Democrat in office again. Since Ronald Reagan proposes a plan to restore the US to it's greatness (and end the conflict in Vietnam) he defeats both Ford and Humphrey in a landslide. After Reagan's first term, moderate Republicans gain his trust and switch to the Conservative party. The Republicans quickly become a third party and still are to this day. The two main parties in the US are now the Conservatives and the Democrats.
 
The problem with the us system of winner take all with the electoral college means that third parties just arent viable.

Could the republicans or the democrats be REPLACED by another party? Sure. Could they carry on as a Liberalesque third party? No.
 
But what about Congress?

Presidential politics cast a long shadow over congressional politics, for three reason:

  1. Support or opposition of the sitting President's agenda is a major (perhaps the major) unifying principle of parties, with popular presidents bringing in congressional majorities "on their coattails" and unpopular presidents' congressional allies being turned out in favor of the opposition party. Whenever there's been no clear opposition party, one has formed within an election or two as every faction that doesn't support the President unites to oppose him (Whigs against Jackson, Republicans against Pierce and Buchanan).
  2. There's huge economies of scale for having an established party for multiple levels of office, creating a patronage machine; an informal system of mutual support; a common brand; and a shared base of volunteers, donors, and electioneering infrastructure. This is a big part of why it's so hard to run a good third party campaign, even for candidates with lots of money and name recognition.
  3. Politicians tend to be ambitious, and running under a party that had no presidential prospects is putting a limit on the scope of your ambitions.
 
The Socialist Party of America survives World War I and eclipses the Democratic Party (which steadily moves to the right) as the left alternative in the Fourth Party System. The Democrats, for their part, move in and take over former Republican strongholds in the North as Northern Republicans join the Socialists or the Democrats and the Democrats capitalize on their regional control of the South. Thus, a Fifth Party system, which is properly a 1.5 party system (the Socialists dominant, reliant upon Republican support) emerges in opposition to the Democrats, who become the party's largest conservative party.
 
Have George Romney type Republicans win out and back LBJ on civil rights. Some other party emerges that pursues a Southern strategy.
 
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