Eight Major Political Parties in the U.S.

What if this was how the U.S. party system looked like?

Democratic Party: The McGovern Coalition. Pretty much the Dems of the real world, except perhaps with bits and pieces filed off.

Green Party: Same as our world, except perhaps with social democrats, peace and freedom types, and more pragmatic socialists who have left the other third parties in order to join a more viable side.

Republican Party: The Reagan Coalition. The GOP of the real world except really missing certain portions that have gone to the other alternative parties.

Constitution Party: A less fringe version of the far right we know. Perhaps Pat Buchanan had really joined them instead of taking over Reform. Paleocons with a theocratic bent, plus some unrealized theocratic dreams. But somehow moderated to have more appeal, probably by appealing more to the grassroots movement conservatives that populate places such as FreeRepublic.

Reform Party: Imagine Ross Perot hadn't jumped ship, and remained in control of his personal vehicle. The Reform Party is pretty much the centrist party with insurgent intentions but a rather bland platform- fiscal responsibility, balanced budgets, campaign finance reform, moderation in social issues, etc. However, that's the sort of different-but-not-scary-different thing that Independents might vote for every so often. This Reform Party would actually live past the Clinton administration without falling apart, and have the slightly libertarian (probably more 'classical liberal') bent to appeal to people such as Schwarzenegger or Bloomberg.

Libertarian Party: Same as OTL.

Populist Party: Composed of the more moderate but not liberal elements of the Evangelical Movement (think Rick Warren), plus conservative minorities, Southern/Midwesterners who are tired of Republican economic policies, maybe. In any case, this party would appeal to a lot of people in both of the two major parties right now (much like a moderate libertarian party would), but in reality they're unable to breakaway and form their own movement. Christian Democrats, essentially.

Nationalist Party: Lou Dobbs type nativists. Or perhaps Huey Long type populists. Not adverse to government intervention to protect their personal interests. Perhaps more socially conservative than the Populists, but their extremism is mostly related to the immigration issue.

I make no attempt to explain how there could be eight parties, nor even to guess at how big each party would be, thus I don't even know which ones would be the two major parties. I would guess that there would be two parties, and several minor parties, but said minor parties wouldn't exactly be as insignificant as say the People's Socialist Liberation Marxist Party out of Podunk College, Liberalartston.

Just imagine how they would be on the political matrix:

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I think that Pat Buchanan could actually propel a Nationalist party pretty well; as the guy who (I think) coined "paleoconservative" and believed in government intervention in the economy and in protectionism both out of a sense of nationalism. I don't think you are going to separate the anti-immigration hardliners from the pro-life hardliners, in a situation as what you have here. In a multiparty system, Buchanan wouldn't need nor necessarily be able to get free market Reaganocrats to his camp by focusing on social issues anyway, and might instead be encouraged to instead fire up the civic nationalist base.

I also had more to say but was instead staggered by the realization that if the Democrats kicked out the Keynesians and were taken over by balanced budget pro-welfare-state types like Jerry Brown (and anti-IRS left populists like McGovern) they might get along quite well with Ross Perot even if they still wanted to raise taxes on the rich. And if they were protectionists then that would probably seal the deal. After all, they would already share environmentalism and liberal stances on abortion and homosexuality. Of course, if the Era of Limits took over the Democrats, then you have a bunch of political machines and veteran New Dealer politicians looking for a new home.
 
Yeah, I wasn't being very serious about the idea, it's more of an exercise in playing around with the Economic vs. Social matrix. I'm well aware that in alt-America, even if more than two major parties were feasible, there simply wouldn't be enough support for all of these parties to exist.

I agree that Pat Buchanan, who's more of a hard social conservative (though unlike many such reactionaries, doesn't seem to be a theocrat) coupled with nativist views, would be quite fitting for the Nationalist Party. Being a Catholic might be connected to that as well- Rome isn't the best church for having minarchist and laissez-faire views.

I had no idea that McGovern was anti-IRS! I actually just picked his name because I had assumed that he was sort of like an icon for his ideology. Or I was thinking of the concept of the McGovern Coalition.
 
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