Regional parties/Two-and-a-half party system USA

An idea occurred to me the other morning. Now, I don't think this is possible with a PoD after 1900, so that is why I post it here. I was thinking about the two party system we have here in the US and thought back to some old local newspaper articles I was researching from WWI. What sort of PoD would it take for the US to have more than two parties represented in Congress (and I am talking about something more than the occasional independent who is either Democrat or Republican in all but name)? Specifically, at least for the first third to half of the twentieth century for these to be the major parties:
-Republicans
-Democrats
-Populists
-Bull Moose Progressives
-American Labor Party (I know it was floated around in union circles during the 1900s but the unions ultimately rejected the idea of forming a political party)

The Democrats and Republicans would be the two largest parties beyond a doubt, as they were IOTL, but the "half-party"/kingmaker role would alternate between Labor, Progressive, and Populist. Now these parties don't need to continue to exist until the present day- other parties could take their place. How would this effect US politics and policies in the long term and I wonder how the parties would adapt, or not, to changing social pressures.

This is my first thread here, so I'm still learning the ropes, fyi.
 
The Democrats become the regional party of the South during the early 20th century, with the rest of the country split between the more economically conservative Republicans and another party, probably the Progressive Party (either Roosevelt's or La Follette's) or the Farmer-Labor Party, as the left-wing party. This creates a challenge as it will be very difficult for either party to establish a majority (and the Democrats of course can't), so the Democrats will hold the balance of power. This becomes especially problematic during presidential elections since the Democrats will easily be able to influence presidential elections since attaining a majority of electoral votes will be challenging. This might lead to some constitutional amendments to get around the problem, like direct election of the president for instance.
 
The Populist and Progressives seem plausible, but a labour party after WWII (during the cold war) seems impossible due to the anti-communist/socialist stigma in the USA during that time. Though before that it's more than possible to have a somewhat succesful workers party, as many socialist's, ironically, escaped from Europe to the States.
 
What you need to do is avoid the Presidency gaining so much legislative power. A plural executive or Congress nominated high cabinet position should help decrease natural polarisation of political office; nationally overall that is since winner take all posts tend to polarise (most UK MP seats are locally bipartisan for example).

Compared to European parties, US ones are more like coalitions since they have bigger subgroups. Half coalition, half party, might be more descriptive. So, reducing the Big Two from less permanent coalitions to actual temporary coalitions would be a start.
 
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What you need to do is avoid the Presidency gaining so much legislative power. A plural executive or Congress nominated high cabinet position should help decrease natural polarisation of political office; nationally overall that is since winner take all posts tend to polarise (most UK MP seats are locally bipartisan for example).

Compared to European parties, US ones are more like coalitions since they have bigger subgroups. Half coalition, half party, might be more descriptive. So, reducing the Big Two from less permanent coalitions to actual temporary coalitions would be a start.
One thing I was envisioning was perhaps a more balkanized US. Given that none of the US elections are truly national elections, I figured it could well be possible for elections to be locally bipartisan, but what the local big two were depended upon what part of the country you lived in, whether it was more urban or more agrarian, and how wealthy a district you lived in was. Thus, in some regions, it might be Republican vs Populist, Democrat vs Progressive, Progressive vs Republican, or Democrat vs Labor.

The Populist and Progressives seem plausible, but a labour party after WWII (during the cold war) seems impossible due to the anti-communist/socialist stigma in the USA during that time. Though before that it's more than possible to have a somewhat succesful workers party, as many socialist's, ironically, escaped from Europe to the States.
That's alright, though, since I said first third to half of the twentieth century. American Labor Party could fizzle out after WWII, possibly absorbed into one of the other four. Or, depending upon how strongly it grows during the Depression (possibly coming close to supplanting one of the major two parties), it might have an impact on post WWII politics in such a way that the "anti-communist/socialist stigma" is less pronounced and the ALP might adopt a platform plank denouncing the Soviet Union to adapt to the changing situation.
 
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