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You’d see the parties change views if the electoral system were more fair. Democrats would likely become more left wing and Republican politicians more moderate, at least on the national stage. The two party system would continue.


> Democrats would likely become more left wing

Is this supposed to be a good thing?


If politicians representing the will of the people is a good thing then I guess yes.


The will of some smaller part of the 51% they currently do, you mean?


For context, the early comment setting up this hypothetical was:

> if the electoral system were more fair.

So no.


Ok, so we'll stipulate to some arbitrarily "fair" electoral system:

What makes it obvious that a leftward shift would grow today's Democratic base to that left _more_ than it might shrink it on the right?


It wouldn’t, long term IMO. The parties would end up roughly with similar overall proportions. Their positions would change. Democrats, with greater electoral power, will focus on internal competition for who is more ideologically pure & thus experience a leftward shift, to the point of probable over-reach (while Republicans, losing a lot of their in-built electoral advantage, will focus more on electability and thus will moderate, making them more palatable for marginal/independent voters), which is the mechanism for restoring the balance of power.


Considering the degree to which America lags behind the rest of the developed world in things like medical access, vacation, worker protections, etc. That would probably be a good thing.




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