I keep hearing various media personalities I like say things along the lines of “If we even have another presidential election… <nervous laughter>”
Is this just the joke of the month or are people truly thinking it’s game over? I don’t live in the US so I’m not really familiar with how that would work
The duopoly is a form of domestic counterinsurgency that has continued to be worth its weight in gold. There will be elections and there will probably always be elections. I see a dictatorial duopoly much more likely, the duopoly taken to farcical extremes:
Banning all third parties
Passing a law that says every state must have a Republican senator and a Democrat senator
Having various “nonpartisan” committees and departments be staffed exclusively by Democrats and Republicans with proportions split completely 50/50.
Having a “nonpartisan” president as some fascist-with-burger-characteristic return to the past like Washington and a “divided” cabinet that’s 50/50 Democrats and Republicans in order to “bridge the divide.”
This can also dovetails nicely towards a military coup. The “nonpartisan” civil government gets replaced by a “nonpartisan” military junta.
All the horrible things continue, consultants get even more rich, and the public blames itself for the endless “gridlock”.