I keep hearing how "we need a viable conservative party." Why? What for?

[Azathoth]

38. Close to a third of the country are conservatives

Not all of them are inherent racists, fascists, and/or religious fanatics. If there is no viable conservative party to represent them and keep them part of the mainstream democratic process, they're not suddenly going to disappear or become liberals. They're either going to pile into the Democratic party and pull it right, or they're going to buckle down and embrace the illiberal, authoritarian cult that is the current Trump Party. Either way, both the Democratic party and the country are going to suffer.

Our political system is the same as our judicial system: both seek to resolve conflicts through a regulated adversarial process. Waste, abuse, corruption, and poor governance are kept in check by pitting one side against the other so that each will keep the other honest. If you want to see where one-party rule eventually leads, just look at the first two years of Trump. Congress not only abandoned its adversarial oversight role, it actively colluded with the lawbreaker-in-chief. Just because Democrats aren't currently anywhere near that debased and anti-democratic doesn't mean they couldn't get there after a couple decades of unchecked power with no accountability.

And finally, while this might be sacrilege on DU, not all conservative ideas are completely without merit. Sometimes taxes *can* get too high, sometimes the private sector *can* perform a function more effectively and efficiently than government, etc. Having two sane, responsible parties opposing each other helps keep their policies from drifting too far from the sensibilities of the majority.