Republican Greed Now Dominates Americans' Lives

[DFW]

18. Here in Germany, they have definitely evolved

The Social Democrats had rock solid talent like Schmidt and their finance expert Ingrid Matthäus-Meier. They pulled the rug from under Schmidt, and were too macho to allow a capable woman to lead them. So they started a slow fade, and are still fading.

The multi-party system has the many parties desperately trying to keep themselves above the 5% hurdle. Because the Weimarer Republik got nothing done due to letting every party that got ten votes have a representative, post-war Germany said that if you don't get at least 5% of the vote, you get no representation in parliament. The parties scramble to get into parliament at all, so they end up appealing to smaller slivers of the voters than parties of a 2 party system would. In a 2 Party system, there IS always the danger that well-funded bad guys, whether foreign (i.e. Putin) or domestic (i.e. the Kochs) will try to buy off one or both. The ones that scream the loudest, "You don't need to check on us, we're patriots!" are the ones you most have to worry about.

In Germany, Merkel NEVER got an absolute majority, so she always needed a coalition partner to drag her down when she had an initiative she wanted to try. What used to be the common sense left here hasn't had anyone with Schmidt's (and Clinton's, and Obama's, and Biden's) combination of charisma, competence and benevolence since Schmidt left office almost 40 years ago. Lack of inspiration, fear of initiative, and inability to make use of what HAS to be some imagination has damaged the main parties here. They are not interested in moving forward, they are only interested in keeping themselves from drowning in a sea that is growing more crowded in every election cycle. No one is interested in helping the country any more (except Merkel, who is retiring). They are all too terrified of missing that 5% mark. "People? WHAT people? We're talking self-preservation here!" The Greens have evolved, gotten rid of their extremist wing ("no one can take more than one plane flight every five years!" ). Their pragmatic wing now rules the party, has wide acceptance, and may even be choosing the next chancellor from their ranks. The once high-flying Social Democrats will struggle to get 25% of the national vote. But getting 40% of the national vote remains a pipe dream for any of them at the moment, and that sucks for Europe's biggest economic engine.

While ANY party in ANY system CAN become beholden to special interests, It is my opinion that it takes more effort (and thus, the greater risk of exposure) to corrupt one major party. Here in Germany, if a ruling coalition needs some of the smaller parties to survive, the corrupting of just a few politicians in one of the tiny parties is enough to influence the direction of the whole country. With us in the USA, they have to buy the whole party--like you said, the GOP. The bad guys need to corrupt a LOT of people to buy the whole party. Sure, it'll work with some of them, like McTurtle and McCarthy, but it also nets them whack jobs like Gaetz and Greene. Weakest link, and all. For that reason, I favor, with all its obvious flaws, the two party system for responsive government.

I can tell you this: for all the disdain my overseas colleagues heaped on me, both in jest and in earnest, during the Trump years, they are paying close attention to what Biden has accomplished in just a few short months, aware of the fragility of his majority, and are all yelling "Bravo!" Nowhere in the EU would that be possible. As an old friend of mine used to say, "'nuff said."