Reply #53: I certainly wouldn't mind seeing that

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Right now we have two parties, which are effectively a centrist-right party (the Democrats), and an increasingly far-right party (the Republicans - far right as in fascist, not libertarian). Sure, I vote for Democrats because there are genuine leftists within the party who I feel a great deal of solidarity with, but in effect, the party is centrist-right. The idea that the US has any effective left-wing political block is laughable.

The reason that I would fear an actual split within the Democratic party is that the centrist-right faction is far larger than the leftists, and would probably take a fair portion (10%? 25%?) of Republicans with them; the result, I'm afraid, would be one party rule - a party which could possibly be powerful enough to ignore any opposition.