A party is not an alien presence imposing its will on the democratic process. Quite the contrary: a party emerges organically from the democratic process.
Seth Masket, doing the spadework of replying to another Tom Friedman paean to “independent” “centrist” movements.
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That seems like a minor failing given that the people leading political parties either don’t understand parties or don’t know what they are going in general.
On the contrary, I think most politicians know exactly what they’re doing. Just because you don’t like it doesn’t mean they’re not doing it on purpose.
I can see where he’s coming from, don’t think it will work, but wish the movement good luck. Parties have critical mass and Yeats’ passionate intensity, which is why they can get people elected; Friedman will likely have a good number of people, but there’s no organization–the type of monotony of ideas that supports the party system while detracting from the democratic system.