RFK Jr. and MTG are using the same dismissive term for major-party differences. I took at look at this phenomenon at New York:
Partisan polarization has been steadily growing in the U.S. since roughly the 1960s. Ironically, during this time, the complaint that the two parties are actually too alike has become increasingly prevalent. For years, right-wing Republicans have called people in the GOP who don’t share their exact degree of ideological extremism RINOs, or “Republicans in name only,” suggesting they’re basically Democrats. Left-wing Democrats occasionally echo these epithets by calling (relative) moderates “DINOs,” “ConservaDems,” or — back when maximum resistance to George W. Bush was de rigueur — “Vichy Democrats.”
Today the term “Uniparty” has come to denote the idea that Democrats and Republicans are actually working for the same evil Establishment enterprise, their loudly proclaimed differences being a mere sham. This contention was the culmination of a five-page letter Marjorie Taylor Greene recently sent her Republican colleagues calling for House Speaker Mike Johnson’s removal, unless he changes his ways instantly. She wrote:
“With so much at stake for our future and the future of our children, I will not tolerate this type of ‘leadership.’ This has been a complete and total surrender to, if not complete and total lockstep with, the Democrats’ agenda that has angered our Republican base so much and given them very little reason to vote for a Republican House majority …
“If these actions by the leaders of our conference continue, then we are not a Republican party – we are a Uniparty that is hell-bent on remaining on the path of self-inflicted destruction.”
Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. also leaned heavily into the Uniparty idea in his recent speech introducing running-mate Nicole Shanahan:
“Our independent run for the presidency is finally going to bring down the Democrat and Republican duopoly that gave us ruinous debt, chronic disease, endless wars, lockdowns, mandates, agency capture, and censorship. This is the same Trump/Biden Uniparty that has captured and appropriated our democracy and turned it over to Blackrock, State Street, Vanguard, and their other corporate donors. Nicole Shanahan will help me rally support for our revolution against Uniparty rule from both ends of the traditional Right vs. Left political spectrum.”
The Uniparty claim is ridiculous, of course, as FiveThirtyEight’s Geoffrey Skelley demonstrates:
“[O]ur current political moment is arguably farther away from having anything resembling a uniparty than at any other time in modern U.S. history. Based on their voting records, Democratic and Republican members of Congress have become increasingly polarized, and both the more moderate and more conservative wings of the congressional GOP have moved to the right at similar rates. Meanwhile, polling suggests that Americans now are more likely to view the parties as distinct from one another than in the past, an indication that the public broadly doesn’t see a uniparty in Washington. Although there are areas where the parties are less divided, the broader uniparty claim is at odds with our highly polarized and divided political era.”
Kennedy’s subscription to the Uniparty notion is understandable on two points. The first is that his candidacy is vastly more likely to tilt the 2024 presidential campaign in the direction of one of the two major-party candidates (likely Donald Trump, according to most of the polling) than to actually succeed in winning the presidency. Maintaining that it really doesn’t matter whether it’s Biden or Trump running the country is essential to maintaining RFK’s appeal as November approaches and the futility of his bid becomes clearer. Second, Kennedy’s pervasive conspiracy-theory approach to contemporary life lends itself to the argument that the apparent gulf between the two major parties is a ruse disguising a sinister common purpose.
MTG’s Uniparty contention also reflects dual motives. In part she is simply echoing Trump’s weird but useful contention that he’s an “outsider” battling a Deep-State Establishment that secretly controls both parties, which is pretty rich since he dominates the GOP like Genghis Khan dominated the Golden Horde. But there is a marginally more legitimate sense in which key elements of the two parties really are in line with each other on isolated issues that happen to obsess Greene, such as aid to Ukraine. If you are a hammer, as the saying goes, everything looks like a nail.
The same is true of other implicit Uniparty claims, particularly those made by progressive pro-Palestinian protesters who adamantly argue that the need to smite “Genocide Joe” Biden for his pro-Israel policies outweighs all the reasons it might be a bad idea to help Trump return to the White House (including the fact that Trump is palpably indifferent to Palestinian suffering). If the two parties do not appear to differ on your overriding issue, then the fundamental reality of polarization can fade into irrelevance.
So we’re likely to hear more Uniparty talk even as Democrats and Republicans head toward another highly fractious election with very high stakes attributable to their differences.
I think Sea Change is what you are thinking however Seed Change might be a good idea as well.
The way to change things in this country is through voting, so if you want to elect Obama/Biden the thing to do is make sure all voters really know what they will do if elected and then be certain these people vote and their votes are counted correctly.
I’m tired of McCain’s Vietnam sychobabble, we all have memories about the 1960s and Vietnam.
Hate? Hate is SO yesterday.
One hundred years from now they’ll teach University courses about the 2008 Presidential Election. What is happening now is a seed change, nothing short of a revolution.
Quietly, in basements and dens around America an army of MILLIONS of Bloggers and fellow travellers is no longer responding to the media – considering what the media puts in front of us – considering the facts they have fed us on which we had to base out thoughts – what has happened this year FOR THE FIRST TIME IN WORLD HISTORY is that the PEOPLE have actually turned the tables and WE THE PEOPLE, not the media, CONTROL the agenda and the information available to the people. The media have been reduced to following our lead; our findings of facts and the Blogsphere’s exposure of Sarah Palin’s appalling background is a prime example.
The REVOLUTION is HERE, we are not only fighting it we are WINNING it – not with guns and rocks and blood – but with facts and communication and an Internet with a million points of light, operating at the speed of light – each point of which can take facts off the net and add to them.
For the first time in my adult life – America has a REAL chance at change. God Bless America!
At this rate, nothing will change the cycle in Obama’s favor. The campaign has been silenced into weakness, and the media is in love with Palin. No fundraising number is going to take attention away from hate speak.
I think Sen. Obama will sign on as a sponsor to the gang of ten energy bill. This will allow him to box in McCain on oil drilling, since the bill supports limited additional drilling but also a tax increase for oil companies. This would seriously limit the Republican arguments about oil drilling, but McCain can’t support the tax increase.
Sponsoring this bill would also show how Obama is acting in a bipartisan fashion. I wouldn’t be suprised if he announces support for this compromise as soon as tomorrow.
Why in god’s name would Obama want Powell’s endorsement? Is that supposed to be a good thing? The only things a Powell endorsement would signal is that (1) Obama is part of the Washington establishment and (2) when its to his benefit, he thinks the judgement of people who supported the invasion of Iraq is just peachy.
I would think a Powell endorsement would be a less than happy development.