POLITICS

The End is Nigh for America’s Two-Party System

Over 150 prominent Republicans issue “A Call for American Renewal”

Julio Vincent Gambuto
Published in
4 min readMay 13, 2021

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Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Wow, if you had told me twenty years ago, as Dubya and Dr. Evil orchestrated the First Big Lie — that there were Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq — that it would be a Cheney who started the great exodus from the Republican Party, I would have thought you mad. But welcome to the alternate universe of a post-Trump, almost-post-COVID world. What is up is down; what is down is sideways. This week’s speech by Congresswoman Liz Cheney — a rebuttal to her being ousted from a leadership position in the GOP for refusing to pander to Trump’s election-fraud narrative — very well may go down in history as a major turning point for America: the death of its centuries-old two-party system.

We are watching history unfold, my friends. On Thursday morning, an opinion piece in The Washington Post — penned by Charlie Dent, Mary Peters, Denver Riggleman, Michael Steele and Christine Todd Whitman — formally launched “A Call for American Renewal,” a Declaration of Independence, of sorts, from the MAGA-infested Republican Party. Representing over 150 local, state, and national leaders (all of whom have signed on to the declaration), the group’s “call” is simple: get your shit together or we’re out. The official language:

That’s why we believe in pushing for the Republican Party to rededicate itself to founding ideals — or else hasten the creation of an alternative.

Yes, “an alternative” means a new party.

Personally, I thought it would be the Democrats who split first, and I always imagined a cranky rallying cry from Sanders or AOC would be the moment the left split in two. But the left seems to have (somewhat) united — at least for now — under Biden. Winning the presidency will do that. The president’s address to a joint session of Congress in late April showed a normally centrist Joe calling for many of the progressive programs and investments that his former debate-stage foes were calling for during the 2020 race. It is the right, now, that is coming apart at the seams. Apparently, people get upset when you storm the nation’s Capitol under their banner.

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Julio Vincent Gambuto
GEN
Writer for

Self-help meets the system. Happiness in a fucked-up world. Author of “Please Unsubscribe, Thanks!” from Avid Reader Press at S&S // juliovincent.com