https://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-int...st-results

There's a chart down in the article that shows the changes in the vote since 2002 in the French election. Their president, Macron, is a personality, not so much a party.

The center right Republicans got only 4.8% in 5th place. The center left socialists got 1.8% in 10th place. The two traditional lead parties got 6.6% of the vote combined.

Could we also move to rich personalities dominating the presidential race?

Indeed, the rise of Macron's personality-driven movement has gutted the traditional parties of the center-right and center-left in France, Les Republicains and the Socialists. France basically now has the choices between Macron, the far left or the far right. If that continues it doesn't bode well for the day when Macron is no longer personally a candidate, if he isn't able to get his party better established at lower levels than he has thus far.

I think we've already seen that to some degree here, with Trump's enormous personality dominating GOP politics and leading to some traditional Republicans and Never-Trumpers leaving the party, at least temporarily. The same could happen to Democrats down the road under a far-left candidacy or President, for instance an AOC. Aside from Ross Perot back in the 1990s we haven't had a prominent 3rd way candidate in decades, maybe a charismatic centrist a la Emmanuel Macron is just what we need in this country.

I don't see anyone poised in the US to replicate what Macron has done, but it's easy to imagine some of the Senators who could fit right into a centrist 3rd party - Manchin, Sinema, Collins, Murkowski, Romney, etc. For it work here I think the centrist leader would have to attract a strong base to his/her party in Congress, that could hollow out the two parties and leave the GOP for the far-right populists while the remaining Democrats would be the far-left Democratic Socialists. If we only had a personality-driven, centrist President a la Macron without control of Congress to really build the party though, we'd run the risk of what France may see in an election cycle or two - the two extremes make the 2nd round and the centrist majority is locked out of the Elysee Palace.

(04-11-2022 02:09 PM)Gamenole Wrote:  The same could happen to Democrats down the road under a far-left candidacy or President, for instance an AOC.

Or Kamala the ****. Or Joe Biden, as things stand currently.