Ron Faucheux from RealClearPolitics says there is not one big populist voter revolt, but three.
The first revolt has been percolating for nearly a decade. It is an insurgency targeted against moral compromise and it is being waged within –– and, in some ways, against –– the Republican Party. Powered at the grass roots by the Tea Party and on Capitol Hill by the Freedom Caucus, this movement has pulled the Republican Party well to the right of where it was just a few years ago . . .
The second revolt is aimed at wealth inequality and corporate corruption. This revolt operates mostly within the Democratic Party, although many disaffected independents — especially younger voters –– find the cause appealing. . . .
The third revolt is one directed at the political system itself. . .
While both the left and right share a growing contempt for politics as usual, the impetus for this popular uprising comes mostly from center-right voters upset by government paralysis and incompetence. It is a movement built upon cynicism –– and anger at dodgy politicians, broken institutions and increasing demands for political correctness. No longer content to just tweak the system, they want to knock it down.
I believe he misses the mark on what he describes as the third revolt. First, he errs when he believes there is a two dimensional measure in politics. While our two party election system does force voters to select between the leftward coalition – called the Democrats, and the rightward coalition, called the Republicans, individual voters think in more dimensions. What he calls a third revolt is not a revolt, but an independent voter movement by less partisan voters who are angry over our failing Democracy. Crony capitalism, money buying politics, anti democratic election laws are the enemy, and the current Republican and Democratic party operatives, insiders, electeds and donor bases are the perceived culprits. From both parties.
It may seem like a right of center movement to Mr. Faucheux because nationally Trump is the only candidate who speaks to the movement for voters who are on “the rightâ€. But On the Democratic side, Bernie Sanders also speaks to the independent movement as well as Mr. Faucheux’s second revolt. (Which is why Sanders will do better than the professionals expect among independent movement voters).
However, Oregon’s version of the independent movement could express itself not by a Democratic or Republican outsider such as Trump or Sanders, but by candidates who can actually run as an Indpendent Party (IPO) member. Since the IPO now has major party status, it will be acting as a platform for community leaders running for office, representing this broad based movement. The best will be able to express the independent movement’s extreme displeasure with how the Democratic and Republican operatives, electeds and donor bases have failed to care for our Democracy, and our common good.
If one or more IPO candidates are able to break through the Democratic/Republican hegemony over politics, it would put Oregon on the map as the spear tip of the independent movement.