Fine, let's talk about multiparty systems

Bernie fluffer and darling of hipster leftists, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, declared in an interview with New York Magazine that, among other things, in a European state she and Joe Biden wouldn't be in the same party, and that the Democratic Party's tent was "too big".

Ocasio-Cortez has the same romanticization of European multi-party democracy that many on her side of the political spectrum have. They see European parties as being pure, able to purse principle without need to abase themselves to the lowest common denominator.

This is, of course, hogwash. Ocasio-Cortez should read more. Like, a story from just a few days ago.

The graphic headlining this piece is of the handshake which sealed the formation of a new government in Austria. On the left, is Sebastian Kurz, Austrian chancellor and leader of the center-right Austrian People's Party. On the right is... Werner Kogler, leader of the Austrian Green Party.

Now, when Ocasio-Cortez was speaking about the glories of European multi-party systems, one can assume that she would be more than comfortable being a member of the Austrian or German Greens. Does she know that the Austrian Greens just entered coalition with a center-right party whose previous coalition partner was the quasi-fascist Freedom Party? (That coalition collapsed due to the leader of the Freedom Party being stung on tape accepting a bribe from someone he thought was a representative of a Russian oligarch. All roads lead to Putin.)

It gets worse, of course. In Germany, another party with which Ocasio-Cortez would probably feel comfortable is the venerable Social Democratic Party, known by its German acronym as the SPD. It has been in coalition with the center-right CDU of Angela Merkel for most of the time from 2005 until the present. In Germany, that represented a collapse of the duopoly held by the CDU and SPD; in the most recent coalition, after the 2018 elections, the arrangement was necessary to keep the fascist AfD out of power. Would Ocasio-Cortez have agreed to this pragmatic necessity, or called to bring down the house and have fresh elections which could have seen a far right party in government? I think we know the answer, at least from her stridency on this side of the Atlantic.

The fact is that multiparty systems are no more pure than our two party system here in the US. In most multiparty systems, no one party ever wins enough seats to govern alone. Coalitions are necessary. Even coalitions as "impure" as those in Germany and Austria. And then you have the case of Israel, where its multiparty system is leading it to the third election within twelve months, because no party can cobble together sixty-one seats to form a government. Israel's example alone should put paid to the idea that multiparty systems are inherently better then a two-party state.

And we have to remember that just because a country has a multiparty system, that doesn't mean that it's not a two-party state. As I wrote, the CDU and SPD in Germany formed a two-party system, with minor parties revolving around them. The fragmentation of the Germany political system is part of the general fragmentation of Western European politics. Even in Israel, Labor and Likud were the two main parties. Labor's fall into obsolescence has made Israel unworkable.

If you want to see an example of a true, pure European-style party here in the US, you need look no further than the Republican Party. Ever since the 1960s, the GOP has purged any liberals or moderates from its ranks. And with Donald Trump's ascension, it is now nothing more than a cult around the Leader, no different that the French National Rally around Marine Le Pen. That's the model Ocasio-Cortez wants the Democratic Party to take: narrow and ideologically pure.

People like her who bray about how decrepit our duopoly is should, first, actually study how parties operate in multiparty systems, and, secondly, study the actual recent history of the modern Democratic Party. It went from a party of Southern grievance to a party of the poor, the middle class, and of people of color. It went from a party serving the declining rural sphere to a party representing vibrant cities and suburbs. It is the party which has advanced any social progress for the past century. This is the party people like Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders want to make smaller, purer, more chauvinistic. Try getting Ohio back with that party. Thank you, no.

The saving grace is that the Democrats are far more than the Ocasio-Cortez/Sanders left. Unlike Labour in the UK, entrists aren't going to succeed turning the party into the images of their fevered dreams. There will be no Red Books and cries for revolutionary solidarity. They would do well to spend more time trying to persuade fellow party members, rather than hectoring. Otherwise, the DSA's doors are always open.