Why Are We Stuck with Two Political Parties?

How did we get these two political parties? When most Americans don’t like these two parties is the answer … to have more? And will Elon’s Musk recently announced “America Party” work, and how much will it cost the world's richest man to burst the two party bubble?

Nayeema asks the dumbest questions she can think of to the nerdiest expert she could find: Lee Drutman. He’s a fellow at New America and author of the book Breaking The Two Party Doom Loop. They discuss the beef between Jefferson and Washington (um, I mean, Jefferson and Hamilton), Venn diagrams, and whether the US is really the world’s best democracy.

Find more of Lee’s thoughts
1. In his book: https://leedrutman.org/breaking-the-t...
2. On his substack Undercurrent Events: https://leedrutman.substack.com/

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Follow Lee on X at @leedrutman. Follow Nayeema @nayeemaraza or on X too – and you can find the show on IG, TikTok & YouTube @smartgirldumbquestions.


About Your Host:


Nayeema Raza is an independent journalist and filmmaker whose work has been in The New York Times, New York Magazine, Vox and the Tribeca Film Festival. Nayeema produced and hosted podcasts like Mixed Signals, On with Kara Swisher, Sway and Open to Debate before launching her own show: Smart Girl Dumb Questions. Now she's on YouTube as a self-proclaimed smart girl, asking the dumbest questions she can think of to the smartest humans she can find.

Because in a world with so much to learn, being a know-it-all is the only dumb thing she could be!

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00:00 We’re in a doom loop?!
00:20 Intro
02:05 What should we know about the two-party system?
04:55 Do we need a third party?
08:15 Has it always been this way?
14:30 Have ‘Democrat’ and ‘Republican’ always meant the same thing?
16:47 Do people get more conservative as they get older?
17:30 What are the alternatives?
26:30 Should we have mandatory voting?
28:00 Why can’t we have more (political) parties?
33:45 Is America the greatest democracy in the world?
40:20 What do New York’s politics tell us about the nation?
44:34 Would a third party be populist or moderate?
51:00 One thing you can do!
51:42 What’s going on with Elon’s America party?
56:30 Does tweeting a third party make a third party?
1:00:00 Is running as a third party candidate even a good strategy?
1:03:20 How would a third party disrupt the system?
1:07:00 What do we think about think pieces?
1:10:00 What is Lee Drutman dumb about?
1:11:30 Reflection
1:13:30 Credits