Wake Up To Politics Podcast: The future of the two-party system

Wake Up To Politics Podcast: Generation Pandemic

Is the two-party system dying?

Or is it just too big to fail?

In the latest episode of Wake Up To Politics, two expert guests join me to analyze the past and future of America's two political parties.

Political scientist Lee Drutman, author of "Breaking the Two-Party Doom Loop: The Case for Multiparty Democracy in America," will explain why he believes political conditions in the U.S. could lead to the addition of new major political parties — and why that could be a healthy invitation for the nation's democracy.

And Politico's chief political correspondent Tim Alberta, author of "American Carnage: On the Front Lines of the Republican Civil War and the Rise of President Trump," will break down the changes he sees coming for the Democratic and Republican parties and shed insights on Justin Amash's third-party bid in 2020.

The episode includes tons of interesting insights about political parties in America and the disruption they are likely to face in the years to come, so I hope you give the episode a listen and subscribe to the show.

You can listen now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Play, or Stitcher, and subscribe to make sure you don't miss an episode.

Further reading:

• I wanted to interview Lee and Tim for this podcast because I read both of their books and were fascinated by them — so if either of their comments in the episode interest you, I highly recommend checking out "Breaking the Two-Party Doom Loop" and "American Carnage."
• For a preview of Lee's thoughts on the two-party system, you can read an excerpt from the book in The Atlantic.
• And to see more of Tim's reporting on Justin Amash and third parties in 2020, you can read his interview with Amash in Politico Magazine.
• There has been a lot of analysis about how Amash will impact the 2020 race, as Tim discusses in the podcast. One particularly in-depth piece was by Aaron Blake of the Washington Post; another, by Trip Gabriel and Jonathan Martin of the New York Times, pours some cold water on the theory that Amash will have an outsized impact in Michigan and is worth a read.
• For a broader look at how Amash other third-party candidates are positioned to perform in November, Kyle Kondik and J. Miles Coleman had a great article recently in Sabato's Crystal Ball, which is full of hard data and historical context.
• Finally, Bill Scher's recent column for Politico takes a look at how the coronavirus pandemic is hurting third parties as they race to accrue signatures to secure their ballot access for the 2020 election.

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