What Duopoly Economics Tells Us About Politics – WSJ

To understand our political dilemma, remember three things: The two major parties are marketing organizations; they are a duopoly; big data makes them increasingly good at doing what duopolies do, dividing the available market down the middle.

The word polarized is misused when we mean our political system has become exquisitely competitive. Even changing the rules of the game, as many progressives want by eliminating the Electoral College, by altering how the Senate is composed, by relaxing voting requirements would likely not change the distribution of offices and spoils by the duopoly, which would naturally adjust. Under the technologies that now exist, we may never see again a period like 1930 to 1994, when one party controlled the House in all but four years and the Senate in all but 10.

With the rise of two-party parity, honest and dishonest doubt-mongering becomes a high-leverage way of getting just enough of a party s giant reserve of nonvoting leaners off the couch to swing a close election. Listen closely: When progressives harp on the alleged unfairness of the Senate or Electoral College to Democrats, they are really complaining about a system that doesn t accommodate their desire not to modify their policies and rhetoric to win in places they aren t winning now. You don t hear them offering to re-enfranchise GOP presidential voters in California or New York by ending winner-take-all distribution of blue-state electoral votes.

via www.wsj.com

The insightful Holman Jenkins.