Can Trump and Biden Bring Down the Two-Party System?

livemint.com:

‘You’re just scum" is probably as fitting an apothegm for our current state of political discourse as “It’s morning again in America" was almost 40 years ago. Nikki Haley’s expression of exasperation with her sedulously repellent rival Vivek Ramaswamy at last week’s presidential debate captured well the low, dispiriting quality of post-Reagan American politics. Scum was her spontaneous description of Mr.

Ramaswamy. Others can probably think of appropriate but even ruder ones. A long, long time ago, in 2022, Mr.

Ramaswamy was a promising arrival on the political scene, a youthful and gifted entrepreneur with a classic American success story, ready to put his many talents at the disposal of the American people. I interviewed him several times and was impressed. He wrote passionately on these pages and elsewhere about reversing the retreat from the American values of political and economic freedom.

But his performance on the campaign trail and in debates has betrayed that promise. Last week he capped a yearlong descent into the gutter by seeking political advantage in publicly rebuking another Republican for her parenting skills. The transformation of Mr.

Ramaswamy from brilliant young outsider of principled views and fresh energy to a parody of the most cynical, self-promoting and calculating opportunist is thus complete: from George Bailey to Elmer Gantry in less than 12 months. But the real question is whether he has read the tenor of American politics better than others—or whether there is still hope. There remains a narrow path away from the national tragedy of a 2024 rematch between Donald Trump, Mr.