Quote:
Originally Posted by octothorp
It's kinda fascinating, because here in Canada and in Alberta we have a history where a splinter parties off to the right of a conservative party, the conservative party tanking as a result, and then is forced to merge with the splinter on the splinter party's terms. A year ago I had thought that this might be something that could happen in the US with a Trump splinter, but splintering toward the center would be really unusual, because unified parties are almost always pushing toward the center because that's where they can pick up votes.
The splinter group needs to be okay with the idea that to get control of the Republican Party, they need to be willing to burn it to the ground. It's also much harder for a new party to carve out a voting block in the middle of the political spectrum compared with carving out support on the fringes.
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The problem with Canada's example is if I am not mistaken, both cases I can think of didn't really merge the existing party, but dragged the traditional party far to the right.
-Alliance and PC on the Federal stage got Harper and yanked right. He was "left" ish for the alliance standards at the start, but that had more to do with his minority government in my view then his party. Well that and from a fiscal side, a certain Mr. Flaherty if memory serves.
-Wildrose and PC.... UCP is the wildrose, not a PC party.