A recent Washington Post editorial discusses the apparent “Party purges” that some have observed in recent years.  Whether or not “purge” is the most appropriate word, I think there is a general truth to the idea that the parties have been slowly but surely sorting themselves out ideologically.  Southern conservative Democrats like John Breaux and Zell Miller are no longer welcome in the Democratic party.  On the Republican side the same can be said of northern liberals like Lincoln Chafee.

The editorial is reasonably even-handed in discussing the good and the bad of these changes, but I think it falls short in one important area.  A significant unidentified benefit of having parties with more clearly delineated ideologies is the increased ability for voters to replace bad policies with potentially better ones.

Assuming neither party has a monopoly on correct policy responses to various problems, when wrong policies are pursued and one ideology fails to deliver on a particular problem, having a clear alternative is preferable to two parties that are just a mix of both left and right.  In other words, if a governing party is already using a mishmash of liberal, conservative or any other policy solutions because they have a “big tent,” then it’s not altogether clear where the failure stems from when a policy flops.  But if a distinctly liberal or conservative party implements a policy and it fails, the source of that failure is easily identifiable.

The obstacle is our electoral system, which really guarantees the viability of two and only two parties, whereas the array of ideological choices on most issues. is typically greater. But just because we’re stuck with a two party system – one that encourages parties to be ideologically expansive despite all the hand-wringing over “purges” – doesn’t mean we have to have two parties with significant, and confusing, ideological overlap.  If you’re conservative, there’s really no good reason to be in the Democratic party, and no real benefit to the voters for having you there. The same goes for liberals and Republicans. If you’re a libertarian…well, pick your poison.