| In your hypothetical situation (if it's a two-party system), there might be a problem with defeating such an extremist party even by legal, democratic, non-violent means. Even if such an extremist party can be consistently defeated, how does the political system avoid descending (further) into dysfunction? If the extremist party remains competitive, doesn't the other party increasingly get drawn away from the public interest and towards entertaining (or at least resisting) extremist policies? If the extremist party doesn't remain competitive, doesn't the other party win without needing to appeal to voters, leading it into corruption (or at least complacency)? It seems to me that there are only three ways (violent or otherwise) to restore democracy in a two-party system after one of the two parties turns to extremism: 1) replace the extremist party, restoring two-party democracy 2) rescue the extremist party from extremism, restoring two-party democracy 3) reform the voting system to facilitate multi-party democracy There's an obstacle to opposing extremism in the United States by democratic means; electoral procedures (such as the Electoral College) too often give victory to a party (extremist or otherwise) without the most votes, so persuading a majority of voters isn't enough. |