Is there not enough people to make a new party?

[Mircea]

Originally Posted by tamajane

I believe the kids are placed on education "tracks" from a young age based on school performance. I can't imagine Americans tolerating this. The little princess put a trade school track, well all heck would break loose with parental foot stomping, screaming and lawsuits.

That is exactly what happens.

And, for at least 40 years, Liberal educators have done nothing but rail against tracking. I know, because I was a secondary education major and did three 2-week observations in schools in different environments and then did most of the 16-week student teaching before getting kicked out, and all the teachers and administrators did was whine about tracking.

The "teacher" -- and I use the term loosely -- in her own words said she was a history major who got a teaching degree in case she couldn't get a job in the history field.

She was terrible. When I joined her, she was teaching the US Civil War and making kids memorize battles and generals and casualty figures.

That is magnificent, but it is not teaching.

Teaching is explaining the concept of civil war, and why they're often very violent, and the different types of civil wars, like revolutionary wars where the government is over-thrown, and wars of independence, like when the Colonies split from Britain, and the specific factors that led to the US Civil War.

Homework is for doing things like writing about battles and what was accomplished and whether that accomplishment is trivial, important or pivotal.

If someone can't teach the US Civil War in 3 days, they ought to have their license suspended and their degree revoked.

With teachers like that, it's any wonder why the US hasn't burned down, fallen over and sank into a swamp.

Anyway, Euro-States track heavily, and Germany's system is typical:

Your child has to score in the upper 5th Percentile to avoid going to the Hauptschule or the Schulart mit mehreren Bildungsgängen or Berufsschule, where they basically learn how to retread tires or be a barista or something like that.

On the next test, your child has to score in the upper 5th Percentile to be admitted to a Gymnasium.

After completion of that, your child has to score high enough to be admitted to Gymnasiale Oberstufe for 2 years.

After that, your child will test and if they score high enough, they get to go to university for free -- if they don't score high enough, then most likely they'll go to the Fachoberschule, which is like a technical school.

And, no, you will not find students in European universities with 1500 SAT scores. That just isn't allowed.

[danielj72]

Actually a party like the OP suggested may do better than one would think. It is a reasonably coherent idea, a socially Conservative party which embraces some of the social safety net of the left. There likely would be strong support for something like this in the Midwest. The most popular ideas of the right are those which protect our liberties like freedom of speech and right to bear arms. The one and only popular idea on the left these days is universal healthcare. This proposed party would incorporate the popular ideals of both sides, while removing the divisive “culture war” which is being driven from the left.

It is an interesting question how this hypothetical party would do against the hard left and the hard right.

[J746NEW]

Originally Posted by Freak80

A third party would become just as corrupt as the existing parties, because it would also need to rely on corporate money to fund its campaigns.

This is the problem.
The deep pockets would corrupt the third party by buying everyone out and we would be back where we started.