Judd Gregg: GOP, Two-Party System Are Dead

The defeat of Rep. Eric Cantor in Virginia shows that the two-party system in America is dead, says former New Hampshire Gov. Judd Gregg.

In a commentary for The Hill, Gregg said the GOP has splintered off into "a series of fiefdoms and factions," and it will not be long before the Democratic Party follows suit.

The ultimate loser in both cases is the government’s ability to govern, warned Gregg, who also served three terms as a U.S. senator.

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"Once there was a Republican Party; today there is not," he wrote. "Once there was a two-party system in America; today there is not. Those, in a nutshell, are the most serious and substantive lessons to be drawn from the defeat of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in a GOP primary contest last week."

Cantor was soundly defeated by tea party candidate David Brat, an economics professor, expanding the rift in the GOP between the old establishment party members and the new conservatives.

"The real concern is the disappearance of the Republican Party as a functioning party," wrote Gregg. "With Cantor’s startling loss, a reality has been bared that has been suspected and whispered about, but has never before been displayed so publicly and starkly. It is that the two-party system, which has been essential to the orderly governance of the nation for a long time, is now in shambles."

Gregg said that two-party system allows "a checks-and-balances system" within each party to reach compromise and help "the government to move forward."

"With non-communicative factions or strident sub-parties, such movement cannot occur," he wrote. "This, ultimately, is a recipe for inaction and stalemate. Things just stop. And they have."

Gregg added: "The Democrats are not far behind. Those on the left are being pushed aside by the hard left, which is intent upon the resurrection of progressivism (more accurately named socialism) as the key cause of the Democratic Party."

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