This is a really persuasive piece on why things operate in a certain way, why parties can’t enforce discipline or prevent primary challenges. Also why third parties are not difficult to establish but essentially illegal. Sort of a long read but an interesting argument. Political Parties Are Illegal in the United States – J. W. Mason
Sounds good in theory but the same could be said of the right. If we could somehow put the fringe left in their own party and the fringe right in theirs, we could get back to governing the country. As it is, you have to be fringe to stand out in the primaries and that's what we are left with. Then, the ones left in the Democrat party and the Republican party would be closer together and people would have an actual choice to make.
The whole premise of the piece is that the fringe cant really form a party that can act like a party, and that parties are unable to effectively discipline fringe elements, because political parties in the classic sense are functionally illegal in the US. If x candidate wins a primary, there is nothing stopping them from appearing on the ballot under that party's line. And since joining a party is as simple as checking the box on a government form (there are no real dues or memberships etc), then there really is no barrier to prevent undesirable candidates from gaining access to the ballot under your party line (assuming they win the primary). This is not how parties work in most places!
