What is the two-party doom loop?
A phrase initially coined by scholar and Unite America advisor Lee Drutman, the doom loop describes the ongoing cycle and spiral that threatens the very fabric of our government. Forces within our democracy have made winning more important than protecting the institutions that make our country function.
As our Unite America Executive Director Nick Troiano describes it, “Our political system is caught in a "doom loop" of partisanship and polarization, as both major parties trade long-term institutional stability for short-term political gain in what they rationalize as a fight for the soul of our country.”
For one side to win, the other side has to be destroyed.
If one side isn’t winning, they’re increasingly willing to tear the entire system down just to succeed.
If we want to escape the doom loop, we have to change the system that fuels it.
“Our political system is caught in a "doom loop" of partisanship and polarization, as both major parties trade long-term institutional stability for short-term political gain in what they rationalize as a fight for the soul of our country.”
How do we fix the two-party doom loop?
Our four key reforms — Ranked Choice Voting, vote at home, independent redistricting commissions, and nonpartisan primaries — help to address the challenges of the system by opening the system up to more competition, providing voters with more choice in elections, and giving power back to the people and away from the political parties.