Time Essay: The Decline of the Parties

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Announcements of the death of the two-party system are issued regularly, of course, usually just before the two-party system reasserts itself with a certain amount of resilience. "Everything is cyclical," remarks Stanley Friedman, the Bronx County Democratic chairman in New York. "It used to be fashionable to beat the bosses. Now people are recognizing that you can get strong leadership from an organized political establishment." Still, it is clear that the powers and purposes of both parties are becoming thoroughly circumscribed. It would be lamentable if some day the nation's two great political parties were reduced to performing merely decorative and ceremonial duties, with candidates taking the party label in the same spirit that ships sail under Liberian registry—a flag of convenience, and no more. — Lance Morrow