4 party system

[Treeshepherd]

Clearly there are rifts in both the Republican and Democrat parties. Could we be headed for a 4 (major) party system?

The traditional corporatist duopoly will persist, abiding to sacred ideas like free trade and economic growth by any means necessary. These factions would continue to disagree on social issues like transgender bathrooms.
A third way could form out of Bernie Sanders socialism. A fourth might be constituted of libertarian isolationisms.

But then, where do protectionists fit in? Personally, I'm intrigued by the idea of using tariffs as either a source of revenue or a bargaining chip to decrease tariffs levied against our exports.

 

[PurpleOwl]

protectionists? like north korea?

U.S. imports decreased 66% from $4.4 billion (1929) to $1.5 billion (1933), and exports decreased 61% from $5.4 billion to $2.1 billion. GNP fell from $103.1 billion in 1929 to $75.8 billion in 1931 and bottomed out at $55.6 billion in 1933.[21] Imports from Europe decreased from a 1929 high of $1.3 billion to just $390 million during 1932, while U.S. exports to Europe decreased from $2.3 billion in 1929 to $784 million in 1932. Overall, world trade decreased by some 66% between 1929 and 1934.[22]

Using panel data estimates of export and import equations for 17 countries, Jakob B. Madsen (2002) estimated the effects of increasing tariff and non-tariff trade barriers on worldwide trade during the period 1929-1932. He concluded that real international trade contracted somewhere around 33% overall. His estimates of the impact of various factors included about 14% because of declining GNP in each country, 8% because of increases in tariff rates, 5% because of deflation-induced tariff increases, and 6% because of the imposition of non-tariff barriers.

The new tariff imposed an effective tax rate of 60% on more than 3,200 products and materials imported into the United States, quadrupling previous tariff rates on individual items, but raising the average tariff rate to 19.2%, in line with average rates of that day.

Unemployment was at 8% in 1930 when the Smoot–Hawley tariff was passed, but the new law failed to lower it. The rate jumped to 16% in 1931, and 25% in 1932–33.

Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act - Wikipedia

Am i the only one who learned about the great depression in the 7th grade?