The rise of left-wing splinter parties in the United Kingdom in 1970s were at least a symptom and perhaps one cause of the demise of old-school Labour politics and the rise of a Margaret Thatcher-led Conservative Party. Indeed, splinter parties are often associated with political instability, Weimar Germany being another classic example.
The structure of American government discourages splinter parties from forming, but the lesson is also applicable to movements. Indeed, it is particularly applicable to saga of civil rights in America.
The entity most directly responsible for ending slavery in America, the Republican Party, was at its outset a motley amalgamation of former Whigs, Democrats, and even anti-immigrant Know-Nothings (although the last chagrined Abraham Lincoln). The passage of the Thirteenth Amendment ultimately required additional support from northern Democrats, whether based in principle or not. The civil rights movement of the 1960s was a coalition that included both liberal Democrats and Republicans.
What Monty Python understood is that politics is about winning friends and influencing people (to paraphrase another dead white male, Dale Carnegie). The organizers of the Women’s March seem to be struggling with the idea that demanding ideological purity, especially on day one, is not winning friends. Without winning friends, it is difficult to influence people.
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