New York Times columnist David Brooks is predicting current U.S. politics could lead the way to a European-style multiparty system.
"Now, Donald Trump leads the Republican Party, the personification of the scarcity mind-set," Brooks said in a column posted on Monday.
"Restricting immigration has become the core Republican issue. Today's Republicans are happy to trade away their fiscal principles if they can get their way on immigration, which is what they did in last week's budget deal.
"But the style of politics that Trump's scarcity mind-set demands has been a disaster for conservative governance. He insists on perpetual warfare — against all comers. Stuck fighting his wars with him, Republican politicians have had to say goodbye to most of the pillars of conservatism: rule of law, fiscal discipline, global engagement, moral decency, the idea that people should be judged by the content of their character and not the color of their skin."
Brooks maintained the Republicans' "restrictionist position on immigration is perfectly legitimate." But he claimed Trump has "fatally entwined it with constant race baiting."
And he said Republican lawmakers have remained silent and spoiled their own cause, while becoming "fellow travelers to bigotry."
"The fact is that the scarcity mentality and the perpetual warrior style it demands are incompatible with any civilized political creed," he noted. "At first the warriors seem to be fighting for the creed but eventually they transform it.
"Under the influence of this mentality, evangelicalism turns from a faith into a siege-mentality interest group that reveres a pagan immoralist. Under the influence of this mentality, liberalism goes from a creed that values individual rights and deliberation to one that values group separatism and intellectual intolerance.
"The scarcity mentality always ends up eating the host philosophy because it operates on a more fundamental level of the psyche."
"The underlying conditions of scarcity are only going to get worse. Moreover, the warrior mentality builds on itself. As the right pulverizes the left, the left feels the need to pulverize back, and on and on."
And he claimed some other warrior "will succeed Trump."
"Eventually, conservatives will realize: If we want to preserve conservatism, we can't be in the same party as the clan warriors," he said. "Liberals will realize: If we want to preserve liberalism, we can't be in the same party as the clan warriors."
He said people will realize they will have to make a radical break.
"Even with all the structural barriers, we could end up with a European-style multiparty system," Brooks said.
And he claimed the "scarcity mentality" is not compatible with long-held philosophies.
"Decent liberals and conservatives will eventually decide they need to break from it structurally," Brooks said. "They will realize it's time to start something new."