I think the German political system is the best at producing a balance of substantial ideological blocs while preserving enough choice for the voter. If you're on the right there's the liberal party, the 'populist' party and the mainstream conservative party, if you're on the left there's the eco-liberal party, the vaguely socdem party and the radleft party.
An of course highly imperfect analogy to US politics would be if the Libertarian party was slightly larger, and the hardcore Trumpists were split off from the Reagan-Bush conservatives; and on the left the Bernouts had their own party while the centre-left was covered by an old-style New Deal coalition party and a more upscale Obama coalition liberal party.
I agree with most of this, but while the CDU does contain Germany’s equivalent of Reagan-Bush conservatives, perhaps the more substantial bloc are more analogous to the Rockefeller Republicans - in British terms, ‘One Nation Conservatives’. Of course these are, with the exception of some Northeastern governors, all but extinct in the US. America would be much better off with a Rockefeller/CDU-style party.
Well yes the analogy is obviously imaginative because political coalitions are different between countries, I was drawing in broad brushstrokes about what the mainstream political factions are in the US. There isn't a US equivalent to the SPD at all either, American liberalism is a very imperfect fit.
