Political Third Parties

Post Reply New Topic

That's one. Keep on counting.

A third party would not be as successful today, simply because rules are stacked in favor of the Democrats and Republicans. They have become too entrenched and too rich for their own good.

I think Ross Perot's fumblings in 1992 just made the situation worse for any independents and third parties to step up to the plate - the Democrats and Republicans setting up more barriers to prevent a Perot from trying to jump in the game.

I recall reading that Perot was polling in the summer of 1992 ahead of Bush and Clinton, until he briefly dropped out of the race and then committed a few more errors. I was seven at the time, so forgive me if this information is wrong.


The only way we can see a legitimate third party - is if there's enough populist response seeing the corrupt system and break from the total disgust on both sides. Right now, the Tea Party group would be the closest thing - and they at least have the backing of Fox News personalities. The question is, if they get absorbed by the Republicans or if the Tea Partiers are so disgusted by the two parties that they branch into a third.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, Instant Run-off Voting would go a long way towards making 3rd parties viable, just sayin'...

That would be nice, but I doubt we'll see that any time soon.

Not like electoral reform is a hot button populist issue right now.

Maybe not, but it should be. I think that IRV would be the easiest, most painless reform that would actually make a real difference and start to hold candidates accountable by offering viable 3rd party opposition when they misbehave. Needless to say both major parties are terrified of the idea and oppose it at every turn, so I think it would have to start locally with citizens initiatives in states that allow them, ramping up to a national campaign. If someone could get the myriad groups organized under the Tea Party banner to join together in support of IRV perhaps it could be brought to the forefront, getting issues in the headlines is one thing they do rather well, and it wouldn't be out of character for them. Just a thought.