A third party in America? Don’t count on it
I’ve long thought a major third national political party was a forgone conclusion. I’ve long thought the American people, fed up with the twoparty system, would embrace a third party.
I’ve always seen this party as basically Libertarian, with limited government, economically conservative, socially liberal.
I’ve waited for this to happen.
And waited.
And waited some more. Well, it ain’t happening, and the reason is simple: There is no path for this type of thinking. There is no way, in today’s media and political landscape, anything resembling “moderate” can win anything. The crazies control both parties, and both parties have willingly gone over to live in Crazytown.
Seriously: The far-right and far-left control the conversation, and the vast majority of us — you know, the non-crazies, the people who just want a job and a roof and a hot meal — have no say in the matter. And honestly, we don’t really want one. Too much work, moving things to the middle.
The middle is where ratings go down. The middle is where politicians go to die. The middle is Nowheresville.
Shame, too, because most of us are the middle. Most of us are economically conservative and socially liberal. Most of us would prefer for the government to just leave us alone.
It would seem like these are ripe conditions for a third party to make hay. Heck, call it The Moderates and be done with it.
But it won’t happen. There’s no money in the middle. There’s just … the middle. Hard to argue with people in the middle, mostly because they aren’t looking for an argument.
Shame we can’t have something like this. I could certainly use some middle in my life. How about you?
Jeff Edelstein is a columnist for The Trentonian. He can be reached at jedelstein@ trentonian.com, facebook. com/jeffreyedelstein
Hope readers came here for enlightenment.
Let’s go back to the beginning when these United States set out on a course for democracy as General George Washington won twice as an independent before politics morphed into parties despite the fact that many leaders warned against severe ideological divisions.
Washington cast shade on factions while James Madison voiced tepid support for political divisions. Alexander Hamilton espoused unilateral political system and Thomas Jefferson declared in 1789, “If I could not go to heaven but with a party, I would not go there at all.”
Ok, not as catchy as “Give me liberty or give me death” but his sentiment resonates during a time when talk of red states and blue states color codes Republicans and Democrats respectively.
Hamilton went on to construct the Federalists party in 1787 while Jefferson created a political party known as anti-Federalists. Interestingly, Jefferson’s party members called themselves DemocraticRepublicans. Money mattered as Federalists claimed capitalist agendas, business, banking, and industry while Democratic-Republicans guarded interests of farmers, planters, and tradespeople.
So, that’s a thumbnail sketch of U.S. politics which leads to this Split Decision answer. (Pardon the filibuster.) Yes, the United States will eventually produce a potentially powerful third party which will offer wonderful agitation to this current static political system.
The United States could
L.A. Parker is a Trentonian columnist. Find him on Twitter @LAParker6 or email him at LAParker@ Trentonian.com.