Monday, September 1, 2008

A Third Party

Commenter Kyle said:

my prediction is that we'll see a split something like this:
48% dems
42% rep
10% 3rd party
i know that is unusual, but thats where i'm putting my money.
the republicans lost a heck of a lot of votes that wont go over to the dems, while the dems havent lost much of their base. part of my prediction is wishful thinking in that i would love to see the 3rd party draw 10% or more and have that be the start of a massive shift in the the way the american public and the media handle future elections. wishful thinking.

I agree that a viable third party would be of enormous benefit to American politics. As it stands now, it is too easy to say, "We're the good guys. They're the bad guys." A third party, especially one that was somewhat in the middle of the Democrats and Republicans not in a wishy-washy way, but in a way that took some of the ideologies of both parties, would be able to blunt some of that. It would also allow interesting coalitions to develop on issues instead of the usual, "That legislation came from the Bad Party so I oppose it on principle no matter what it might say."

I don't see it happening, though. The Democrats and the GOP are just so big and so entrenched that it would nearly take an act of God to bring one of them down. Just look at how many people still support the Republicans after the last eight years.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

one thing that COULD change this is how the media deals with third party candidates. imagine a third party candidate actually taking part in a debate with the other two. shock and awe.
if the third party candidates pull in more than 10% of the vote i would hope that the media starts to wake up.
but, realistically, the best we can hope for is to continue working third party candidates into congress. this is already in progress.
as an aside, there is a great article in mises currently about how taxes dont matter any more. it talks about how the republicans used to be the guys that lowered taxes because they cut spending (spending on 'liberal' 'social' programs) while the democrats increased taxes in order to fund their 'liberal' 'social' programs. but now, who needs to increase taxes when you can just increase our national debt?
of course, this takes for granted the ignorance of america regarding the hidden tax of inflation. considering this tax, i see this administration as enacting the most agressive tax increase in the history of this country.
good job dubbya!
oh, and you should check out naomi kleine's interviews on democracy now. she has a few good interviews on there (one specifically talking about 'shock doctrine').