Jedi Council Forums - Third Parties in the American Political System

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Author	Topic: Third Parties in the American Political System
beafet Title: Webmaster Ja cksonville, NC FanForce Registered: Mar '01	Date Posted: 10/31/05 9:12am Subject: Third Parties in the American Political System
	As you know, 2 parties have long dominated the American political landscape. Democrats and Republicans. However, there are many other political parties. Reform Party Liberterian Party Green Party Constitution Party and lots of others. I think that the Democrats and Republicans are getting too similar, and its hard to differentiate between the two. Examples would be Zell Miller and John McCain or Rudy Guiliani. In fact, I refer to the parties as "Socialist Party A" and "Socialist Party B" As to the viability of a third party having any success in America, I would remind you that the Republican Party was a third party. -----signature-----
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Espaldapalabras Registered: Aug '05	Date Posted: 10/31/05 9:21am Subject: RE: Third Parties in the American Political System
	May I remind you that with the American governmental system with the way it is set up, the possiblity of a third party wining any major power in the not so distant future is about zil to none. The lack of third parties is more due to the winner take all system than the lack of desire of Americans to have more choices. -----signature----- It is impossible to find common ground when you insist on yelling from my lawn.
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beafet Title: Webmaster Ja cksonville, NC FanForce Registered: Mar '01	Date Posted: 10/31/05 9:24am Subject: RE: Third Parties in the American Political System
	Well, I think its mostly an education thing. If more people knew about their options, they may vote dfferently. -----signature-----
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Jediflyer Registered: Dec '01	Date Posted: 10/31/05 9:37am Subject: RE: Third Parties in the American Political System
	The only way we are going to have a viable third party in our current electoral and districting scheme is when its on its way to become the second party. -----signature----- As long as the differences and diversities of mankind exist, democracy must allow for compromise, for accommodation, and for the recognition of differences. -Eugene McCarthy There are no dialogues, only intersecting monologues -Mark Twain
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DarthIntegral Registered: Jul '05	Date Posted: 10/31/05 9:49am Subject: RE: Third Parties in the American Political System
	The only way a third-party is going to gain any kind of power in the US system is to start with small, achievable goals and work up. If a party sets out with the mindset that to be successful, they have to have electoral votes in the Presidential Election, or they need to have x% of the popular vote nationwide in the Presidential Election, then that party is going to fail. The best option is to start in local governments and win "small" elections there. When you have established your party to a community you can start to expand it. At the same time, you can be working on seats in the US House of Represantitives, but until you start to get real success on local levels, shooting for the Senate or White House is going to end in failure. The Reform party is a great example that aiming big and making a splash but getting no political gain will result in failure for the party. Ross Perot made a very big splash, and even got a recognized National Convention. Yet, his party has nothing to show for it. A party that focuses on their local communities needs, and then expands to national focus, will have a much better chance for success. -----signature----- Sey's big brother "God has spoken, and the rest is commentary, right?" Suffering from acute Clevelanditis
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Espaldapalabras Registered: Aug '05	Date Posted: 10/31/05 10:27am Subject: RE: Third Parties in the American Political System
	If we had a system such as France we could have viable third parties, but our system just isn't set up for them. It is just the way it works, you can only have two, because a third unless it becomes the second, is usually powerless. If instead of haveing people take seats for individual areas of states and instead distributed the seats by percentages then a third party would gain seats 10 seats of a hundred even if 10% of the population voted for it. -----signature----- It is impossible to find common ground when you insist on yelling from my lawn.
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severian28 Registered: Apr '04	Date Posted: 10/31/05 6:09pm Subject: RE: Third Parties in the American Political System
	The only way a third-party is going to gain any kind of power in the US system is to start with small, achievable goals and work up. Your also going to need some names from the already existing viable parties. If there ever is going to be a viable third party, it will be a moderate party. Call it the common sense party, if you ask me. -----signature----- " Bring the sled " - Al Swearengen " Dying all the time. Lose your dreams and you will lose your mind. Aint life unkind? " - The Rolling Stones
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J-Rod Registered: Jul '04	Date Posted: 10/31/05 6:12pm Subject: RE: Third Parties in the American Political System
	Call it the common sense party, if you ask me. Or the Indecision Party. -----signature----- God Bless Barack Obama Darth_wanderguard :"Maybe you're not quite as crazy as people say you are" Gamertag: zZ J ROD Zz
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severian28 Registered: Apr '04	Date Posted: 10/31/05 6:16pm Subject: RE: Third Parties in the American Political System
	I guess you could look at it that way. Id rather be optimistic and think that a thoughtful person realizes that no one in this country or on this earth is completely one way. -----signature----- " Bring the sled " - Al Swearengen " Dying all the time. Lose your dreams and you will lose your mind. Aint life unkind? " - The Rolling Stones
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Andalite-Bandit Registered: Apr '05	Date Posted: 10/31/05 7:42pm Subject: RE: Third Parties in the American Political System
	-----signature----- "It's all the same fraking day, man." - Janis Joplin http://boards.theforce.net/your_jedi_council_community/b10008/29050206/p1/?0
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DarthIntegral Registered: Jul '05	Date Posted: 10/31/05 7:53pm Subject: RE: Third Parties in the American Political System
	severian28 posted: The only way a third-party is going to gain any kind of power in the US system is to start with small, achievable goals and work up. Your also going to need some names from the already existing viable parties. If there ever is going to be a viable third party, it will be a moderate party. Call it the common sense party, if you ask me. Eventually, that could be a bi-product of a succesful third party. But it shouldn't be an objective or a goal of a fledgling third party. Believe me when I say this: if a third party were to win 7-10 seats in the House of Representatives, they would become very well known nationally and people would take notice. And that would make a much bigger splash than a Ross Perot getting 5% of the popular vote in an election. -----signature----- Sey's big brother "God has spoken, and the rest is commentary, right?" Suffering from acute Clevelanditis
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beafet Title: Webmaster Ja cksonville, NC FanForce Registered: Mar '01	Date Posted: 11/1/05 12:56pm Subject: RE: Third Parties in the American Political System
	Which party has the best chance to get big? -----signature-----
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DarthIntegral Registered: Jul '05	Date Posted: 11/1/05 2:55pm Subject: RE: Third Parties in the American Political System
	My guess would be the Libertarians. They could easily splinter away some Republicans. -----signature----- Sey's big brother "God has spoken, and the rest is commentary, right?" Suffering from acute Clevelanditis
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beafet Title: Webmaster Ja cksonville, NC FanForce Registered: Mar '01	Date Posted: 11/1/05 2:59pm Subject: RE: Third Parties in the American Political System
	In the 2004 (Presidential) election, The Constitution Party was the only third party to have more voters than they had in 2000 election. -----signature-----
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Jabba-wocky Registered: May '03	Date Posted: 11/1/05 3:04pm Subject: RE: Third Parties in the American Political System
	I don't think there's much likelihood that there will be a third party, sustainable or not. At best, we might see a replacement for one of the parties in our two-party system--but it will still be a two-party system. Two trends lead me to believe this. The first is the effectiveness of the current dominant parties in taking up the major agenda issues of new parties. For instance, when the Green Party was relatively new, the Republicans and Democrats adjusted by including more environment-oriented proposals in their platforms. In this way, people who cared about this issue were faced with a relatively safe/sure choice of a party that is only making moderate promises, but is likely to be able to carry them out, versus a party promising much more, but is also much less likely to be able to win (and thus, carry out said promises). Secondly, we've seen party's split in the past without giving rise to a new Party. Namely, the Dixiecrat phenomena. All that happened was that the Republicans took in the Southern Democrats, and the Democrats took in the African-American vote. So I think there's more of a tendency for parties to trade sides/issues than for them to actually be so monlithic as to necessitate the formation of an entirely new party that would be well established in the long run. -----signature----- ays Darius the king: 8 of my family (there were) who were formerly kings; I am the ninth (9); long aforetime we are kings. All Hail His Excellency, Barack Obama Roma vincit Tearing Up a Lane (TERRIN UP A LAAAANE!!!)
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Quixotic-Sith Title: Manager Emeritus Registered: Jun '01	Date Posted: 11/1/05 3:08pm Subject: RE: Third Parties in the American Political System
	I agree with an earlier poster that the "winner-take-all" approach undercuts the viability of third party candidates. If we used proportional representation in Congress (i.e., representatives in Congress proportional to the number of votes that their party gets) and electoral votes (which are anachronistic in themselves) proportional to the popular vote for a state, it would make the system more viable. This is, of course, pure speculation, and I have no doubts that any concretization of my over-simplified solution would need to be significantly more complex. -----signature----- Defense wins championships. "The professors are the enemy. Professors are the enemy! Write that on a blackboard 100 times and never forget it." - Nixon
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