Third Party Politics
Since the days of John Anderson, I’ve been attracted to the possibility of voting for someone outside the Democratic or Republican parties. To be accurate, that’s really just the Democrats, because I’ve never been seriously interested in voting Republican, but we can leave that aside for now. What have I gotten, other than Anderson, to vote for: Ross Perot, Steve Forbes, and Ralph Nader. One’s a nut, one’s a Republican in tax-reformist clothing, and the other is a wild man running on a sufficiently strong political base as to marginally disrupt voting patterns, but with that margin being enough to potentially derail an effective opposition to the present regime. I’m in full agreement with Dr. Dean’s editorial statement in the NY Times, including his statement that voting for Nader means “a vote for a candidate who has no realistic shot of winning the White House.” Despite Nader’s Presidential bid in 2000, one which left him with an insufficient margin for his party to receive matching funds this year, I do still believe a Third Party might become viable someday in the United States. It’s happened elsewhere, although it’s proved difficult to sustain. The Democrats here in Australia, for example, and the Greens, are both forces to be reckoned with both locally and nationally. I still recall when the Greens became a potent force in (West) Germany. Running for President, however, is not the best means to achieving political presence on the necessary scale. To adapt the old ecologicalist adage: act locally, think nationally. Building up a political base from which to launch a Presidential campaign is a necessary first step. Once enough of an effective presence has been established in State and local legislatures, Congress is inevitable, and the White House can be effectively pursued. I’d happily vote for alternative candidates (so long as I can agree to the platform they run on) especially if I believe they can make the changes they promise.