Third Way
I read about Unity08 in this month’s Atlantic, and I’m thinking about signing up. Third parties have an interesting history in America, and not just because of Ralph Nader in 2000 or John Anderson (technically not a third party, just independent). There’s Teddy Roosevelt, of course, and H. Ross Perot, too. The idea of Unity08 – creating a centrist ticket by combining candidates from the two majors – is perhaps more akin to Anderson’s candidacy than it is to that of the others. And that’s the point where it falls apart for me. I don’t regard myself as committed to two-party politics. In Australia, where we’ve got a state election coming up in March, I’m more than a little open to voting Greens or Democrats rather than Labor (Liberal’s just right out). But they’re viable, established parties with a federal presence. While the Democrats have seen support shrink to nearly nothing, they’re still in there, and the Greens are doing pretty well, too, even if Peter Garrett took up Labor’s preselection offer in the last federal election. If I am going to vote for a third party candidate in the U.S., it’s because the candidate has the political appeal, the policies I support. Unity08 seems like more of the kind of nonsense that had Democrats in the U.S. trying to draft John McCain. Bipartisanship is all well and good, but a bipartisan ticket? Sounds like somebody’s been watching too much ”West Wing” (or, worse, ”Commander in Chief). Nevertheless, I like the process, I like the possible effects, and I especially like the participatory intentions. Maybe I’ll try out for delegate from Australia.