143 Third Parties

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Teddy Roosevelt proved that the most popular man in the world can't win as a Third Party. There are endless papers on Third Parties: without proportional representation, like a parliament that most modern day democracy's have, Third parties are simply spoilers. Think about it for a minute: you don't want to vote for one of the Majors because you disagree with some part of their platform, so that Party loses your vote and the other Party wins: now, rather than getting some platform agreement, you get none, a case study in irrationality. Al Gore would have won except for the people who voted for Ralph Nader. Bush Sr. would have been president but for Ross Perot. And even if by some miracle a Third Party candidate wins at the national level, they have no bench. Unless some billionaires want to finance a slate of thousands of good candidates throughout the country to support the leadership, no Third Party is on the horizon.</p> <p>The U.S. is not a parliamentary system, we don't have dozens of ideologies represented in our decision-making. Instead our ideological battles occurred during the Primaries when minority thinking was filtered out. That makes votes in the legislature a homogeneous choice between two distinct ideologies, usually giving one Party a free hand to move the country in their direction, good or bad depending on your pov. So far, it's worked: America is the only superpower because of its cultural & economic dominance, much of that due to our political system which reflects a focus on liberty with its stark yes-or-no choices. There are no third options.</p>