3rd Parties in the United States
Civics and Economics
Just months after last fall's midterm elections, Pew Research Center found that approval ratings for both
Democrats and Republicans sank below 35 percent, while at the same time nearly 40 percent of the
electorate identified as a political independent – a record high.
A post-election Gallup poll, meanwhile, found a record-high 60 percent of their respondents want a
third major political party to choose from at the ballot box.
Those numbers would make any bleed-red Republican or true-blue Democrat blanch. And as voters
prepare for the 2016 prospect that Hillary Clinton, one of the most polarizing Democrats in modern
history, could run for the White House against one of several lackluster Republican candidates who can't
break 25 percent in pre-primary polls, voters' negative attitudes towards the political establishment
present an interesting question:
If the American people don't like Democrats or the GOP – the ballot-box equivalent of Coke and Pepsi,
according to public opinion – why hasn't 7-Up, in the form of a third party, captured more of the voting
market?
Like other deeply philosophical queries, the detailed answer is complex, and involves money – lots and
lots of money. It also includes geography, electoral math and elements of our national character; which
simultaneously demands change yet clings tightly to familiarity.
3rd Parties in the United States
Civics and Economics
By contrast, the short answer is simple: Third parties are very much present in our electoral system –
think Ralph Nader, whose Green Party bid for the White House in 2000 helped deadlock the presidential
election between George W. Bush and Al Gore, something that still sends some Democrats into spasms
15 years later – but struggle for influence at the national level because Team Red and Team Blue
dominate the landscape.
Keep in mind: a socialist (Bernie Sanders), a libertarian (Rand Paul) and a tea partier (Ted Cruz), are
official entrants in the 2016 presidential campaign. Yet Sanders, Paul and Cruz are considered
mainstream, and credible because they're competing under the Democratic and Republican party
banners for practical reasons.
Still, without dramatic social upheaval or revolution, analysts say, a viable third party probably couldn't
stand on its own and attract enough voter interest to threaten the Democrats or the GOP. That means
entrenched political institutions like the two-party system are nearly impossible to change, even if we
think they're broken.
"We are very, very committed to the system we have in the U.S.," says Peter Levine, director of the Tufts
University's Center for Information and Research on Civic Engagement, or CIRCLE. "We do have the
oldest democracy in the world. We think of ourselves as a youthful country but we haven't had a big
constitutional change since 1788. We do resist change, experimentation."
The root of the problem, Levine says, is in part traceable to single-member districts – think House
elections, or a city race where voters choose a council representative. Eligible voters have to pick one
candidate at the ballot box and the top vote-getter wins the office, unlike other democracies where
voters get to make second or third choices.
Lack of multiple choices at the polls gives the political establishment the advantage over a third-party
candidate, which translates into the power of incumbency, which is vested in the status quo, he says.
Not to say it hasn't been tried – Whigs, Federalists, Democrats, Free Soil and Liberty parties once
roamed the political landscape.=
Republicans, weren't even on the political map until President Abraham Lincoln put them there by
winning the 1860 election: "The Whigs collapsed, and the Republican Party replaced them," Levine says.
"But that was a long time ago."
There's another big issue here, said former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, a Republican who was Obama's
ambassador to China and a leader of No Labels, an organization promoting bipartisanship in Congress.
"The incentive structure, and the geographical and ideological polarization of the two parties, is exactly
what George Washington worried about when he wrote the farewell address," said Huntsman, host of
the "No Labels" show on the SiriusXM subscription radio network.
3rd Parties in the United States
Civics and Economics
Population shifts since the mid-1900s baked-in geographic identity along with party affiliation,
Huntsman noted. The shift – more Americans now live in cities – led to changes in what voters expect
from their government, and largely locked in party loyalty among voters; rural dwellers who favor
Republicans don't want the same things as city Democrats do.
"That combination – when you add in the rigged system of redistricting, when you add in partisan media
– it becomes very powerful" and overwhelms a "silent majority" who want both parties to work
together, Huntsman said, during a live taping of his show with Joe Lieberman, a former senator and the
Democrats' vice-presidential nominee in 2000.
The result: "A majority of Americans can be effectively ignored because the two parties in the process
have been hijacked," he said.
Arguably, money – or lack of it – is the biggest impediment to a sustained third-party movement,
particularly in the post-Citizens United era. Unlimited donations by the Koch brothers on the right or
George Soros on the left, Levine and others say, buys access to a candidate and can influence a party's
campaign platform.
Allan Murray, editor of Fortune magazine and a former editor at Pew, told Huntsman the problem's not
just inside the Beltway, either: Polls show people want moderate, middle-of-the-road solutions but the
party's extreme wings – conservatives and liberals – stifle that part of the debate.
"Those were the people who vote in primaries, those are the people who make contributions to political
campaigns, who are active in political campaigns," Murray said. "They have a greater voice, a bigger
voice, than they've ever had before."
Dan Glickman, a senior fellow at the Bipartisan Policy Center, a former Democratic congressman from
Kansas and agriculture secretary during the Clinton administration, says that, back in the day, politicians
could take risks, or make compromises against party orthodoxy, without fear of political reprisals
because "there was a sense of patriotism that was more important than love of party."
Step over the party line these days, he says, and, you'll be staring down the barrel of a primary
challenger from the party's extreme wing, he says, and "you can have half a million dollars contributed
to your opponent over a weekend."
Alexandra Reckendorf, a professor of political science at Virginia Commonwealth University, says some
third-party-ish politicians have learned to use that system to their advantage -- which brings us to
Sanders, Paul and Cruz.
All three have strong third-party leanings, she says, but they've adapted with an "if you can't lick 'em,
join 'em" approach. Caucusing with the Democrats or the Republicans, she adds, gives them access to
media, a political infrastructure, money and credibility.
3rd Parties in the United States
Civics and Economics
But it's not a one-way street, she says: in exchange, the party gets to expand its base and draw in new
voters attracted by the candidate's message. Exhibit A: the GOP's successful integration of the 2009 tea
party movement.
Sanders could do the same thing for the Democrats in 2016, Reckendorf says.
"Nobody I talk to thinks Bernie Sanders is going to win the Democratic nomination. But he'll cause a
headache for Hillary Clinton and anyone who wants to jump in later" by pushing the national agenda to
the left, she says. "You start getting these independents and third party candidates in, they start to push
new issues. [Clinton] can't avoid certain issues that Bernie Sanders wants to bring up."
"They're doing the work of a third party but in a very sneaky, covert way, perhaps," she says.
So in the end "you'll get vanilla Coke or cherry Coke," Reckendorf says, "but it'll still be Coke."
A. Why do many feel there is room for a third party in the United States?
B. Why do many feel a two party system is difficult to change in this country?
C. What obstacles to third parties have to overcome if they have a chance of being successful in
elections?
D. Why do candidates, who are really third party candidates, chose to run as a member of the 2
main parties?
E. Do you believe Americans need more choices at the ballot? Why or why not?