Third Party?????

Question

What in your opinion would it take to form a viable (key word) political party in the U.S. that could command enough broad based support to have an effect on elections & apply pressure on the two major parties to be more accountable? Is this doable & do you think we need this in this country? Thanx in advance for any serious, thoughtful answers.

Answer 1

I believe the most probable way that a 'viable' third party could form in the United States is if the two main parties stayed polarized to the right (Republicans) and to the left (Democrats). Therefore, there would be the moderate center where a third party would deem effective. I'm not sure what this party would call itself, due to the fact that once a party is established, it could no longer call itself, "Independent".

With this, there would be three parties, Republicans, Democrats, and the center/moderate party. In this form of government the two current major parties could preach to their masses and the new center/moderate party could appeal to the rest.

Of course, this would not keep out the other still minor parties (Green, Libertarian, etc.), but they would have a greater impact on elections due to the fact that if the Dems, Repubs, and center party would roughly gather between 20 and 40 % of the vote at any given time, the minor parties would either have to form coalitions with one of the three major parties to have an effect, or their continual 1-5% points in elections could cause one of the three major parties to lose.

Three parties would be great for America and make elections much less about preaching to the to polar ends in non-election years (mid-term/presidential) and to the middle during election years. The respective parties could preach to their masses the same way every year.

Answer 2

I think it will require a large percentage of the US population to loose complete faith in the Democrats and Republicans. However, any third party that does gain significant support so as to be a major player on the political field, would likely succumb to the same corruption as the other two parties. Everyone has their price, unfortunately.

Answer 3

I don't think I have the broad answer....but, I think that to start making changes there need to be financial limits to campaigns during election seasons and there needs to be a law passed to only argue your point of view and not be allowed to discuss your opponent's views.
We've become a nation of leaders that are there because they are either independently wealthy or they bow down to special interest groups to be able to get funding...I don't believe that is what the founding fathers had in mind.

Answer 4

the only thing the third parties are lacking are strong Candidates (this only pertains to third parties that are conservative in nature because the the liberial third parties have very little support nationaly while the conservative parties do) with that in mind if say the Consitution party got a well known well respected conservative to run for their party they would have a very good chance (look at Ross Pero for an example)

Answer 5

If it wasn't for that third party, Bush would not have been President. It draws votes away from the Rep. and Dem. party. When it is a close race like it was Bush vs. Gore any votes are appreciated. We don't really need a third party, just better people to run for President.

Answer 6

Clinton got elected because of third party(Perot) not bush. Karen needs to study harder.

Answer 7

In the words of the great Kang and Kodos -

"Go ahead, waste your vote"