Third Voice or Opinion

Authored by Michael Pate on October 31st, 2003 at 9:36 PM

In my opinion, the two-party structure is vulnerable to corruption and prone to the type of declines in effectiveness described in this piece. Where is a third voice, or third opinion? Today, we are limited to a choice of two political organizations that have attained large scale. A third choice could provide diversity and better representation, better checks and balances, and objectivity. Having greater than three major parties in government might be fragmentary and prevent consensus, but I would argue that our two-party system limits competition. - Gary Santoro

Gary continues this in Part 2. The last presidential candidate elected by any party other than the Democrats and Republicans was Zachary Taylor, the Whig Party candidate. Of course, there was a period when the Democrats were practically a third party. I think that both parties spend so much time focused on the center of the tiny sliver in the center that they discount their core constituencies a bit too often.

Links in this entry:

Independence From Politics as Usual, Part 1
Independence from Politics as Usual, Part 2
Populists vs Democrats
The American Whig Party
Tiny Sliver in the Center

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