Minor League Mindset

So what about the third parties we already have?  The Libertarian, Green, and Constitution Parties?  Plain and simple, they never grew up.  They never made it to the big leagues.  Instead of becoming major parties like the Republicans and Democrats whose candidates enjoy national ballot access, automatic inclusion in debates, and automatic federal funding; these minor parties have argued and made up and split and merged for decades, gaining little ground and having very little effect on American politics other than relocating the occasional election from the hands of one major party to the laps of another.  And still today they must meet prohibitive ballot access laws state by state, their candidates must poll above a certain percentage to be included in debates, and they must receive a minimum percentage of the vote to retroactively receive federal campaign funds.  

The largest and most competitive of these minor parties is the Libertarian Party.  I agree with the vast majority of this party’s platform with two important exceptions…national defense and immigration.  The Libertarian Preamble states “we support the prohibition of the initiation of physical force against others.”  This policy of holding our fire until the bad guys shoot first is not just naive, but irresponsible and dangerous in a world where nine countries have nuclear weapons and psychopathic dictators are developing long-range missile systems that could unleash these weapons on American soil.  On immigration, the Libertarian Party platform states that “Economic freedom demands the unrestricted movement of human as well as financial capital across national borders.”  This sounds great and might have worked before Islamic terrorism went global, but today it’s just silly.  So after more than 40 years as an officially-recognized party, the Libertarian Party is on the ballot in only 33 states, has received below 1% of the vote in all but two presidential elections, and has never won a U.S. Congressional seat.  

The second minor party is the Green Party which is #1 in the category most important to many of its members…being cool.  But it is more widely seen as an anti-capitalist fringe party.  The sad truth is that the majority of Americans support the Green Party’s environmental goals, but its adoption of totally unrelated social justice issues has greatly diminished any chance of realizing those goals.  Also there is little excitement or momentum generated by Green leaders like Al Gore who got mega-rich tooling around the world in private jets preaching to us about our carbon footprint, while globe-farting more pollution than some third world nations.  And the Green Party’s position on defense, which calls on our government to “Declare a no-first-strike policy.” and to “Dismantle all nuclear warheads from their missiles.” is even more naive than the libertarians’.  Finally, the party’s growth has been suppressed by perpetual infighting which has resulted in several splits since its first start in 1984.  In 2016, after 15 years as an officially-recognized party, the Green Party is on the ballot in only 21 states, has received under 1% of the Presidential vote in all but two elections and has never won a U.S. Congressional seat. 

The third minor party in terms of size and influence is the Constitution Party.  Initially formed as the U.S. Taxpayers’ Party in 1991, this party has much in common with the Libertarian Party in that both emphasize adherence to the Constitution.  Ironically, the argument could be made that the Constitution Party is less constitutional than the Libertarian Party in terms of its criminalization of behaviors which are largely seen as victimless.  Also, the Christian yardstick by which the Constitution Party seems to measure much of its ideology seems exclusionary in today’s diverse society, and is arguably one of the reasons the party has not been more competitive.  For example the Constitution Party platform calls for banning abortion even in cases of rape and incest, a stance the vast majority of Americans view as extreme.  Consequently, the Constitution Party has never received more than one half of 1% in any Congressional or Presidential election, and is on the ballot in only 15 states. 

The Tea Party is not a political party.  Rather it is a movement which began during Obama’s first term largely as a protest to profligate spending (Bush on wars and Obama on bailouts and healthcare).  But after just a few short years the Tea Party had changed American politics more than the three minor parties combined.  Its message of fiscal responsibility and non-interventionism attracted adherents who ran for state and local office and won.  And unlike the “minor” parties it actually elected new members to the U.S. House and Senate, and saw many existing members embrace its ideology.  But while this ideology is still alive and well in the form of Donald Trump and a slew of new Republican legislators, the hope many of us had that the Tea Party would become a national third party is dead.  I believe that if they had concentrated their efforts on forming such a party, the demolition of the establishment might have been well under way by now and we might never have reached the critical mass of arrogance that brought us Donald Trump.

Yet rather than refining their platforms to better address the core issues that bring people together and grow membership, these second-tier tagalongs adopt farcical fashions like transgender bathrooms and sanctuary cities, or they double down on deities like God, Mother Earth, and the Constitution.  Both tacks tend to narrow, not widen party tents, and both reaffirm that being competitive at the highest level is not a priority for these minor players.  You can find further evidence of this reality in the nomination of funny candidates who appear stoned in interviews and who get arrested climbing on tractors.  And those are just the candidates we know.  How many of you can name a single Constitution Party candidate who’s ever run for office?  In short, instead of becoming homes for tens of millions of unrepresented Republicans and Democrats, these minor parties instead became boutique hotels where people who like to be seen go to vote their conscience, protest, fit in, or feel good.  And you will feel good.  These fancy boutique hotels can offer you just about anything you could ever want.  Except full occupancy and any possibility whatsoever of electoral victory. 

Electoral victory.  That’s the difference in a nutshell.  I want to beat the smug bastards at their own game.  And I truly believe if we leave our prejudices at the door and examine every issue logically, that by the 2018 mid-term elections, we can have not just new candidates running for public office under our party banner, but current Republicans and Democrats choosing to renounce their respective parties’ race for the cliff, and join us in a viable third party whose overriding mission will be to return the U.S.A. to a position of intellectual, physical, and ethical superiority just when the world needs us there most.