Open Left

Progressives Will Only Succeed by Building a New Third Party (2.67 / 3)

The only conclusion I can draw from arguments presented above is that fighting for change within the current two party system is a losing proposition.

Together, the two major parties have put the American people into a political strait-jacket from which they cannot extricate themselves except by building a third party unlike any party that has ever existed, as I describe below.  

The out-of-control Democrats, Republicans and the White House are conjointly pushing the financial meltdown and the recession towards a deep, long-lasting depression by refusing to do what the American people have demanded.

A majority of them have opposed the bailout from the start because it maintains the current top-down financial system that eviscerates rather than bolsters the real economy.

A vibrant progressive third party that runs and elects genuinely progressive (versus fake progressive) candidates to Congress can start re-building the economy from the ground up, tax those who have unfairly profited from working people's labor, and apply anti-trust laws to break up the big banks. If the federal government is going to give taxpayers money to banks, a third party can make sure it goes to solvent banks who actually help small and medium sized businesses stay in business, expand and create more jobs.

All these statistics about how much the Democrats or Republicans are favored, and declines thereof, re-state the widely known fact that most voters hold both parties in contempt but have no way to get rid of them and replace them with parties that are responsive to popular will.

Polls and research studies show that U.S. voters have been steadily abandoning the nation's two major political parties for more than 20 years. 6% have abandoned the Democrats since Obama took office.

According to a recent Pew poll, the bloc of self-identifying Independents is larger than either the bloc of self-identifying Democrats or the bloc of self-identifying Republicans.

The Independent bloc represents 39% of the electorate, the Democratic bloc only 33%, and the Republican bloc represents only 22%.

If a third party were created, and it gave voters the powers that my invention, the The Interactive Voter Choice System would give them, it would easily attract a majority of the electorate because they, rather than special interests, could set the party's agenda and thereafter the country's agenda by running and electing representatives who would enact their agenda into law.

 

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by: Nancy Bordier @ Sun Jun 28, 2009 at 10:28:27 AM CDT

Which is easier to achieve - a new third party, or a voting bloc that cooperatively votes for D's and R's who serves their interests? (4.00 / 2)

I think the answer depends on how badly the US economy does. If we enter a prolonged depression, both Democrat and Republican brands may take such a hit that getting a third party into office becomes relatively easy. But lacking such a catastrophic scenario, isn't it just plain easier to take over the Democratic and Republic parties from below?

I have sketched out a transpartisan approach that could at least get us some core, populist results, here. If citizens won't cooperate to get themselves that much, why would they go the extra mile of a third party? (Again, absent impoverishment from D and R enabled banksterism?)

And if citizens do cooperate to place better D's and R's into a position of power, but the economy subsequently and catastrophically blows up a couple of years, later, there will already be a somewhat informal structure in place that could serve as a basis for making a transition to a more structured, official 3rd party.

DemocracyABC.org
TheRealNews.Com
http://www.pdamerica.org

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by: metamars @ Sun Jun 28, 2009 at 10:50:20 AM CDT

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Independents aren't that independent (4.00 / 2)

I think you're overestimating independents.

1) Independents are independents more because they are disinterested than because they are disaffected.

2) Many independents are rather predictable party leaners.  They seem to like the independent label because they value the reputation that they are not beholden to either party in a Broder-like fashion.  It's American individualism run amok.

3) Most independents are between the two major parties on a left-right scale, so a centrist, populist third party that has the same appeal as Ross Perot would be the most successful formula for a third party.  I think the best method for creating a vibrantly progressive political party is to encourage the Blue Dogs to join with Arlen Specter and Joe Lieberman and Michael Bloomberg and the people who failed at the Unity 08 effort in an allegedly centrist party with an established power base.

Things You Don't Talk About in Polite Company: Religion, Politics, the Occasional Intersection of Both

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by: Anthony de Jesus @ Sun Jun 28, 2009 at 16:19:52 PM CDT

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