Breaking the Two Party System

The youngest generation of eligible voters probably barely remembers Ross Perot, that funny looking billionaire that spent a fortune trying to win the presidency as an independent candidate. Perot did as well as anyone other than a Republican or Democrat has done during my lifetime. Similarly many Americans probably don't realize that there are a large number of political parties in our country. That is a failing of modern media formats. We only see what the media wants us to see unless we really dig for it. But if you don't know what you are digging for then how do you know where to dig?

Each presidential election cycle all of the minor parties hold their own nominating conventions far away from all of the lights and noise and splendor of the Democrats and the Republicans. And each presidential election cycle these minor party candidates will only garner a few thousand votes. So why do they try? Why do they even bother with the pretense of running for president when they know they have no chance? Ross Perot had the best shot and that was only because he invested millions of his own money in the cause. None of the current crop of candidates is doing any such thing. So why do they run? The answer is probably not the answer that you might think from a candidate who doesn't have a chance: It's power, they all want power.

I am certain that the candidates from the Constitution party, the Libertarian party, the Green party, and whatever other parties are out there are running for office because they believe that their ideas are better and that they can do things better than either of the two parties in power. But putting resources into a presidential election that you are sure to lose shows a real lack of vision. These candidates from the various parties are not taking the long view of things, even through inevitable failure they press on to try and make themselves known.

Allow me to explain how a third party would be able to reach the presidency. First, you can't start at the top. No one knows you or your party and the media will shut you out. So just forget about the presidency for awhile, forget about a lot of national level elections. If you want the country's political climate to change and the policies to reflect your views you must take the long view. You must start at the bottom with local races all across the country. Firmly entrenched at the local level you then move onto state postings, once you have a strong foothold there then you move to national level races. Finally after a 30-40 year journey then you put up a candidate from your party that has become known nationally because even though you are likely still in the minority you are a big enough party to not just be ignored.

I take issue with the presidential candidates from these minor parties. In spite of knowing that their efforts will fail, they press on. When instead they could be devoting time and resources into building a localized movement that would eventually move to the national stage. Because if they truly believed in their cause and the ideas that they are espousing then that is what they would be doing. Instead they are propping themselves up and wasting their party's limited resources doing it.

I know that a lot of people feel in this election that they once again are choosing between the lesser of two evils. Thank the media for propping these two gentlemen up during the primary season. I would strongly discourage you from voting for a third party for the presidential election and instead vote for who you see as the lesser of two evils after doing plenty of research and finding out who these guys actually are. But in the smaller races I think you should definitely vote for third party candidates if they in fact reflect your world view. Change never starts at the top, it always starts at the bottom and works it's way up. Politicians are in office to serve us, not the other way around. And I don't mean that they should be serving us cash on a silver platter. Remember that cash was once yours anyway, they just took it from you through taxes, said they needed it for something and then it turns out that that something was to just buy your vote with your own money. Back to the topic at hand though...start the movement from the bottom and the top will change eventually but don't throw away your vote for president by voting for a third party this cycle.