Third Party Politics Essay, Research Paper
There seems to be more new political parties with each
passing election. Some people argue that these new parties
offer people tired of bipartisan politics as usual a fresh
choice. Though any of these parties seldom win elections
the argument is made that they play an important role in
giving a voice to voters tired of republican and democratic
dogma. The argument is made that by voting for a third
party candidate a person can make a protest vote of sorts.
However, I do not think that a protest vote is a good
reason to vote for a candidate. First, third party
candidates more often times then not serve only in the role
of spoiler. This is especially true in close elections.
When a third party candidate serves in the role of spoiler
they can disenfranchise the majority of the voters for a
certain candidate. Thereby overriding the true will of the
people. I feel this violates basic fundamental principles
of democracy. Second, I believe new election laws are
needed. I believe third party candidates should have to
meet new rigid criteria to run in a general election. This
would ensure that the third party candidate would have a
reasonable expectation of victory. This would eliminate the
role of spoiler. Finally, I believe with new election
guidelines concerning third parties that the voters can be
given a fresh choice as well as guaranteeing a fair
election.
There are many newly formed political third parties.
These parties include, the Reform Party, the Green Party,
the Libertarian Party, the Natural Law Party, and the US
Taxpayers Party. The Reform party is one of the more widely
known of these. Ross Perot founded the Reform Party several
years ago. This party created a lot of buzz about third
party politics. And when Ross Perot ran for President under
his newly founded party s banner many people did vote for
him as an alternative to the Democratic and Republican
Party candidates. Many feel that this caused the republican
candidate Bob Dole to loose the election the democratic
candidate Bill Clinton. Thus the third party in this
election served in the role of spoiler for the Republican
Party candidate. The second most known of these parties
would be the Green Party. Their front man and former
presidential candidate is Ralph Nader. The Green party has
been around for a while but has only recently gained in
popularity in the two thousand elections. This due in part
to its front man Ralph Nader. He has presented the party as
the party of change and the true voice of the people. Nader
got about two percent of the popular vote in the general
election for president of the United States on November 7.
That does not sound like much, however the argument can,
and has been made that it had a dramatic effect on the
election. Nader got about three percent of the vote in
Florida. That is substantial when you consider at present
Gorge W. Bush only leads Vice President Al Gore by five
hundred and thirty seven votes. This once again illustrates
how a third party candidate can override the true will of
the people.
However, many people like the ideal of third parties.
They believe in breaks up the domination of the democratic
and republican parties in general elections. They argument
has been made that it helps keep our political system
honest. I believe there is some truth to this statement.
Third parties can give a voice to special segments of our
society that feel that they are not be represented by the
current political status quo. This may allow everyone to
feel as if they have a say in out government.
Even so, I do believe that for the most part third
parties only serve in the role of spoilers. I firmly
believe that they can override the will of the people in an
election. This is even truer in a close election. The
evidents from past as well as the current presidential
election would seem to confirm this. I believe the true
will of the voters to be paramount and must not be thwarted
by a third party candidate who has no reasonable
expectation of victory.
I believe that new campaign laws are needed to
eliminate this possible undermining of the true will of the
majority of the voters. There needs to be more rigid
guidelines and requirements for any parties wanting to run
a candidate in a general election. I believe all third
parties that wish to run a candidate in any general
election should have to prove that there is a reasonable
expectation of victory. In this way the voters will cannot
be undermined.
Finally I think with new campaign rules the role of
the spoiler can be eliminated permanently. I believe this
will bring equality and fairness to all elections.