Third Political Parties
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Contact the author. September, 2000. Question: Evaluate the effect third parties have had in the history of America. My Response: Despite the fact that most Americans vote mainstream, third parties have historically had a huge impact on the election process. When the Republican Party won the presidency in 1860, it was a minor party. But Abraham Lincoln was not the first presidential candidate to run as a third party candidate. William Wirt, former U.S. Attorney General and biographer of Patrick Henry, received the presidential nomination of the Anti-Masonic Party in 1832. Wirt and his running mate, Amos Elimaker, swept Vermont that year. Although Wirt did not win the presidency, third parties have existed in a variety of names, such as the Anti-Masons, Free-Soilers, Know-Nothings, Prohibitionists, Populists, Socialists, Communists, States' Righters and Libertarians. Some well known third parties of the Twentieth century are Theodore Roosevelt's "Bull Moose" Progressive Party, Strom Thurmond's Dixiecrats, George Wallace's American Independent Party for civil rights, and John Anderson's Independent campaign of 1980. Today the Green Party, Libertarian Party, Constitution Party, Reform Party, Communist Party USA and Natural Law Party carry on the traditions of past third parties. History shows third parties have had -- and continue to have -- significant effects on the political system, even when they do not win elections. The most successful third party in the Twentieth century was the Socialist Party. While never winning any significant elections, their small but growing vote totals were a threat to the Democrats. Thus the Democrats, and then later the Republicans, adopted piecemeal almost every major tenet of the 1916 Socialist Party platform. As with the case of Ross Perot, the two parties will usually try to address the concerns raised by a third party to win votes in the future. This also happened in the 1890s when the populists brought up a bunch of reform issues (workers' rights, the regulation of businesses) which were adopted by the major parties. Voters have shown that they want a third choice on the ballot. John Anderson’s Independent campaign of 1980 received about 7 percent and Ross Perot’s 1992 run garnered 19 percent -- the best for a third party candidate since Roosevelt broke 20 percent. A USA Today, CNN Gallup poll of 1,200 adults from August, 1995 shows the public strongly favors third party and independent candidates. About half of those polled said they would want to see an independent candidate in the race for president and 26 percent said they would vote for Perot before Clinton or Republican candidate Bob Dole. According to Frank Smallwood's book, The Other Candidates: Third Parties in Presidential Elections (New England Press, 1982), more than 200 third party and independent candidates have tried to duplicate Lincoln's success since 1860, but only eight have been able to gain more than one million popular votes. Although many people disregard third party candidates as "wasted votes," they still have a profound effect on the political process, and are likely to have an increasing role in the future due to the seeming merger of Democrats and Republicans moving to the center at a rapid pace. Third parties enhance democracy because they give voters a choice of something different that isn’t offered in the status quo. |
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