Not Time for a Third Party Candidate: Really?
Over this past weekend, this Bloomberg story by Jonathan Bernstein boldly proclaimed:
You can read his argument HERE.
Well, argument might not be quite the right way to describe what he writes. Frankly, I couldn't make too much sense out of it. For one thing, the author takes as a given that a two-party system remains a basic foundation for our political system U.S. After noting a select few third party campaigns which did not succeed, he positions third party candidates as those who, as members of one of the two parties, in some way dissented or were unhappy with the choice of their party. They were sort of subsets of either the Democrat or Republican parties. And since there isn't enough discontent within the two existing parties, he concludes:
Can we imagine a day when a significant percentage of the population, after seeing the purchasing power of their hard earned money debased by irresponsible fiscal and monetary policy, forced to borrow money to live in decent quarters or drive a decent car, or send their kids to decent schools might finally realize that their politicians no longer represent their interests, whether they be Democrat or Republican?
Will the day ever arrive when parents no longer play along with the game of sending their kids to colleges which cost far more than they're worth, and refuse to sit idly by while their kids graduate with tens of thousands of dollars of debt? Whose kids, as they struggle to pay off their loans, also realize that they are being called on to pay for entitlements granted to other Americans who voted for the Democrats and Republican politicians in exchange for those entitlements?
These are just some of the questions we might ask if we're wondering whether 2016 will be the year of a successful third party candidate. And if not 2016, perhaps 2020.
The point being that unless the American people are really as hopelessly ignorant and compliant as they indicate they are by voting for candidates of the Democrat and Republican parties over and over and over again, despite the endless lies their candidates use to get elected, as well as the endless betrayals of election promises by those same elected candidates - in other words, if the American people for some reason wake up from their torpor - we may very well find an appealing third party candidate, representing a new party that distinguishes itself from both the Democrat and Republican parties in some essential and meaningful manner, rise up and change the political face of our country.
Or maybe not.
It's Not Time for a Third-Party Candidate
You can read his argument HERE.
Well, argument might not be quite the right way to describe what he writes. Frankly, I couldn't make too much sense out of it. For one thing, the author takes as a given that a two-party system remains a basic foundation for our political system U.S. After noting a select few third party campaigns which did not succeed, he positions third party candidates as those who, as members of one of the two parties, in some way dissented or were unhappy with the choice of their party. They were sort of subsets of either the Democrat or Republican parties. And since there isn't enough discontent within the two existing parties, he concludes:
...that 2016 is unlikely to be fertile ground for a third-party candidate.But couldn't a third party rise up because neither of the two parties any longer represents a large enough segment of the American people? Couldn't it ever be the case that after decades of politicians over-taxing and over-spending resulting in an economy over-burdened by debt, unable to generate sufficient opportunity for enough people to find employment adequate to pay them a reasonable wage, that people might reject both parties and their constituents?
Can we imagine a day when a significant percentage of the population, after seeing the purchasing power of their hard earned money debased by irresponsible fiscal and monetary policy, forced to borrow money to live in decent quarters or drive a decent car, or send their kids to decent schools might finally realize that their politicians no longer represent their interests, whether they be Democrat or Republican?
Will the day ever arrive when parents no longer play along with the game of sending their kids to colleges which cost far more than they're worth, and refuse to sit idly by while their kids graduate with tens of thousands of dollars of debt? Whose kids, as they struggle to pay off their loans, also realize that they are being called on to pay for entitlements granted to other Americans who voted for the Democrats and Republican politicians in exchange for those entitlements?
These are just some of the questions we might ask if we're wondering whether 2016 will be the year of a successful third party candidate. And if not 2016, perhaps 2020.
The point being that unless the American people are really as hopelessly ignorant and compliant as they indicate they are by voting for candidates of the Democrat and Republican parties over and over and over again, despite the endless lies their candidates use to get elected, as well as the endless betrayals of election promises by those same elected candidates - in other words, if the American people for some reason wake up from their torpor - we may very well find an appealing third party candidate, representing a new party that distinguishes itself from both the Democrat and Republican parties in some essential and meaningful manner, rise up and change the political face of our country.
Or maybe not.
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