Majority Favor Formation Of A 3rd Party
Intriguing result from a new Gallup poll:
Fifty-two percent of Republicans, and an even stronger number of Tea Party supporters, support the creation of a major, third political party, underscoring the occasional tensions between grassroots conservatives and the GOP establishment.
An overall majority of Americans, 52 percent, said that a third political party was needed; the most profound shift has come among Republicans.
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Supporters of the Tea Party are even more likely to back a third party, the poll found. Sixty percent of Tea Party supporters back a third party, while 32 percent say the existing two parties are adequate. By contrast, 47 percent of Tea Party opponents said the bipartisan system is adequate, and 44 percent favored a third party.
If a third party became a reality, would it be an overall good thing for progressive politics? Let’s think of some pros and cons.
Pros
- The country would benefit from having a less insane conservative party. It would probably stop thins like holding the debt ceiling hostage and government shutdowns. It would probably ease up the logjam of presidential appointments.
- It would split the right, which would likely marginalize the hard right.
- Depending on how the parties split it might diminish the power of the culture wars.
- It’s possible the liberal/progressive voice could be stronger with less coalition-building needed in the caucus. How much smarter would the debt/deficit reduction talk be with the progressive plan getting more attention?
Cons
- The most likely split is into a hard right social conservative party, a center right corporatist party and a center left party. I don’t see this as giving progressives a bigger voice. The balance of power would be with the center right.
- A center right party is likely to pick up some current Blue Dogs. We can argue whether this is a good thing or a bad thing.
What do you think? Will an actual 3-party split occur? I think we saw signs in 2010 with Castle, Crist and Murkowski. If a split occurs, will it benefit the country and the progressive movement?
Tags: Gallup, Republicans, Tea Party
It must be comforting for the Libertarian Party to learn that 52 percent of Republicans and 60 percent of Teabagz have no fucking clue that there is such a thing as the Libertarian Parry.
Nice work so-called Libertarians!! Way to get the word out.
I’m not sure the tea nutters would feel comfortable w/ the Libertarian Party. It isn’t rightwing on matters of personal morality.
There already is a third party, numnuts. And a fourth, fifth, and sixth. You overlook them because they never garner many votes when they field a candidate…AND THEY NEVER WILL.
Ludwig Wittgenstein would probably disagree with delbert that there are third, fourth and fifth parties, but Bertrand Russell might agree with the observation. I would side with Wittgenstein. The question plumbs the nature of the reality of thoughts outside of what we consider the tangible, material universe.
Even former president Teddy Roosevelt couldn’t make a third party work in our system. The way power flows in our system simply doesn’t allow for third parties. What we might see would be the final nail in the GOP’s coffin and they would go away like the Wigs. This would NOT be a good thing for progressives since the opposing party would be outrageously theocratic and right-wing and would pull the nation further right. Especially if the few remaining centrists in the R party came over to the D side. Ugh.
unless we go with Libertarian TITAN, Gary Johns… oh what? he sold out to be a republican?
and they would go away like the Wigs.
Awesome name for a third party headed by Donald Trump. Of course he would call it the Trump Party though.
Don’t laugh. If wingnuts split off into an ultraconservative third party, guess which party our conservadems will gravitate to in coalition politics.
The wingnut party will become the tip of the spear forcing the Overton window ever rightward on behalf of the regular Repubs, just like the teabags are doing now.
The right will be free to stake out territory ever farther rightward for compromise-happy Democrats to follow like moths to a flame. Billionaires will found a new TV network devoted to ravings of the wingnut party. Pretty soon we will have Democrats running for office promising hope, change, and tri-partisanship.
I think Jason ate some left-handed mushrooms.
There already are multiple other parties — left and right. That poll is more a statement on just how fed up Republicans are with their own party, and the rest of us with the status quo of party politics, I think.
You form a new *major* party by getting enough electoral support to *be* a major party. And as long as the people who aren’t happy with what they have keep voting either R or D, there is little chance that voters will get any of the party changes that they seem to want.
What do teabgaz really want? What do they think a third party could give them that the Republicans could not? A politics free of corporate kickbacks and corruption? Please. The Grandpa Simpson wing of the nutbag party no more cares about corporatism than regular Republicans do. Teabagz have shown that they are all about one thing: being angry. They simply want to be angry and responding to a survey saying that they want a third party is just another angry whine about how angry they are.
The teabgaz are chasing a horizon that recedes before them as they approach. The more angry they get, the more their anger makes them angry.
a third party will never work. to much change is happening from the inside of the 2 major parties. People are content with that. It’s good to know though, that the delusional side of the GOP is willing to step out on a limb.
I admire their ability to push for what they believe in. No matter how fucked up.
The Progressive Caucus is the largest caucus in Congress yet regularly gets bitchslapped by the party, the President, the Senate, and Dem bloggers. If anybody should form a party it is the Progressives. If they could rein in their moonbats and stick to kitchen table issues and a straight Dem platform circa 2008 they would rule. Hell, even the threat by Progressives to form a third party might be the jolt Democrats need to return to their roots.
Stridency in the cause of lunacy is no virtue.
A third party will work if the people want it to work.
Give me a Social Democrat party led by Bernie Sanders any day of the week.
VC is correct. We’ll have a 3rd party when we want one.
I don’t think this will come about with a grassroots effort, tho… it will be a popular candidate that breaks from the two party system and leads the charge.
If a third party is created, it would most likely be a fringe far right party, Republicans keeping the center right. This way the GOP could cast off the freaks that ruin things and still be a marketable player with each election.
Then, when the fringe third party fails and everyone comes running back except for the extreme fringe and that leaves us with ANOTHER ineffective third party and more status quo.
I think we should have multiple parties. Neither the dems or repukes represent the majoirty. There is another party starting in Pa and in other states, The Progressive Populist Party…so its not necessarily all right wing.
caucus schmaukus
How about the National Democratic Socialists?
How about the People Too Stupid To Understand The Concept Of Economic Systems party?
Or maybe the Privitize Gains And Socialize Losses party? Oh wait, that’s already in existence.
How about CAVE – “Citizens Against Virtually Everything”