Politics Third party politics in the USA

[SimpleState]

I personally feel neither party in the USA represents me well. Both parties have similar stances on the economy and differ mostly on social issues. I feel the Republican Party as a whole selectively fails to distinguish the difference between divine law and human law. I also feel Democratic Party fails to selectively distinguish between relative equality and general equality. Both sides cater to big business too and ignore working on issues that are universally accepted by most Americans.
A good example of universally accepted is simplification of the tax code. Nearly every American can agree with and both parties will talk about but neither party will make this a priority, instead they make their own parties preferred issues the priority which in most cases are probably too controversial or divisive to be good for the country.
It seems to me a viable third party would enhance the American political landscape instead of diminish it. However this is the catch, Americans don’t think a third party can be viable and because of this opinion they can’t.
What steps would a third party need to take to become viable in this country? Is the difficulty in becoming viable a fault of the American people? To become viable would they also have to sell out to special interests and lose the ability to govern justly?
In reference during the last presidential election I voted third party but you can say it doesn’t mean much because I don’t live in a “swing state”.

 

[SmilinSilhouette]

I agree, there isn't much difference between establishment republicans and democrats. Both seem to be big government parties of bureaucrats who are happy to trade turns in control. The democrat party has been taken over by the neo-marxist, liberal, and far left "progressives" and establishment republicans have moved left with their "go along to get along" attitude. The libertarian movement is gaining momentum as is the conservative movement. Hopefully the two will unite and overthrow the republican establishment. That will take years and I'm afraid that we have a short attention span. When people accept the incremental changes that move us farther away from the constitutionally limited representative republic as intended we move closer to the regimented society where bureaucrats have the power to make major and minor decisions for individuals.

 

[Hilander]

I think many people are afraid to vote for a third party because their afraid if they do then when one of the Democrats or Republicans gets the nomination it won't be the one they considered the lesser of two evils.

I think third party candidates just don't have the backing they need, not enough ads etc, to become a serious contender. Which keeps people from recognizing their name when they vote.

 

[MenInTights]

I agree, there isn't much difference between establishment republicans and democrats. Both seem to be big government parties of bureaucrats who are happy to trade turns in control. The democrat party has been taken over by the neo-marxist, liberal, and far left "progressives" and establishment republicans have moved left with their "go along to get along" attitude. The libertarian movement is gaining momentum as is the conservative movement. Hopefully the two will unite and overthrow the republican establishment. That will take years and I'm afraid that we have a short attention span. When people accept the incremental changes that move us farther away from the constitutionally limited representative republic as intended we move closer to the regimented society where bureaucrats have the power to make major and minor decisions for individuals.

I think 2012 will see the fruition of a libertarian movement that hasn't been seen in close to a century. That's the thing a lot of people don't get. There are 2 'third parties' in America. One of the 'third parties' are the neo-marxist that have been moving inside the Democrat party and the other is the libertarian movement inside the Republican party.

 

[Rowan]

Parties in general are a political machine created and used to make a strategical shift in the votes and popularity on issues and politics in any country. The bigger the parties and the fewer you have to choose from the less powerful your vote becomes. The original founding fathers of the U.S.A. hated political parties and knew that they were counterproductive to created a Democracy. However they did not set up a democracy but instead a republic that is easily swayed by the ideaology of political parties and gives the voters that are members of said political machines a sence of security and assurance while at the same time limiting thier ability to think for themselves.

however several voters still are able to think for themselves and dont buy into the garbage that they are spoonfed on the T.V. and radio. Though even these few individuals that realize that they are being throughly screwed by a system that has been growing as well as evolving for 200 years, have little power to change it since the system has become so effective in setting up a no chioce agenda that it narrows all relavent votes down to two. Any thrid party vote is almost wasted as no third party has ever come close to winning an election since the dawn of the country.

On another note the founding fathers first choice for president George Washington as well as his next two sucessors did not have a political party at all when they ran. The history books given to children will often classify them as being under the "wig" party but this is entierly wrong in every aspect.

The parties however do shift and change over time. For example the Rebulican and Democrat parties we have today were once the same party. It was a few differences that caused the split. The main one being the fact that it became so popular that it always won and it became to large. A party lat large eventually began having internal issues that eventually led to a split that somewhat resembles the two parties we see now today.

To make it short. Third parties are almost a joke in America today due to the evolution of the political machine that is political parties. One such party has sucessfully monopolized politics as we know it in the country and done is so well that it became the only thing that could oppose itself. And when it took a breaking point it finnally split and now we have two even halves that switch power back and forth every decade or so. Red or Blue says the big brother that controls the politics in the country and the citizens actually belive that they have a chioce.


/Rant over. But yeah seriously the best thing to do is stay independent and possibly we can start a good candidate off to be the first 3rd party member to ever win an election in the future. I think it can be done as early as 2020. Maybe 2016 if romney gets elected and it only gets worse.
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*EDIT
Actually the 1st president was the only one with definitly no assigned political party. his sucessor John Adams was labed a "Federalist" though not a poltical party some may loosely inerpret it that way.
The third presiedent was the first to have a political party and he was Democratic-Republican.

so from 1789 till 1829 political parties raged till the first "Deomocratic" president was named and that was Andrew Jackson. he was the first presidetn to have split from Democratic-republican to simply republican. Just to clarify a small mistake after re-reading.