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.