I used to be convinced of the logic of 3rd party politics, or at least the party that most aligns with one’s own political beliefs – but the reality is that as the US system is organized, that isn’t enough to actually develop new political parity. The 3rd parties that arise from time to time are too disorganized or too fashionable, and generally don’t develop enough institutional resilience to avoid being poached by either major party, or being ignored completely and rendered irrelevant to the national dialogue in a handful of county or state seats.
It seems the 3rd party agenda progresses most when it seriously threatens either major party and forces them to co-opt the agenda through adoption. The test is whether the agenda’s proponents manage to move into that major party to maintain that agenda.
While I still agree there is no obligation for anyone to vote for either major party, I strongly disagree with the notion that abstention is acceptable. The US, for all its warts, has a mostly-functional democracy, the straw man of Burma does not.
I used to be convinced of the logic of 3rd party politics, or at least the party that most aligns with one’s own political beliefs – but the reality is that as the US system is organized, that isn’t enough to actually develop new political parity. The 3rd parties that arise from time to time are too disorganized or too fashionable, and generally don’t develop enough institutional resilience to avoid being poached by either major party, or being ignored completely and rendered irrelevant to the national dialogue in a handful of county or state seats.
It seems the 3rd party agenda progresses most when it seriously threatens either major party and forces them to co-opt the agenda through adoption. The test is whether the agenda’s proponents manage to move into that major party to maintain that agenda.
While I still agree there is no obligation for anyone to vote for either major party, I strongly disagree with the notion that abstention is acceptable. The US, for all its warts, has a mostly-functional democracy, the straw man of Burma does not.