THE RISE (AND FALL) OF THIRD PARTIES CHARLES J. SYKES ow many started electing third times has this party governors Hh a p p e n e d nearly a century before? a g o . ) Third parties rat- * Trends in tle the cages of the technology media major parties, flirt seem to create fertile with double-digits in ground for minor the polls, tantalizing parties. Alternative activists and pundits media have broken alike with visions of the network monop- political upheavals oly on political infor- and gridlock — only mation, while the to fade at the end. rise of the Internet dramatically expand- This November’s ed the opportunities election will likely be for activists to a repeat, with the spread their mes- minor parties reduced sage, communicate again to mere aster- with one another, and organize grass-roots isks. As unsurprising as that might seem, it movements. wasn’t supposed to be that way this year. * And finally, changing demographics seem Consider: to open the door to insurgent parties, as * Despite fading in 1996, Ross Perot’s voters outgrew traditional loyalties to Reform Party deprived Bill Clinton of a established parties. majority of the popular vote in two presi- In the long run, all of this may fuel power- dential elections, winning enough of the ful third party movements. But for the time vote to qualify for federal campaign being, the minor parties are still the lint traps money. of American politics, where all the leftover * Throughout the 1990s, polls had shown crotchets and weird fur-balls of ideological growing dissatisfaction with major par- extremism seem to settle. ties. Independents like Angus King in Maine and Jesse "The Body" Ventura in Charles J. Sykes is the editor of WI:Wisconsin Interest Minnesota seemed to presage new possi- and a senior fellow of the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute. bilities for third party candidates to actu- He also hosts a talk radio show on AM 620 WTMJ in ally win major contests. (In Wisconsin, we Milwaukee. His most recent book is The End of Privacy pub - lished by St. Martin’s Press. Wisconsin Interest 7 Closing Ranks have posed a more credible threat if anti-free trade activists had been energized to abandon None of this is to suggest that the minor Gore. But despite his role as cheer leader for candidates — Pat Buchanan and Ralph Nader NAFTA, Gore has quickly shelved his free — haven’t been entertaining and haven’t had trade credentials, and organized labor has an impact on the race. decided that winning the election trumps its On the right, Buchanan has come close to a own lingering discontents. While his sharp political hat trick: he’s not only helped fuel the turn to the left at the Democratic Convention rise of Ralph Nader; he’s helped the GOP rid may ultimately weaken his appeal to political itself of the wacko lock-‘n-load militia wanna- moderates, Gore’s decision to reinvent himself be Right; and effectively cratered Ross Perot’s (again), as a pitchfork populist seems likely to Reform Party. weaken the Nader appeal. The finger pointing, name-calling, push- There’s a lesson here somewhere. ing, and shoving at the Reform Party conven- The Third Way tion improbably made Perot himself look like a model of stability. As for Buchanan, the one- Historically third parties have had an time Republican gadfly’s support has dwin- impact in one of three ways: (1) If they are led dled to the almost pure crack factor, the kind by strong, charismatic leaders with a large fol- of guys who stock up pork and beans in their lowing, such as Teddy Roosevelt, Robert La basement against the day when the Follette, or even Perot; (2) if they represent Bilderbergers and the Trilateralists make their regional insurgencies — Strom Thurmond in Big Move. 1948 and George Wallace in 1968; or (3) if they articulate a set of clear, jealously guarded prin- Unfortunately, this isn’t an election that ciples (ala the Progressives, Socialists, or more will turn on that sort of paranoia. People with recently the Libertarians.). Although they fat 401(k)’s tend not to obsess about the machi- never posed any risk of actually winning any- nations of the New World Order or black heli- thing at the national level, Socialist Norman copters. Thomas and Wisconsin’s own Bob LaFollette Third party candidates thrive in times of exerted a strong pull on the left wing of the division and disillusionment with the estab- Democratic party. In particular, LaFollette’s lished political parties. Some of the notable progressivism helped shape the New Deal. third party bids (John Anderson in 1980 for Despite their own endemic fractiousness, the instance) reflected the weaknesses of one or Libertarians may be the closest to that model, the other major party. developing a political/intellectual network that includes a steady stream of books, But this year, voters seem strikingly unin- newsletters, and think-tanks that push free terested. Prosperity is a poor incubator for dis- market perspectives. gruntlement. Beyond that, voters seem to sense that the election is close and the stakes high But this was a process that takes place over and many are reluctant to waste their vote on a decades, not merely during the convulsive statement of principle or protest. This would herky-jerky of quadrennial elections. In 1992, not matter if there were a single driving issue Ross Perot won nearly one in five votes, but motivating an outsider challenger. But the never managed to create any sort of organiza- most powerful constituencies on both the left tion or movement that could build on that and the right seem relatively satisfied with the showing. Perot’s candidacy was largely about choices offered by the two major parties. Perot; if there was an issue, it was the need to balance the budget and reform campaigns. But Even so, Buchanan might have been a fac- campaign finance has never been the hot but- tor had pro-lifers felt excluded from the ton issue the media imagines, and the booming Republican Party (they don’t); Nader could economy erased the deficit. 8 Fall 2000 Without Perot himself, the Reform Party cedures that major parties with an actual shot had neither personality nor principle. at winning elections are forced to eschew. At the Reform convention we got a glimpse of the In many ways, Perot’s party was like him minor parties at their absolute worst, a scene — strange and a bit paranoid. Actually, the all the more riveting for having a certain sense Reform Party was never so much a movement of inevitability about it. What else, after all, as a magnet for the permanently disgruntled could be expected of a party that had spent the and crotchety. It attracted people accustomed spring variously flirting and fantasizing about to the politics of annoyance at a high decibel running Donald Trump, John McCain, Jesse level, given to writing letters to the editor with Ventura, Perot, and dozen or so political lots of words capitalized and a generous sup- mouth-breathers for president? ply of exclamation points. Unfortunately, it was never all that clear what they were Fire On The Left annoyed about. The decline of Perot’s party also means that Perot was quirky and driven enough to for the first time since 1948, the top third party give some focus to all of that angst, but he also candidate will be from the left. ensured that his party "You’re seeing Nader wouldn’t survive. bumper stickers already," A role model for con- State Representative Mark trol-freaks everywhere, Pocan (D-Madison) told Perot made sure the "vol- the Associated Press in Los unteers" would never Angeles during the develop a movement of Nader has both Democrat’s convention. their own. Instead of Pocan openly worried that building on his national ideas and the Gore campaign wasn’t success, Perot’s almost a constituency. taking Nader’s candidacy constant purging of the seriously enough. "I’m state parties tended to always afraid when they leave the party in the don’t pay enough atten- hands of the crankiest and tion to the Nader factor." most eccentric members. The Green party Ultimately, though, nominee is expected to be the Reform Party was ruined by the fat wad of on the ballot in 45 states; and prior to the federal money. The $12.5 million turned the Democratic convention, polls put his support party into a political spoil. In the absence of a at around 6 percent, not enough to be included core set of principles, the Reform Party was like in the Fall debates, but enough to put in doubt an abandoned car with the keys in the ignition some states that ought to be safely in Gore’s and a tank full of gas. Inevitably, it attracted column. The scariest prospect for the the wrong elements — from Marxists like Democratic nominee is California, where Lenora Fulani, to "Natural Law Party" guru Nader is at 8 percent in the polls, enough to John Hagelin. The result was the Reform Party raise the prospect of throwing the biggest elec- convention’s descent from farce to slapstick toral prize of all into the Bush column. comedy, to litigation and the rise of the Greens Nader has both ideas and a constituency. as the most credible third party on the ballot. Permanently rumpled and a so-so (at best) Few minor parties can resist the nostalgia stump speaker, Nader is making a strong run for irrelevance — the freedom from responsi- at voters who think the Democrats have bility that allows them to indulge in endless become a corporatized mirror image of the nit-picks over ideology, personalities, and pro- Republicans.