Comfortable main party candidates won’t take positions until they are forced to, and real competition is the only way for that to occur.
Historically, third parties have played a critical role in American politics in at least two different ways. On several occasions, a third party has actually risen to become a main party, although the last time that happened was when the Republicans took over from the Whig Party in the middle 1850s.
However, many times over the years third parties have voiced new ideas that have resonated well with the voters, with the result that soon these ideas were assimilated into the mainstream of political thought.
It is this new blood that has helped to keep the American political process vibrant and responsive.
But mostly today our entire system seems to be weighted against third-party voices. The gerrymandering of congressional districts by the two main parties has kept political races non-competitive.
Political pollsters don’t include the names of third party candidates because their campaigns are not covered by the media, and therefore not known to the public. And the media do not cover the third-party campaigns because they do not get good polling numbers.
So with this vicious circle, it is almost impossible for third-party candidates to break out of obscurity, unless they are able to be self-financed like the campaign of Ross Perot.
How can this cycle be broken? The best way is voter unrest, and that is beginning to be seen.
However, a good intermediate step would be to allow every candidate who is on a statewide ballot in some fashion to be a part of every public debate.
Obviously, if there were too many candidates, this format would be unwieldy, and the debate itself boring. But there are remedies for these practical problems.
