Wes Wolfe on Third Parties

http://www.wolfereports.com/2010/04/14/everybodys-starting-third-parties/

We’ve never seen the wisdom in third parties. They don’t have staying power, lose more often than not, and tend to be filled with people who had “does not play well with others” written on their kindergarten report cards. You have to work within one of the two major parties, and if you have enough people who agree, you can change the party.

The examples of that sort of success are legend. In the early ’90s, Bill Clinton and the Democratic Leadership Council dramatically changed the Democratic Party and moved it to the middle. In the ’60s, conservatives took over the Republican Party and never gave up control. Between the end of World War II and the ’60s, liberals and moderates from the Northeast, Midwest and Far West — and in the ’60s, a president from Texas — got together and ended the power Southerners had on the Party’s civil rights and social policy agenda. And there are other major and minor example that can be called up. Needless to say, it is possible to create a sea-change in major party politics.

Wolfe is a leftard, but I agree with him on this point of political strategy. Third party runs are a waste of time and money. I've already written a post on why I think the LP should close up shop here. Now, the Tea Party people are considering a similar move that I think would be disastrous.

Before you can change the country, you have to change a party. The reason we have two dominant political parties is because they are virtually blank states. They grow and evolve based upon their membership. This is how the party of Lincoln also became the party of Strom Thurmond. In addition, though there are restrictions on third parties that makes it hard for them, they are not so onerous as to prevent a massive popular movement from not being heard.

The success of Ron Paul shows the model to follow. Join a major party. Work within the party. Create an organization that promotes your beliefs. Raise hell in the primaries and at the grassroots level. This works. Wolfe shows how successful this approach can be.

I am a Republican. Though I do not always agree with the GOP on everything and I can be very critical of Republican fucktards like Lindsey Graham, I vote Republican. For me, the battles that matter happen long before the election in November. Working within a major party has a multiplier effect. The philosophy of liberty gets a hearing that it wouldn't have otherwise.

The problem that people have with the major parties is that they don't want their own beliefs diluted or suffer from guilt by association when members of a major party betray core constituencies. But the mass of the electorate doesn't look at parties so much as they look at individuals. People know that there is a big difference between Ron Paul and Mitt Romney. I don't think anyone can accuse Ron Paul of being a sell out to the GOP establishment by running as a Republican.

I hope that Tea Partiers will eschew the notion of going third party and keep raising hell in the GOP.

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