A week from today, the US will once again betray the Founders by openly voting for President.
Too harsh? Well, it’s not off-base. Go look it up. The Founders were almost universally opposed to the idea of anyone voting for the President. As I wrote last week, John Adams’ concerns about what we might call “mob rule,” or Democracy, was shared by everyone else. In fact, one of the major sticking points of the people who opposed the new Constitution (about 47% of the country) was that having a single executive sent a bad message. Openly voting for that person made it worse!
But since we have to vote, don’t make it worse by voting for only to two major parties, especially not this year with such pitiful, poor choices. You can vote for other options.
I know, I know…you’ve heard it before that third party candidates can’t win. That they’ve never won. But they have. A Third Party can actually win elections. It has happened before. And this year, I would add that voting for someone like Gary Johnson might be the only way to avoid national chaos.
I believe Gary Johnson is not only the best candidate running, but is also the solution to avoid mass conflict and even violence after this coming election. A Pew Research poll from the spring indicated that 49% of Republicans say the Democrats make them afraid while 55% of Democrats say the same thing about Republicans. Unless you are deeply wedded to Clinton’s or Trump’s policy positions, then if for no other reason, the potential for negative reaction towards either of those two winning should lead you to vote third party.
Sadly, many people continue to think that a third party can never win. Yes, I will concede that only rarely do we see third parties emerging in our national history, but it does happen. The effort to dampen enthusiasm for third parties in the 2016 are strong, as evidenced by a recent New York Times article that recounted what it called “mostly quixotic campaigns.” Yet, the piece only looked at the 20th century. Somewhat typically, the mass media has largely ignored Stein and Johnson, leaving the casual voter little knowledge of the other options.
In the 19th century, three critical parties emerged to oppose the status quo parties of the time. The Whig Party, the Republican Party and the Populist Party all came at times in our national story to present a different option for voters. They won at all levels of elections including the Whigs and Republicans also winning the Presidency. These parties provide clues as to how the current day Libertarians or Green party could succeed, and should give you encouragement to join me in voting third party.
The first lesson is that timing is everything. The Whig Party and the Republican Party both came at a critical moment of overall negativity and frustration that inspired voters to leave the established options. With the Whig Party, standing against what they saw as a monarchial leader in Andrew Jackson, they were able to remind voters of the Founders’ fears against any too strong executive. The Republicans were able to launch their successful bid in the aftermath of the disastrous Kansas-Nebraska Act by Congress that really unleashed the violence of the Civil War.
The second lesson is that a third party has to be willing to be in this for the long haul. The Republican effort was really the third iteration of a 20+ year political movement against slavery. The abolitionists’ first foray into politics was the Liberty Party, with the first campaigns in 1840. In 1848 a second abolition party, the Free Soil Party, emerged connected to the conclusion of the Mexican-American War. Both had some success in various elections across the nation, including running former President Martin Van Buren in 1848, but it was the move of the abolitionists to this third party that found success. The Republicans shocked most pundits in the 1856 election by coming in second, setting the groundwork for Abraham Lincoln’s victory in 1860.
A little more than 20 years later, the Populist Party began to win elections in various rural states under various names. Through the 1880s and into the 1890s, this movement among farmers, miners, and ranchers began to win more elections including sending US Senators to Washington. They had a very successful 1892 Presidential election carrying five states. They made a strategic error in the 1896 election, which ultimately doomed their party, but nonetheless, demonstrated the power of staying constant over time.
The third lesson is to realize that the Presidency is not the only prize. All three successful 19th century third parties understood that to become a national player, they had to run locally. And they did…winning state house Representatives, local Mayors, state Governors and then Representatives for the US House of Representatives.
On all three points, the various attempts in the 20th century failed, usually on the third point. Whether or not the Green Party (started in 1996) or the Libertarian Party (begun in 1971 but until recently seen only as a fringe group) will learn these lessons remains to be seen. Certainly, timing is on their side. Unpopularity of the two major candidates is very high.
Don’t listen to the myth coming from the monopoly, what I call the Republicrats, saying that to vote third party is to throw away your vote. Have the courage of your convictions to vote for a better option.