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Third Parties in America

Third Parties in America. An option for Everybody. Third Parties. Third Parties in the US are Secondary Political Parties Historically, the US has a Two Party system Some say the Electoral College with its “Winner take all” award of electors has done this

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Third Parties in America

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  1. Third Parties in America An option for Everybody

  2. Third Parties • Third Parties in the US are Secondary Political Parties • Historically, the US has a Two Party system • Some say the Electoral College with its “Winner take all” award of electors has done this • Should we just use Popular Vote instead???

  3. Third Parties • Third Parties rarely win elections but do play an important role in Democratic Governments • Third Parties draw attention to issues that may be ignored by the Majority Parties. Examples??? • Referendum: referring and issue to popular vote of the people for approval or rejection

  4. Major Third Parties • America First Party • Extremely Conservative party • American Party • Very small conservative Christian splinter party

  5. More Third Parties • American Independent Party • American Nazi Party • Racist often with shaved heads • Has not fielded a candidate since Rockwell in 1964

  6. Environmental Third Parties • Green Party of the United States • Ralph Nadar • The Greens/Green Party USA • Smaller fringe party

  7. Briefly successful Parties • Prohibition Party • Against the sale of alcohol • Peace and Freedom Party • Against Vietnam War

  8. Socialist Parties • Socialist Party USA • Socialist Equality Party • Socialist Labor Party • Socialist Workers Party • Democratic Socialists of America

  9. Parties that revolve around their founders: • Family Values Party • Founder Thomas Wells of Florida claims God spoke to him • Light Party • Founder DaVid M.D. • Promotes wholistic medicine

  10. That’s a party? • Pansexual Peace Party • Left-wing • Free love • Pot Party & U.S. Marijuana Party • Advocate the legalization of Marijuana

  11. Important 3rd Party Movements • Bull Moose Party (1912) – Teddy Roosevelt – also called the Progressive Party • Women’s suffrage, banking reforms, social welfare assistance for women and children

  12. Important 3rd Party Movements • Socialist Party (1900s) – Eugene Debs • Ran for president from jail

  13. Important 3rd Party Movements • Dixiecrats (1948) – Strom Thurmond • Segregationist Platform – race was a major issue • Significance: First splits in Democratic Party • South used to be all Democratic

  14. Important 3rd Party Movements • American Independent (1968) – George Wallace • Continuation of Dixiecrat – segregationist and Racist • Receives 46 southern electoral votes

  15. Important 3rd Party Movements • Independent/Reform – Ross Perot • Key focus was the economy • 1992 Election – received almost 20 million votes -19% of popular vote • NAFTA –”giant sucking sound heading to Mexico”

  16. Important 3rd Party Movements • Green Party (2000) – Ralph Nader • Stole votes from Al Gore • The reason Bush won???

  17. 3rd Party Important Roles & facts • 3rd Parties tend to exist to promote a Specific Issue or Personality • Growing trend is for a major party to help a 3rd Party with the idea of taking votes that would likely go to a major party – This is the classic “Divide &Conquer” tactic

  18. 3rd Party Important Roles & Facts • Currently, the Green Party is viewed as pulling more from the Democrats while the Libertarian takes more votes from the Republicans

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