Voters Are Abandoning the Two Political Parties

A Growing number of voters want a third party and Moderate candidates

In order to understand how the political parties have changed and evolved over time and have led to the current distrust of both the far left and far right ideologies I am including a short history of politics in the United States. Third parties first came into existence as far back as 1828 with the “anti-freemason party” which later merged into the Whig Party, and was one of two parties prior to 1856. Their party platform was based on hate for the freemasons. Although the anti-freemasons failed to create a third party they were the first to implement party conventions and platforms. In 1856, the Whig’s collapsed after twenty years after failing to reconcile issues of slavery, immigration and states’ rights within their ranks. It didn’t help when Democrats publicly ousted Whig President Franklin Pierce in the middle of his term. By 1860 the Democratic Party had separated into Northern and Southern Democrats, leading to more splits within the party. Sound familiar?

American politics stabilized until the advent of the Industrial Revolution when pro-labor and agrarian (agricultural) groups appeared, and although more regional than national, they quickly emerged as the Populous Party. The new party’s increasing role in grass-roots populism during the turn of the century led to Republicans and Democrats both wooing the Populist Party. Democrats got their support in time for the 1896 elections. Teddy Roosevelt created the Progressive party because of his disdain for Republicans, and it later became part of the Democratic party in 1924, which is where it remained.

The Spoiler Effect Divided Democrats and Republicans

Another shakeup took place in 1948 and 1968. “Dixiecrats” ran on separate platforms than the main Democratic Party. Strom Thurmond (1948) and George Wallace (1968) ran as segregationist candidates. Thurmond took 2.5 percent of the national vote and 39 electoral votes to carry a majority in four states. In 1968, Wallace won 13.5 percent of the vote, with 46 electoral votes in five states. 1968 was the last time a third-party candidate won a state.

Every attempt to create a true third, or independent party, always resulted in divisions within the Democratic and Republican parties. In 1990 a group of Republicans decided the party’s ideology was too moderate and all inclusive, and created the Tea Party Patriots with the intent of becoming a third party. The party members presented themselves ‘the only true guardians of the ‘U.S. Constitution, viewing it as a Conservative document.

Hardline right wing religious organizations like the Christian Coalition and the Faith and Freedom Coalition jumped on board seeing this as an opportunity to influence a far right religious doctrine to bring about an end to LBGTQ rights, RoevWade, put religion and prayer back in public schools, and restrict voting rights in order to further their own agenda by using Conservative Republican politicians at the local, state, and federal level to do so. Liberal organizations representative of abortion and LGBTQ rights responded in kind and the finger pointing and accusations commenced.

Current Democratic and Republican Party Ideology

At that time Democrats were still more moderate or centrist and encompassed the social and political views of a majority of Americans. Progressives decided the Democratic party wasn’t Liberal enough and wanted a third, Progressive party, that would create a rigid Liberal ideology. When Progressives failed to get the backing of the public at large, they worked on hijacking the party much as the tea party did with Conservatives. Pushing their far left agenda and ideology, Progressives stated emphatically that they were not Democrats during the 2008 and 2016 presidential campaigns, and again during the 2018 midterms.

Inherent Dangers in Far Left and Right Political Extremism

As cited in a 2013 piece in the Deseret News, third party style candidates or ideologies within the two established parties can have dramatic effects on the very political foundation of the entire country. The major parties must either adapt and change or risk having them come crashing down. And that is exactly what happened with the Democratic party in the 2016 presidential election when the split between Liberal Democrats and far left Progressives within the party drove an even larger wedge between voters that helped Trump become president.

On the Republican side there are primarily Tea Party Patriots of which TX Senator Ted Cruz is one, religious Conservatives made up of Evangelical/Christian Right voters and politicians, and hard line Conservatives who are a separate group within the party. Most mainstream Liberal Democrats moved to the far left to align themselves with Progressives.

The 2018 and 2021 Elections Exposed Left and Right Extremism

Democrats touted change during the 2020 presidential election and ran more on an anti-Trump platform, immigration reform, and racism yet rarely mentioning other issues facing the majority of Americans including police brutality, domestic violence, poverty, bullying, child abuse, rebuilding neighborhoods, or improving schools. Yet ironically Democrats ignored police violence against blacks until it became a hot button issue during the presidential election. Donald Trump and Republicans focused continuing their message of expanding the second amendment, isolationism, cutting programs for seniors and families, giving police departments even more power over the lives of Americans, and ending LGBTQ and abortion rights.

With Democrats holding the majority in the U.S. Congress we have seen a return to the same hardline Liberal agenda of the past twenty years. Their agenda has expanded to include free college education for all and free health care for all, Not the change most Americans wanted to see. Washington insiders who kowtowed to Nancy Pelosi voted to put the hardline Liberal back in as Majority Speaker, proving once again the country is still not about ‘we the people united’ but about two extreme political ideologies. And Alexandria Ocassio-Cortez and the far left extremist is exerting more influence on the Democratic legislative process. Both political ideologies are anathema to ‘real common sense change’ and bi-partisanship.

2021, 2022 and Beyond

In the current political climate, the ideological divisions within the Republican and Democratic parties that occurred over three centuries has translated into voter apathy and creating near total polarization between American voters in both parties. Americans have drawn further and further apart as well, creating a fractured America. Organizations like Braver Angels having been working to help bridge the divide between Republican and Democrat voters for several years through dialogue and meetings in many states but there is a long road ahead.

Democrat and Republican voters who are Moderates and Centrists have no real voice as both the far right and left only focus on a small number of issues that will help them get elected or re-elected in the next election, and their disillusionment and anger has them clamoring for an independent party that will give all Americans a voice and break up the stranglehold Democrats and Republicans, with their extreme views, have on the country.

Millions of Americans are Tired of Politics as Usual

As a woman, veteran, and Liberal for over thirty years, I became disgusted by the Liberal and Progressive extremism the Democratic party has adopted over the past two decades and that of the far right Republican party's undermining of the Civil, social, and voting rights we fought so long and hard for. I long for the days when the two parties worked for all their constituents instead of only the few. In 2018, following the midterm elections and the re-election of Pelosi to be speaker of the house, and watching the same Washington Insiders continuing to control the legislative process in the U.S. Congress, I became an unaffiliated voter who votes candidate over party. Like millions of Americans I am no longer going to accept politics as usual and will champion Moderate and Independent candidates and a national grassroots movement to create an established third national political party.

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