Third parties outsiders in American politics

Monday, November 4, 1996

ELECTION:

Winner-take-all system makes it difficult for candidates to make
a showingBy Christopher Bates

Daily Bruin Staff

"Vote for prisoner 9653."

Socialist Party candidate Eugene V. Debs used this slogan in the
election of 1920. He was running his campaign from prison while
serving time for voicing his opposition to World War I.

Debs’ 1920 effort, like most of his campaigns, generated a great
deal of publicity but not many votes. In the five elections in
which Debs was a presidential candidate, his best showing was in
1912, when he received nearly 1 million votes, a little over 6
percent of the popular vote. An impressive accomplishment, but not
even enough to garner a single electoral vote.

Indeed, the case of Debs is typical of third parties in general.
They can agitate. They can rally. They can make a lot of noise.
They can generate a lot of publicity. But they simply do not seem
to ever win.

"The last successful third-party movement was really the
movement that gave birth to the Republican party," said UCLA
political science Professor James Q. Wilson.

"(But) that was around a galvanizing moral issue ­ slavery.
I have not seen the emergence of an issue like that, that would
split existing parties to the point where a new party could be
formed."

UCLA political science Professor Steven Spiegel concurs. "The
tradition, the culture is against more than two parties … There
might be disillusionment with the two parties, but (people) still
vote for one of them."

Since the Republican victory in 1860, 28 candidates representing
13 different third parties have received at least 1 percent of the
popular vote. But in only five of those instances did a candidate
manage to get any electoral votes.

The most successful third-party campaign since the Civil War was
the Progressive, or Bull Moose, campaign of 1912. Former President
Theodore Roosevelt collected over 4 million popular votes and 88
electoral votes, beating out even Republican contender William
Howard Taft, the only time since the Civil War that a third party
has accomplished the feat.

But after 1912, the Progressive Party failed to capitalize on
its success, because it was beset by the same two difficulties that
make it almost impossible for any third party to establish itself
in American politics.

"The first (problem for third parties) is that they must escape
the cult of personality that led to their formation," explained
Professor John Bader, associate director of the UCLA Center for
American politics.

"Third parties have consistently relied on strong personalities
to gather support ­ ‘Fighting’ Bob LaFollette, Henry Wallace,
George Wallace, John Anderson, Ross Perot ­ but have failed to
develop an ongoing institution that can sponsor candidates," Bader
said.

"Second, third parties need to find some way of breaking the
winner-take-all system of elections," Bader said. "They rarely gain
outright majorities anywhere, so they never win office. If
representation were proportional, they would have a fighting
chance."

The slim chances of third parties gaining the presidency has led
some to question the intentions of third- party candidates for even
bothering to run.

Most members are realistic about their party’s presidential
hopes and are instead aiming toward more moderate goals in this
year’s election.

"We are hoping to (receive) at least 25 percent of the vote,"
explains Reform Party volunteer Carolyn Guillot.

"If we do, then we’ll have funding for a presidential candidate
in the year 2000," she said. "Also, that will make a statement to
the other two parties that there are a large block of voters that
are unhappy with the Democrats and Republicans and it will give
them the shove they need to clean up the corruption in their two
parties."

Some parties minimize the importance of the vote and focus on
the elections as a means of conveying their message."Today we
continue the struggle for the rights of people," said Socialist
Workers’ Party member Milt Slater.

"(We want) to publicize ideas of socialism … and to build the
youth movement and the party. We don’t think voting is going to
solve any problems, so we’re not against voting … but we think
that the struggle goes on no matter what happens," Slater said.

Neal Donner, libertarian candidate for Congress, agrees that
promoting the party agenda is an important goal.

"We stand for maximizing freedom, minimizing government and the
more people that vote for us, the better it looks for us. This is
the best presidential campaign we’ve had yet … we’re the cutting
edge, the vanguard, and in the year 2000 we’re going to see a
libertarian in Congress," Donner said.

In addition to positioning themselves for the future and
promoting their agenda, there is a third factor that plays a role
in at least some third-party efforts.

"A noisy environment allows a few eccentrics to do all sorts of
things like stand on their head, pick their nose in public,
anything they want," argued UCLA political science Professor Thomas
Schwartz.

"Instead of bombing a building with women and children in it or
flying upside down around the world twice, Ross Perot says ‘I’m
running for president,’" Schwartz said.

Wilson agreed that a desire for attention plays a role in third
party candidates.

"It (running as a third party candidate) must be some
combination of believing you are propagating a faith with a belief
that you are calling attention to yourself in some interesting
way," he said.

Woodrow Wilson, perhaps frustrated by Roosevelt’s challenge, put
it more bluntly:

"The wisest thing to do with a fool is to encourage him to hire
a hall and discourse to his fellow citizens. Nothing chills
nonsense like exposure to air."