Originally posted by the Voice of America.
Voice of America content is produced by the Voice of America,
a United States federal government-sponsored entity, and is in
the public domain.


'Third Party' Threat to the Status Quo of US Politics Faces Long Odds

Rob Garver

   Rancor within the Republican Partypeaked last weekbetween members
   whoremainloyal to formerPresident Donald Trump and those who want the
   party torepudiatehimand his continued false claims of election fraud.

   First, there was the dramatic expulsion ofCongresswomanLiz Cheneyfrom
   herleadershippost in the House of Representatives after she voted to
   impeach Trump and denounced his claims the2020election had been
   "stolen" by the Democrats.

   Then came the announcement that more than 100 disgruntled conservatives
   are exploring the possibility of launching a new political party
   rededicated to founding ideals.

   To non-U.S. observers, the creation of a new political party from the
   shards of one riven by internal discord may seem perfectly natural.
   Unlike the United States,many democracies around the world operate with
   a multitude of parties--and new parties can have immediate success. In
   France, Emmanuel Macron founded the En MarcheParty in April 2016.
   ByMay2017, he waselected presidentof the country.

   But in the U.S., the history of "third" parties as an alternative to
   the Republican and Democratic parties that dominate national politics
   has been less impressive.

   'Spoilers,'notwinners

   In the modern era, third parties have never been able to do more than
   act as a "spoiler" in presidential elections by siphoning off votes
   from one of the two major parties and have sent only a tiny number of
   lawmakers to the House or Senateinthe past 70 years--never achieving
   significant levels of power.

   "The history of third-party movements in the United States is that
   usually, they end up just getting absorbed into one of the two major
   parties," said Kyle Kondik, managing editor of Sabato's Crystal Ball at
   the University of Virginia Center for Politics. "That, or they're
   essentially made obsolete by changes from the major party."

   Thecurrentbattle

   Last week's announcement of a possible third party came as Republican
   House members stripped Cheney, daughter of two-term Republican Vice
   President Dick Cheney, of her position as House Republicanconference
   chairfor her continued denunciation of Trump.

   That same day, a coalition of disaffected Republicans, including former
   governors, members of Congress, ambassadors andCabinet officers, signed
   a letter demanding theRepublicanleadership either reform the party or
   face the creation of an "alternative" political home.
   FILE - U.S. Representative Liz Cheney speaks to the media as she
   arrives on Capitol Hill in Washington after Republicans ousted her from
   a leadership post over her criticism of former President Donald Trump's
   false claims of a stolen election.

   The message they want to deliver toRepublican Partyleaders is "enough
   is enough," said Miles Taylor, a former chief of staff in the Trump-era
   Department of Homeland Security,who penned an anonymous tell-all book
   about his time in the administration.

   "We need to offer a commonsense coalition for this country and a more
   unifying alternative vision than what we're seeing from the present
   GOP, which has now become rotten to its core for the persistent attacks
   on our democracy,"Taylortold CNN last week. "So,our message is,it is
   time to either reform or repeal the Republican Party."

   But creating a viable third party in the U.S. is easier said than done.

   'Veryunusualdemocracy'

   Building a successful third party in the United States, if success is
   defined as having a meaningful role in the operation of the federal
   government, is extraordinarily difficult because of the way political
   power is distributed.

   "I think the first thing that people need to know is that we are a very
   unusual democracy in a whole series of ways," said Marjorie Hershey,
   professor emeritus ofpoliticalscience at Indiana
   UniversityBloomingtonand author of a widely used textbook on American
   government.

   The U.S., she said, is one of only a "very few" two-party systems in
   democratic countries.Part of the reason for that isbecauseelection laws
   are written by state legislatures, which are themselves dominated by
   the two major parties. They tend to make it very difficult for new
   political parties to even be listed on the ballot in the first place.

   Steephill toclimb

   Further, because every member of the House and the Senate is elected in
   an individual winner-take-all race, a third party, even one with
   substantial support, can still be shut out of power.

   In most other democracies, a party that received 10% of the vote for
   the legislature would earn a proportionate share of the available
   seats. In the U.S., though, it is possible for a third-party movement
   to amass a significant percentage of the overall national vote without
   securing a single seat in either house of Congress. That would only
   change if the third party's support was concentrated in a state or
   district to the point of giving ita majority ofthe vote there.
   FILE - Officials work on ballots at the Gwinnett County Voter
   Registration and Elections Headquarters, Nov. 6, 2020, in
   Lawrenceville, near Atlanta, Georgia.

   Similarly, the way presidential votes are tallied on a state-by-state
   basis makes it difficult for a third party to compete. For example,
   when Texas businessman Ross Perot ran for president in 1992, he was
   extremely successful in terms of winning votes--receiving19% overall.
   But because those votes were spread evenly across the country, he
   didn't win any states, and therefore received no votes in
   theElectoralCollege.

   Weakthreat

   So, when Taylor and hisfellowformerRepublicans threaten theRepublican
   Partywith the establishment of a new party, the threat isseennot as an
   effort to establish a new center of power in U.S. politics that can
   operate on an equal footing with Republicans and Democrats.Instead, it
   seems more like a promise to drain enough votes from Republican
   candidates to ensure Democratic victories.

   That there is no viable path for an alternative party to actively
   participate in governing the U.S. is accepted as a given by most
   Americans.But there are some who wonder if it ought to be.

   "In so many other democratic systems, a 'third' party could be a major
   party," Hersheysaid. "It's one of those things that's so telling--what
   we regard as normal for a democracy in the United States is not at all
   normal in the larger democratic world."

.