The Three-Party Problem
Inertia of the American system thwarts a third body from entering the political orbit
I spent some time on Thursday at the national convention of the Libertarian Party underway at the Washington Hilton. The party’s 1000 or so registered delegates tomorrow are to decide on who they will put at the top of their ticket. The name (and no matter who it is you’ve not heard of them) will appear on ballots in the majority of states (likely somewhere between 35 and 49) as an alternative choice to Joe Biden and Donald Trump. That presidential aspirant is not going to be elected and unlikely to capture a single Electoral vote, but he (the candidates are all white men) could determine whether Biden or Trump gets a second term in the White House.
If you are not familiar with this third party, which has been running presidential candidates since the early 1970’s, you can read my VOA story from the Libertarian convention.
The modest political gathering, because of the significance of independent or third party candidates in this year’s presidential election, is attracting some non-Libertarian Party politicians you have heard of— such as Vivek Ramaswamy, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Donald Trump.
I interviewed several of the delegates and you can see and hear them in the accompanying VOA TV report.
If we had a parliamentary system or ranked choice voting, the Libertarian Party— or another third or fourth party — would likely play a significant role in American politics. But, as I reported in 2022 profiling the new Forward Party, the system is stacked against upstarts.
The last time a new party won a U.S. presidential election was in 1860. The candidate was Abraham Lincoln at the top of the ticket for the six-year-old Republican Party, which opposed the expansion of slavery.
Lincoln’s election shook up the American political system and led to civil war. Some of those who hated what Lincoln stood for conspired to try to prevent him from taking the oath of office. If that story intrigues you, it is the start of Chapter 26 in my book, Behind the White House Curtain, set for release June 4. The following day we’ll have a launch event at the National Press Club. If you’re in town, please drop by. We can raise a toast to President Lincoln, who was assassinated about 1,000 feet from where we’ll be having our chat.