They are all presidential candidates who have managed to qualify for the ballot in Michigan. They represent the U.S. Taxpayers Party, the Libertarian Party, the Natural Law Party and the Greens.
They all have something in common. They are all going to lose, and lose very badly, if the polls and historical trends are accurate. Thanks to the excitement over the major party candidates this year, I would be surprised if any of them got even one percent of the vote.
Their ideologies are very different. Chuck Baldwin thinks John McCain is too far left, and Cynthia McKinney thinks Barack Obama is too far to the right. However, the third parties do agree they are not getting a fair shake from the system.
I know this in part because my excellent assistant, Colleen Castle, discovered something called the Michigan Third Parties Coalition Website, where all these parties are attempting to make common cause in the interest of fairness.
Here’s an excerpt from their manifesto, all of it true:
Under the present Michigan election law, it is impossible for a new party to nominate any candidates for the ballot without spending tens of thousands of dollars on a statewide ballot access drive – an often impossible task for third parties (without) corporate financial backing … Minor parties that have been able to qualify for ballot access in Michigan are threatened each election with the possibility of losing (it). At the same time, the plurality voting system used in all Michigan elections leads voters to feel compelled to vote for one of the major party candidates … or else “waste” their vote.
What third parties would really like is something called “IRV,” for Instant Runoff Voting. That’s a system under which you would cast two votes, for your first and second choices.
If your first choice finishes out of the money, your vote would go to your second choice. Had this option been available nationally in 2000, two things would have happened.
Ralph Nader would have gotten more first-round votes than the two and half percent he in fact achieved, and the presidential election would have been won by Al Gore.
Naturally, Republicans wouldn’t have liked that idea at all -- any more than Democrats would have in 1992, when it might have reelected George Bush the First. Someday, I think it is conceivable that a third-party candidate could be elected president.
Theodore Roosevelt made a good run at it in 1912, finishing a strong second and carrying Michigan, among other states. But if a third-party candidate ever does win, he or she will almost certainly have to make common cause with one of the major parties.
Otherwise, they would never get anything through Congress. To paraphrase Winston Churchill, our two-party system of democracy is the worst there is. Except, that is, for all the others that have been tried.
IRV is a bullshit idea which dilutes the civil rights ideal of one person one vote..
IRV is a notion for losers and 2nd hand leaders who did not have the substance to inspire the will of the people to vote for them..
IRV is not cutting edge nor progressive it is a derivative idea which will has no value and deserves being ignored..
Nader is a tired old bigot whose contempt for people of color makes him backward and underdeveloped..Nader what a joke..
Posted by: Thrasher | October 29, 2008 at 02:54 PM
Well, I for one wish that IRV existed. Though in fairness, I don't think it should just be a first and second choice - I think you'd have to rank all of the candidates.
Posted by: David | October 30, 2008 at 10:39 AM