It's Time for a Third Party

Take a gander at the political landscape, and odds are you won’t like your choices. You might, like Matt Miller of the Washington Post, start asking things like, “Why doesn’t the president propose measures equal to the scale of our challenges?” or “Why can’t Republicans acknowledge demography or math?” Most of all you might wonder, “Why should we have to choose between timid half-measures and anti-tax fanaticism?” The answer: Because both parties are more concerned with winning elections than solving problems.

On issue after issue “there’s a staggering void in the debate,” with issues and ideas neither party will touch. A third party could cover that ground; Miller’s even written a massive third-party stump speech, advocating tax hikes, cuts to popular programs, and other policies that won’t poll well, but that the “far center” should rally around. “Politicians will scramble to lead any parade that forms,” he writes. “Let’s get busy organizing the right parade, and together we might just save the country." (More third party candidacy stories.)